- Upside down house in Dukor
- Soligorsk waste heaps
- The village of Kudrichi in Polesie
- Crosses in Turov
- Devil's lake
- Strange house in Liotovka
- Fjords in the village of Glushkovichi
One of our western neighbors, the country of Belarus, has long been explored by travel lovers. However, one should not think that there are no fine paths beyond the beaten path that can lead to the unknown. Unusual places in Belarus are not at all haunted castles, of which there are a lot, and not stunning landscapes of Belovezhskaya Pushcha and unearthly swamps covered with fog.
True, natural attractions in our rating of amazing places in Belarus are also found. But still, most of the strange objects that are worth visiting during your vacation in this country are made by human hands. These are unusual houses that cannot be found in other states, quarries reminiscent of the lunar and Martian surfaces, rocks that, after human intervention, turned into Norwegian fjords.
Almost all interesting sites can be reached by buses, trains and minibuses. Public transport timetables are published on numerous Internet sites, so it is very easy to plan your trip in Belarus in advance.
Upside down house in Dukor
Perhaps the most popular upside-down house in the world is located in Poland, in Szymbark. After the house, with its roof down, was rang about on all tourist sites, its analogues appeared in neighboring countries, including Belarus.
"Ellie's house", which was carried away by the tornado, after landing found itself on the territory of an old estate, now rebuilt into an entertainment complex called "Dukorsky maentak". The house rests on the ridge of the roof and on the chimney. Everything in this structure is made in such a way that it seems that a person who enters inside is walking on the ceiling. Especially impressionable people even lose their balance, but those whose vestibular apparatus is in order take amazing pictures.
Even strong-minded people are not advised to walk around an overturned house for a long time to avoid panic attacks and nausea. There are no prohibitions or restrictions on age for visiting "Ellie's House" in Ducor. Each guest must decide for himself whether or not he should enter the upside-down house.
In addition to the house standing on the roof, in the "Dukorsky maentka" you can find:
- a reconstructed gate dating from the 18th century;
- an entertaining rope town with tracks of different difficulty levels;
- the museum, located in the wing - the only building, besides the entrance gate, preserved from the estate that belonged to the Oshthorp masters;
- a distillery where they make their own moonshine;
- alley of masters - pavilions where you can find a pottery workshop, a smithy, etc.
If there is a desire to stay longer in the maentka, then comfortable houses are available to tourists.
How to get there: There are minibuses from Minsk to Dukory. They leave from the Mogilevskaya metro station and go to Druzhny, Maryina Gorka or Pravdinsky. All of these buses stop at Dukor. Further, to get to "Dukorskiy maentk", you will have to walk about 2 km.
Soligorsk waste heaps
In the vicinity of the town of Soligorsk, there are lifeless mountains surrounded by quiet bodies of water with salt water. For some travelers, this place resembles arid Mars, while others see a post-apocalyptic landscape here.
In fact, these are mounds of waste rock left by the enterprise "Belaruskali", which specializes in the production of fertilizers. The production of potash salt has been carried out here since the middle of the last century, when the city of Soligorsk was founded. The highest mountains, consisting of clay and sand, appeared at that time. They can be seen from the outskirts of the city.
In small lakes (sludge storages) located at the foot of the mountains, industrial water saturated with salts has accumulated. It does not have a therapeutic effect on humans, like solutions in other salt lakes of the planet. Therefore, it is best to avoid immersion in this water. After evaporation of water from the sludge storage, its surface resembles a cracked desert. Such a "scarred" plain can be observed in dry summers.
On the territory of the Salihorsk waste heaps, very atmospheric pictures are obtained, so eminent photographers and lovers of beautiful unreal objects often come here. To look at waste heaps, you should stock up on comfortable shoes and clothes.
How to get there: Minsk is connected with Soligorsk by the P23 highway. By car, the distance between cities (130 km) can be covered in 2 hours. Minibuses and intercity buses take a little longer, as they stop in several oncoming settlements, for example, in Slutsk. Waste heaps in the vicinity of Soligorsk should be looked for near the village of Chepel. The village exit is on the same P23 road.
The village of Kudrichi in Polesie
Abandoned, dilapidated, with houses under reed roofs, in which holes gape, chimneys, closed stork nests, surrounded by swamps, the village of Kudrichi in Polesie is the place where you can see with your own eyes how the Polesie peasants lived 100 years ago.
The village of Kudrychi must be sought near Pinsk, not far from the Ukrainian border. Houses were erected here on separate islands separated by channels. The only way to move around the village was by boat. Perhaps it is precisely this inaccessibility that made it possible to save this authentic Belarusian corner from the onset of civilization. Now Kudrichi is connected with the "mainland" by road, but life here is still gradually dying down. There are only pensioners who have nowhere to go.
The village of Kudrichi was not even marked on the maps until 1980. It was accidentally discovered by Alexey Dubrovsky, who, together with his team, explored local swamps and looked for land reclamation sites. Tourists learned about the village lost near the Yaselda River, where there is no television and other benefits of civilization. Unfortunately, the authorities were unable to turn Kudrichi into a popular tourist destination. Without financial support, the village is gradually being destroyed.
How to get there: in order to imagine how the inhabitants of the village lived until the end of the 20th century, it is better to go to them not along the road laid from the highway leading from Pinsk to Gorodishche, but along the Yaselda River by boat. The journey will take about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The car will take you to the Kudrichs much faster.
Crosses in Turov
An unusual phenomenon can be observed in Turov. Here, stone crosses grow from the ground. Every year thousands of pilgrims from all over the world come to see this miracle.
Actually, at the moment it is known about five Turov crosses. They are located:
- in the cemetery church of All Saints outside the city. This is where the history of the Turov crosses began;
- near the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Lawrence of Turov;
- to the cemetery, which can be reached on foot in 10-15 minutes from the central streets. There are two unique crosses gradually emerging from the earth.
The crosses roughly carved from solid pieces of stone are actually about 10 centuries old. They were brought to the Turov principality from Kiev in the 10th century and installed near the Church of All Saints. There were either 10 or 12 crosses in total - there is no exact data on this.
When the Soviet government established its own order and got rid of religious values, the Turov crosses were lowered into the waters of the river. 7 years later, 4 crosses, contrary to all the laws of physics, rose to the surface of the river.
Two crosses were caught near the village of Chernichi and hidden until better times. One cross was found in the river near the village of Pogost. He was drowned twice more, but he floated up again. The fourth cross was discovered by a peasant and secretly buried it in the cemetery. Since the 50s of the last century, the cross began to rise above the ground. Another growing cross was recently seen in the cemetery. It is still small - its height is only 17 cm.
How to get there: there are no direct bus routes from Minsk to Turov. We'll have to go with one connection in Stolin, Zhitkovichi or David-Gorodok. Another option is to get from Minsk by train to Mikashevichi or Kalinkovichi, from where buses go to Turov.
Devil's lake
The strange lake is located 15 km from Grodno. It is hidden among swamps and impenetrable forests. To get to the water, you need to know proven trails, so it's best to go here with someone from the locals. The lake is called Devil's due to the fact that there are no fish in it, birds do not nest on its shores, and the forest around it rather resembles thickets, from which someone pulled out all the juices.
They say that the Devil's reservoir is connected by underground channels with the White Lake located 15 km away. Such conclusions were made after the carcass of a bull that fell into the water in the Devil's Lake surfaced in the White Lake. Some peasants are sure that the Devil's Lake is connected with the Neman River and the Baltic Sea.
Rumor has it that it was in this lake that Napoleon's troops hid all the treasures looted in Russia. The exact depth of the lake is unknown, its bottom is covered with a thick layer of silt. If Napoleon's treasure rests at the bottom of this lake, then it will be very difficult to raise it to the surface.
In fact, the lake was formed about 14 thousand years ago, when a glacier passed through the lands of the future Belarus. Probably, at the site of the lake there was some kind of depression in which water lingered. Rivers do not flow into this body of water, it is isolated from streams and swamps. The water level remains in the same place due to rainfall. Rainwater is poor in minerals, therefore it is considered dead.
How to get there: electric trains run from Grodno to Uzberezh, the nearest settlement to the Devil's Lake. You will have to spend a little over an hour on the way.
Strange house in Liotovka
A private house, turned into a museum, where everyone is allowed, is located on the Liotovka farm. It was built by a wealthy businessman Sergei Koval. In place of the mansion, decorated with some kind of sick imagination, where skeletons crawl out of the walls, the physiognomy of either a devil or a water one looks from the fence at passers-by, in the garden above the lake there is a huge metal dragon and a gazebo open to all the winds, under the arch of which hangs crystal chandelier, once there was a small village house, famous for the fact that Vladimir Vysotsky and Marina Vlady stayed here for a while.
Before completely rebuilding the old house in the tradition of fantasy books and films, Koval renovated the bus stop, turning it into a real work of art, which is not ashamed to be installed anywhere in Paris or Barcelona. One side of it is decorated with a battle image from Mickiewicz's poem "Grazhina". The second has a three-dimensional map on which all the castles of Belarus are marked.
Unfortunately, this year the owner of the house died. It is not yet clear whether his heirs will be as willing to let strangers into their strange dwellings, as the head of the family did.
How to get there: the village of Liotovka is located 8 minutes' drive from Novogrudok. Regular buses run between these settlements.
Fjords in the village of Glushkovichi
The Norwegian landscape with steep cliffs extending into the water can be found in Belarus, in the village of Glushkovichi, in flooded quarries where granite was mined in the 70s of the last century. Some metro stations of the capital are decorated with stones from these places.
When Belarus became an independent state, the extraction of granite in Glushkovichi became too expensive. The quarries were "frozen" until better times by filling them with water. An operating crushed stone mining plant is located next to the quarries. Its guards periodically chase curious tourists, who, accompanied by local residents, make their way to the water to photograph the bizarre shores and small turtles that have taken root in the warm lakes.
How to get there: the way from Minsk by car to Glushkovichi, which are located in the south of Belarus in the border zone near Ukraine, will take about 4 hours. In advance, you need to stock up on a receipt for payment of the duty charged for staying on lands adjacent to another state. You can get to Glushkovichi by public transport from the town of Lelchitsy, located 95 km away. On the way, tourists will spend from 1 to 1, 5 hours.
