Description of the attraction
Mir Castle is one of the most interesting sights of Belarus, a medieval castle, listed in 2000 in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List.
The Mir Castle was first mentioned in 1395 in connection with the attack of the Crusaders. The founders of the castle are the Ilyinichi gentry. Despite the relatively peaceful time in which construction began, the far-sighted and wealthy Ilyinichi laid a real fortress here.
The history of the construction of the Mir Castle
In 1522-26, four corner towers 25 meters high were built. The walls were built of brick and wild stone. The thickness of the walls at the base reached 3 meters, at the top - about 2 meters. The towers were connected by walls 75 meters long. The fifth tower guarded the entrance to the castle. It was in the middle of the western wall overlooking the road to Vilna.
In 1569 the noble family of Radziwills became the owners of the castle. Construction continued. An earthen rampart with a height of 9 meters was poured and fortified citadels at four corners, a deep ditch was dug, filled with water from the Miranka River, a drawbridge was thrown over the ditch.
A three-storey palace was built inside the fortress walls under the direction of the architect Martin Zaborovsky. In the basements and in the basement there were supplies of food and weapons, on the second floor there were servants' rooms, on the third floor there were mansions of the manor.
The "Italian garden" was also laid here - this was the name of the protected gardens in the courtyards of houses, castles and monasteries. A special staircase led to it, through which the owners of the castle could go down.
Despite the impregnable walls, in 1655 the castle was captured by the Cossacks under the leadership of Hetman Ivan Zolotarenko. Turbulent decades followed, with two wars with Russia and Sweden. The castle was badly damaged.
Reconstruction, restoration, transformation into a museum
In 1830-40 the castle passed into the possession of the Counts of Wittgenstein. During this period, the castle fell into disrepair. The new owners did not want to move to Mir and have never even been here.
Nikolay Svyatopolk-Mirsky put the castle in order in 1891. He carried out a major reconstruction of the castle, but also cut down the Italian garden. In this regard, a legend arose that the ghost of a woman allegedly appeared to the new owner, cursing him for cutting down the garden. She promised that for every tree in the count's pond, built on the site of the garden, one person would drown a year. The first to drown was Nikolai's beloved daughter, and a year later his lifeless body was found on the shore.
During the Great Patriotic War, there was a Jewish ghetto here. After the war, the castle was nationalized and protected by the state. Since 1987, the castle has been a branch of the State Art Museum of the BSSR. Despite the fact that the museum constantly housed exhibitions of paintings, exhibitions were held, the restoration of the castle began in earnest only in 2006, which was completed in 2010.
At present, the restoration of the Mir Castle is underway. Future plans include the restoration of the Italian garden, the English park and pond, as well as the Svyatopolk-Mirsky palace. The castle has a museum exposition with sections: Jewish monument to the victims of war and burial; City Peace Square and Market; Roman Catholic Church of St. Nicholas (XVI-XVII centuries); Trinity Orthodox Church (16th century); Tomb of princes Svyatopolk-Mirsky.
In addition, there are two conference rooms, a hotel with 15 rooms and a restaurant where you can taste dishes of the old national cuisine, approximately the same as those once served on the table of the gentry. For those who wish, wedding ceremonies are also organized here.
On a note
- Location: Grodno region, Korelichi district, urban settlementMir, st. Krasnoarmeiskaya, 2.
- Official website: www.mirzamak.by
- Opening hours: open daily from 10.00 to 18.00, museum ticket office from 10.00 to 17.00.
- Tickets: the cost for adults is 70,000 Belarusian rubles. rubles, for schoolchildren and students - 35,000 Belarusian rubles. rubles.
Reviews
| All reviews 5 Roman 2016-28-09 11:39:41 AM
Very well maintained place Belarus is in a good position to conduct trade with Russia and Europe, but earlier, in war times, it suffered greatly from various peoples. There used to be a lot of castles here, but many were destroyed during the war, as an example, the ruins of the Novogrudok castle.
But then to those of him …
