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Why Belarus?

If you are thinking about visiting Belarus but haven’t decided what time is the best for it, we’ll help you with the choice describing just some curious facts about our country!

Have you ever heard that…?

One of three east European St. Sophia Cathedrals is in Belarus

This monument was built under Vseslav Bryacheslavich called Charodey between 1044-1066 in Polotzk as a sign of Kiev and Novgorod equality. St. Sophia Cathedrals were also erected in Kiev and Novgorod.

Belarus was among those first countries in Europe who had there own typed Bible

The first Belarusian printer Francysk Skaryna started his career in Prague where he published 23 illustrated Bibles in old Belarusian language. At the beginning of 1520-s he came to Vilnius and founded the printing house. “The Small book of traveling” (“Malaya Podorozhnaya Knizhica”) and “The Apostle” were printed there. The main features of Skaryna’s renascence works are the quality of printing, original pictures and engravings, the print and other elements.

    

Nesvizh belonged to the Radziwills – one of the richest families in Europe

An Italian architect, Gian Maria Bernardoni created the most beautiful and remarkable buildings of Nesvizh. He erected the first Baroque pieces of architecture – the Nesvizh Castle and the Corpus Christi Church in The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 16^th century. The Church contains coffins of 102 members of the Radziwill family. The Nesvizh Ccastle complex is inscribed on the World Heritage List.

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Belavezhskaya Pushcha is one of the last and largest remaining parts of the immense primeval forest in Europe

Belavezhskaya Pushcha was first mentioned in Herodotus’ works (5 cent. BC) and then in the Ipatiev Chronicle (983 AD). Jagaila the King of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania declared Belavezhskaya Pushcha a nature reserve and forbade hunting there. The old forest has been protected for more than 600 years already. There are about 2,000 giant trees there. Some of them had appeared before Columbus discovered America!

Belavezhskaya Pushcha is inscribed on the World Heritage List.

The largest population of wisents dwell in Belarus

Wisents or European bisons are the continent's heaviest and largest land animals. Mickola Gusovski made up his world-famous “The Song about Wisent” for the Pope Leo X who wanted to hear the true story about wisent hunting. The greatest population of wisents dwell in Belavezhskaya Pushcha.

      

The National Park Pripyatskiy is the unique place in the world where primeval flood oak forests are situated

The primeval flood landscapes with their dunes and kettles, oak and ash forests, and more than 30 lakes remain practically untouched in the National Park. The largest natural marshes in Europe are also in Polesye region. The largest ones are – Zvanetz (150 km²) and Dikoe (80 km²).

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The national hero of Belarus, Poland and the USA – Tadeusz Kościuszko was born in Belarus

Tadeusz Kościuszko was the US-founder G. Washington’s and national hero of France Lafayette’s associate. Kościuszko had a lot of proposals to collaborate from the emperor of France Napoleon I and Russian Tsar Alexander I but he rejected all of them. Kościuszko became an active participant of many significant historical events: in 1776-1783 he voluntary took part in the War of Independence in the USA; in 1784 he became the leader of the National Liberation Revolution in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

        

14 Nobel Prize Laureates have there roots in Belarus

This prestigious international prize is more than 100 years old and has been given to the representatives of different courtiers. The names of those laureates who have Belarusian roots are known around the globe. They are, for example, Nobel Prize Laureates for economics, chemistry and physics – Zhores Alferov, Simon Kuznets, Aaron Klug; Nobel Peace Prize Laureates – Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres.