What is interesting for children in the Trinity suburb. Trinity suburb. Interesting objects and stories. Living room of Vladislav Golubok

Often otherwise called Troitskaya Gora, it is a historical district of the Belarusian capital in the north-eastern part of the historical center of Minsk, on the left side of the Svisloch River.

Once Trinity Hill was the commercial and administrative center of the city. Today, this place belongs to those few districts of Minsk, where buildings, whose age ranges from six to a couple of centuries, have been preserved to one degree or another.

History of the Trinity suburb

The name "Trinity Manor" comes from the Trinity Church (was built in the 16th century) or from the Church of the Holy Trinity, built here at the beginning of the 16th century. It is believed that it was here that the first stone church was built, which was built by order of King Jagiello in 1390.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. ditches were dug around the Trinity Suburb, flooded with water, and earthen ramparts were poured.

At the same time, there was one of the centers for the production of tiles. This is evidenced by fragments of tiles and molds for extruding drawings found by archaeologists.

The houses were built of wood, and settled and lived in the suburbs mainly by middle-class people - merchants and artisans, peasants and soldiers.

After a big fire in 1809, the Trinity Suburb acquired its present form - square blocks and streets intersecting at right angles.

Then Trinity Square (now the Paris Commune Square) was developed in the center of the suburb, where bazaars were held every Sunday.

After the Second World War, Minsk was almost completely destroyed, but it was decided to restore the Trinity Suburb only in 1962.

Many architectural elements such as gates, forged fences and stairs were lost, and individual buildings and interiors were restored from scratch.

Unfortunately, only one quarter has been completely preserved to our time, showing a typical building of the 19th century, but, nevertheless, people continue to live and work here.

What can be visited?

Despite the fact that the Trinity Suburb has long been a favorite place not only for the local residents of Minsk, but also for visitors, here, in addition to large tourist groups taking pictures against the backdrop of sights or small houses, you can also see newlyweds.

In this corner of Minsk, you can see interesting sculptures dedicated to famous personalities, walk along small streets, along a cobbled road, plunging into the 19th century.

Here you can see how old Minsk looked then - with small architectural monuments with high tiled roofs and multi-colored facades, and at the same time get acquainted with the cultural heritage of the capital of Belarus.

Branch of the State Museum of the History of Theatrical and Musical Culture of Belarus "Vladislav Golubko's Living Room"

Vladislav Golubka is one of the founders of the professional Belarusian theatre. This museum has 10 expositions and 1 exhibition hall. Often the museum hosts a large number of different events - from meetings with interesting people to musical evenings and conferences. There are also small interesting exhibitions.

The museum is located on Muzykalny Lane, 5, open from 9:00 to 18:00, exposition - 10:00 to 17:00, tickets can be bought at the box office from 10:00 to 17:00. The museum is closed on Sunday.

On the first Saturday of each month, the museum can be visited free of charge.

• The ticket price for adults is 15,000 Belarusian rubles.,
• for students 10,000 Belarusian rubles,
• for schoolchildren and students of vocational schools 8000 Belarusian rubles.
• Batley performance of 10,000 Belarusian rubles.

State Museum of the History of Belarusian Literature

The opening of the museum took place in 1991. Expositions and exhibitions are very often updated here, which reveal to visitors different aspects of the centuries-old history of Belarusian literature.

The museum is located on the street. Bogdanovicha, 13, open from 9:30 to 17:30 (the box office is open until 17:00), on Sunday the museum is closed.

• The ticket price for adults is 3000 Belarusian rubles,
• for pupils and students 2000 Belarusian rubles.
• On the second Saturday of each month, the museum can be visited free of charge.

"Island of Tears" or "Island of Courage and Sorrow"

Near the Trinity Suburb, near the shore, a small artificial bulk island is visible, to which a pedestrian arched bridge is thrown.

At the entrance to the Island of Tears, you can see a stone with a bronze icon of the Mother of God, and in the center there is a memorial chapel dedicated to the Belarusian soldiers who died in Afghanistan.

It was opened in 1993 to mark the centenary of the poet's birth. The museum has collected and preserved a collection of manuscripts, photographs and books related to the life and work of the poet. The museum has a permanent exhibition "Life and creative path of Maxim Bogdanovich".

The museum is located on M. Bogdanovich street, house 7a, open from 10:00 to 18:00. Saturday and Sunday are days off.

• The cost of tickets for the exposition and exhibitions for adults is 2000 Belarusian rubles,
• for schoolchildren, students - 1200 Belarusian rubles.
• The museum can be visited free of charge on the last Sunday of the month.

Crafts galleries "Slavutast" and "Slavutyya maistry"

And what is a trip without buying original souvenirs and exclusive gifts for relatives, friends or colleagues? Be sure to visit the art galleries "Slavutasts" and "Slavuta masters".

The galleries are located on St. Bogdanovicha, 21, 2nd floor and Troitskaya embankment 6, respectively. There you can not only buy souvenirs, but also look at the work of masters and get acquainted with their best creations.

On weekdays the galleries are open from 10:00 to 19:00, on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00.

Shop of books and antiques "Venok"

You can also visit the bookstore and antiques "Wreath", so that, thanks to the interior of this store, you will find yourself in a typical bookstore of the XIX century, and in the pharmacy "Troitskaya" you will be surprised by a unique collection of books on medicine and pharmacy supplies of the XIX century.

If after long walks around the city and seeing the sights you are tired and hungry, stop and rest.

In the Trinity Suburb there are various coffee houses, cafes and restaurants with antique interiors, where your vacation can turn into another discovery.

And in the restaurant on the water, which is the only one in Minsk, you can taste delicious national dishes and get aesthetic pleasure from the view of the city.

Trinity Suburb on the map

How to get to Trinity Suburb
The best way is the metro - the second line, the Nemiga station.

You can also take a bus (No. 24, 38,57,91,176e) and a trolleybus (No. 12, 29, 37, 40, 46, 53).

• Location: Bogdanovich street
• Year of construction: XVII-XIX centuries; 20th century
• Style: classicism, eclecticism

Map of Trinity Suburb

Photos of Trinity Suburb

Trinity Suburb is a picturesque medieval quarter on the banks of the Svisloch River in the very center of Minsk. Cozy streets, stylized houses with tiled roofs in the Trinity Suburb have become one of the main symbols of the capital, which today is part of the historical reconstruction of Minsk.

A bit of history

The name of the suburb comes, most likely, from Trinity Church founded by Grand Duke Jagiello. By the way, it was the first Catholic church in Minsk. Another version testifies to the existence Toponym "Trinity Mountain" from which the suburb got its name. The settlement of Troitskaya Gora arose in the 12th-13th centuries. on a hill near the river Svisloch. In ancient times, the suburb was a trading center where the roads from Vilna, Polotsk, Smolensk, Mogilev crossed, and since the end of the 16th century, the largest trading platform of the city, the Trinity Market, was located here.

The suburb was built up with wooden houses in which artisans, merchants, peasants and soldiers lived. The ancient layout of the suburb disappeared at the beginning of the 19th century. after a big fire and restored already in stone. In the 1930s and 1960s, individual suburban buildings and entire streets were destroyed. In the 1980s and early 2000s, restoration work was carried out to recreate the architectural appearance of Minsk.

Trinity Suburb today

Started in 2004 historical reconstruction Trinity Suburb, which over time was included in the complex of the Old City. After restoration, it turned into a natural open-air museum, where you can see the stone buildings of the 19th century. In 2009, the square, where a market was located several centuries ago, received the historical name Trinity Hill. The National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of Belarus built in the 1930s is also located here.

What to visit and where to go? Top 10 Must See

Trinity Suburb is a tourist mecca of the Belarusian capital, where you can see what Minsk looked like several centuries ago, as well as get acquainted with the cultural heritage of Minsk. So, we present to you Top 10 Must See.

Living room of Vladislav Golubok

Trinity Suburb is a small museum island. And the first such object is the branch of the museum of the history of theatrical and musical culture of Belarus called "". If you want to learn about the theatrical life of the 20th century, as well as the fate and interesting facts from the life of the first People's Artist of the BSSR V. Golubok, then you are in the "Vladislav Golubok Living Room".

In the Museum of the History of Belarusian Literature, you will be immersed in the classical literature of Belarus. You will learn how young poets and writers started, among them I would like to single out the names of such glorious Belarusian sons as Vasil Bykov and Maxim Tank, Vladimir Korotkevich and Ryhor Borodulin. Among them are unique collections of manuscripts, memorabilia of Belarusian writers, photographs, rare books, documents, ethnographic materials and works of art by Belarusian sculptors and artists.

House Museum named after Maxim Bogdanovich

The Maxim Bogdanovich Literary House-Museum will tell about the short but very fruitful life of the poet. The museum is not accidentally located in the suburbs. The fact is that it was in the Muschei's house that the future talented poet was born. Maxim Bogdanovich returned to Minsk only a year before his death. The fate of Bogdanovich is tragic - from the age of 18 he suffered from tuberculosis and died at the age of 25. The poet spent the last days of his life by the sea, in Yalta, where he left at the insistence of his friends, but this could no longer save him. Entering the museum, you will have the opportunity to attend open lectures or a museum-pedagogical lesson that will be interesting not only for children, but also for adults.

Bookstore "Vyanok"

The Vyanok bookstore, stylized as a bookstore of the 19th century, is not accidentally named the Belaur word Vyanok. That was the name of the only collection of poems by Maxim Bogdanovich published during his lifetime. Maxim Bogdanovich is a poet of the highest culture. He read in the original and translated into Belarusian Horace and Ovid, Heine and Schiller, Verlaine and Pushkin. He proved that the Belarusian language is not only a "muzhik" language, that it can express the highest ideas, the most subtle feelings.

You can't get around the monument to Maxim Bogdanovich, which is located in the square of the Paris Commune Square, next to the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. Maxim stands to his full height and with his eyes sees off everyone who honors him with attention.

house of nature

I would like to immediately note the building in which the House of Nature is located. It is unique in that here at the end of the XIX century. there was a synagogue. Women and men prayed separately from each other, thus the building of the synagogue was divided into two parts: male and female. Today, the building of the former synagogue houses the House of Nature, which in an accessible form will help to discover interesting secrets in the world of flora and fauna of planet Earth.

Sculpture "Girl with an owl"

Today the sculpture "Girl with an owl" is an unspoken symbol of the Trinity suburb. The sculpture represents a girl holding an owl in her hand and standing with her bare foot on a fern. One wing of the owl is curved (the owl seems to protect the girl with it), the second is wide open (the owl shows the way to them). Three blooming buds lie on a fern leaf, a lizard sits next to them. The sculptural composition is located on a large boulder, next to which there are two more. Even an urban legend is associated with this sculpture. They say that near this sculpture, each poet must choose what is more important for him: a girl, personifying the muse, a paparazzi-kvetka, a symbol of glory, an owl, a symbol of wisdom, or a lizard, personifying wealth.

Gallery of crafts "Slavutasts" and "Slavuta masters"

In the gallery you can buy original and high-level souvenirs. In addition, in the gallery of crafts "Slavuta Maistrya" you can buy Belarusian belts, wooden and leather products, as well as paintings. Secondly, the seller's story captivates you so much, his eyes burn so much at the same time that it is impossible to tear yourself away from the souvenirs and interrupt his story. And at the same time, sincerity is visible.

Pharmacy "Troitskaya"

The pharmacy in the Trinity Suburb in Minsk is not officially a museum, but still it invariably attracts tourists. Why? There is no pharmacy museum in Minsk, and the pharmacy in the Trinity Suburb is the only place in the city where they can tell about the history of the development of the pharmacy business in the capital and give a general idea of ​​the pharmacies of the past. On the shelves of the pharmacy, you can see samples of pharmaceutical dishes, scales, old medical and pharmaceutical books. The equipment of pharmacies in Belarus was not inferior to that in other European cities of that time. A modern pharmacy in the Troitsky suburb of Minsk has a good selection of medicinal herbs. Tourists can come in, get acquainted with the interior of the building, purchase something from the available stock and take pictures against the backdrop of the pharmacy building.

The monument to the "Eternal Wanderer", that is how Yazep Drozdovich was called by his friends and acquaintances, was erected on August 6, 1993. The sculptural composition represents the figure of Yazep Drozdovich walking along the road in peasant clothes and with a staff in his hand, with an easel thrown over his shoulder.

Yazep Drozdovich (1888 - 1954) - an outstanding Belarusian artist, graphic artist, sculptor, folklorist, local historian, ethnographer, archaeologist and writer. The personality of Yazep Drozdovich is a symbol of the Belarusian spiritual Renaissance. He was even called "Belarusian Leonardo da Vinci". He embodied the image of Belarusian nature in a series of graphic works "Disnevshchina" and tone drawings "Nature of Belarus". He created a series of works depicting ancient castles and other architectural structures of historical and cultural value.

Yazep Drozdovich is the first Belarusian artist who touched upon the theme of space in his work. On his canvases, the artist depicted life on other planets (“Life on the Moon”, “Life on Mars”, “Life on Saturn”, etc.).

Yazep Drozdovich resumed the long-forgotten tradition of painting wall hangings. These paintings are unique and it was they who brought Drozdovich worldwide fame. Today his collection is in Zaslavl. It was in those places that he worked as an archaeologist, and at the same time collected and processed common words and expressions for dictionaries, wrote down folk songs and rituals. Drozdovich was also a talented sculptor.

Attractions near Trinity Suburb

A memorial complex is adjacent to the Trinity Suburb "Island of tears". On the opposite side of the Svisloch, the Nemiga region begins, and upper city. Not far from the Trinity suburb are Palace of Sports, as well as National Exhibition Center "BelExpo".

No. 1 If you walk around the Trinity Suburb, be sure to look into a cozy restaurant with old interiors or a coffee house stylized as the 19th century, where you can relax after a busy walk around the city and have a delicious meal :) Among them, you can name, for example, restaurant "Trinity Suburb", "Karchma Traetskaya", Shop "Souvenir Shop"...

No. 2 In the summer, the only one in Minsk operates on the banks of the Svisloch restaurant on the water, on board of which you can enjoy picturesque views of the city, as well as taste dishes of Belarusian cuisine.

№3 Do you want to feel the charm of romantic Minsk? Then you should take a catamaran ride along Svisloch. Get a lot of impressions. We guarantee :)

general information

A characteristic feature of this quarter is its small buildings, which look so natural and harmonious that they are perceived as a single architectural ensemble. Similar to the Trinity Mountain (this is the second name of the area), historical, architectural and cultural reserves are available in many European cities. But not every one of them can compare with Minsk in terms of the age of the appearance of the first settlements: in this quarter they appeared a very long time ago and coincided with the initial period of the High Middle Ages, from which we are separated by almost nine centuries.

A kind of “mixture” of epochs and cultures can also be seen in the fact that in this area there were the first Catholic church in the city and the Orthodox St. These include the Basilian convent of the Holy Trinity, which has survived only in part. Today, a quiet and measured life reigns in this part of Minsk. Not only residents of Minsk, but also guests of the capital of Belarus are happy to walk here, relax, while getting acquainted with the sights, visiting museums and exhibitions.

Excursion into history

The past of the Trinity Suburb is rich in events and is associated with many historical figures. Suffice it to recall that it was here, in the heart of Minsk, that the destinies of two outstanding classics of Belarusian literature crossed: the poet, publicist, literary critic and translator Maxim Adamovich Bogdanovich and the poet, playwright and publicist Yanka Kupala (Ivan Dominikovich Lutsevich). The first one was born here, and the second's family lived here for some time.

A settlement called Troitskaya Gora was formed near the Svisloch River, on a hill, in the period from the 12th to the 13th centuries. In those distant times, this area was the center of economic life, where trade routes from Smolensk and Vilna, Mogilev and Polotsk crossed. At the end of the 16th century, the Trinity Market began to work here, which immediately became the largest trading platform in the city. It was surrounded by fortifications, and the Trinity Mountain itself was inhabited by merchants, artisans, peasants and soldiers who lived in wooden houses.

Why did the suburb get this name? There are several versions of this. According to one of them, the toponym arose from the name of the earthen defensive fortification of the Holy Trinity, according to another - from the Holy Trinity Convent. However, the most plausible version seems to be that the medieval Trinity Church, founded by the Grand Duke of Lithuania and Prince of Vitebsk Jagiello, who took the title of King of Poland in 1386, gave the district its name. Indeed: in 1390, a Catholic church of the Holy Trinity was built in the suburbs. It was built of wood, and at the beginning of the 19th century it burned down during a strong fire. Despite such a sad ending, this religious building has forever gone down in history as the first church on the territory of Minsk, which has existed for over four centuries.

Together with him, the buildings of other monasteries, churches and churches, which were a single architectural ensemble, admired with its splendor, were significantly damaged by fire in 1809. Subsequently, the old layout was restored. This was taken care of by Emperor Alexander I himself, who gave the go-ahead for the implementation of the corresponding project. It was already restored in stone, but this did not save the historical appearance of the Trinity Suburb from the upheavals of the 20th century. It was not only the war that went through it, but also many thoughtlessly made decisions affected. For example, during the restoration of the Communal Embankment, they "tried" so much that its historical part to a large extent simply disappeared. And this was not the only loss ...

Individual buildings and even entire streets were destroyed in the 1930s and 1960s. A little-known fact: on the site of the square, which is located in front of the opera house, in the XVI-XVIII centuries. there was a Catholic cemetery. And on the site of the Ascension Monastery, its construction dates back to the 18th century, in 1945-1946 the building of the headquarters of the Belarusian Military District was erected. In the 80s of the last century, an unenviable fate befell some streets on the outskirts of the Trinity Suburb. One ran along the Svisloch, starting near the modern Suvorov Military School and ending in the area of ​​the Belarus Hotel.

Attractions

Despite the fact that the modern appearance of the Trinity Suburb is not at all the same as it was a century ago, true connoisseurs of antiquity love to visit here. The knowledge that the foot of Maxim Bogdanovich and Yanka Kupala walked along its narrow streets literally fascinates and mentally transfers to those distant times. Particularly interesting to tourists is the quarter, located between the streets of Starovilenskaya, the architect Zaborsky, Bogdanovich and the already mentioned Communal Embankment. It was he who was erected in 1817 in accordance with the plan for the regular development of Minsk, and is the basis of the historical center of the city, which is under state protection.

The boundaries of the protected zone, which included the western half of the Trinity suburb along with the second city hospital, were approved back in 2004 by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko “On the development of the historical center of Minsk”. The same document defines the concept of reconstruction, development and use of both the territory as a whole and the real estate objects located on it. Three years later, the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution that determined the status of the historical and cultural attractions of the Trinity Suburb, since a significant part of the cultural monuments of the entire capital is concentrated just here.

What has already been done and what are the plans for the foreseeable future? The western part of the suburb has been restored and has become a real open-air museum. Not only the general style has been restored, but also specific examples of stone buildings of the 19th century, and now these ancient buildings house museums, many retail outlets and cafes. It is planned to reconstruct the former Trinity Basilian Monastery, placing in it a business and tourist center. With the western part of the suburb, as expected, it will be connected by a foot platform.

The most famous in the restored complex of buildings is, for example, the house of Vigdorchik (Kommunalnaya Embankment, 6), in which Dominik Lutsevich, the father of Yanka Kupala, rented a house in 1890. In the former house of Ushakov - the corner of Aleksandrovskaya street and the embankment of the same name - now there is a Glass and Porcelain store. And few people know that in one of the apartments where the pharmacist Pavlovsky lived, the Narodniks secretly gathered, who decided at one of the meetings to start publishing the magazine Socialist Building. At the address of Bogdanovich, 15 - then it was Aleksandrovskaya Street - at the end of the 19th century, a shoe workshop was opened, which then grew into a full-fledged shoe factory. On the eve of the First World War, in 1913, four dozen workers were employed in production, and in one year shoes were made for a considerable amount at that time - 55 thousand rubles.

On st. Bogdanovich, 29 there are several buildings of the Suvorov Military School. They are also of historical and cultural value. The premises of the main building of the educational institution at the beginning of the 19th century were occupied by the monastery of the Order of the Mariavites and the hospital. Until 1854, the building served as a church. After it was handed over to the Orthodox Church, two editorial offices were located here: the Minsk Provincial News newspaper and the Orthodox Brother magazine. In Beilin's house at 3 Zaborsky Street (it was built in the middle of the 19th century) there was a locksmith's workshop where the active populist Mikhail Rabinovich, then a student at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, studied the craft.

The largest facility on the territory of the Trinity Suburb is the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of Belarus - the largest in the country. Its building, located in the center of the Paris Commune, was erected in 1935-1937. In the old days, this place was the Trinity Market. The building of the defense department of the Republic of Belarus on Kommunisticheskaya Street, 1, built in 1945-1946, is also perceived as one of the visiting cards. and is a monument of classicism.

Museums in Trinity Suburb

In November 1987, the State Museum of the History of Belarusian Literature was opened in this area, which has become one of the largest museums in the republic: it houses over 50,000 different exhibits. Many manuscripts and photographs, rare books, personal documents and belongings of Belarusian writers - all this can be seen during the tour.

It is a pity that the house in which the famous classic Maxim Bogdanovich was born has not survived to this day - a museum dedicated to his work would probably be located here. Since there is no house, the latter was placed in a building nearby. The opening of the museum took place on the 100th anniversary of the poet, in May 1991. Its expositions are located in five thematic halls, each of which reveals a specific period in the life of Bogdanovich.

The older generation is probably familiar with the name of the Belarusian Soviet actor, director and writer Vladislav Iosifovich Golubka (1882-1937), the first People's Artist of the BSSR. An entire branch of the State Museum of the History of Theater and Musical Culture of the Republic of Belarus is dedicated to his creative heritage, which is located in the Trinity Suburb at ul. Starovilenskaya, 14. As you know, the artist was repressed and sentenced to death. The archive of his theater has practically not been preserved. Genuine artifacts that you will see in the “Vladislav Golubok Living Room” (this is the name of the branch) were collected by its employees literally bit by bit.

In addition to museums, here you can visit a wide variety of exhibitions. For example, regularly held at the National Exhibition Center "BelExpo" on the street. Yanka Kupala, 27 - many of them have international status. No less interesting are the collections of the private gallery "Famous Masters". Here, along Kommunalnaya Embankment, 6, products of modern arts and crafts are exhibited. Along Storozhevskaya Street, 3 - this is the building of the Trinity Pharmacy - you can get acquainted with old books on pharmacy and samples of pharmacy utensils. And those who are not indifferent to the subject of the environment are invited by the Museum of Nature, located on the street. Bogdanovich, 9-a, in the building of the former synagogue.

How to get there

Trinity Suburb is located at the address: Minsk, st. Bogdanovich.

You can get here by various types of public transport: metro (exit at the Nemiga station), bus (route No. 57), trolleybus (routes No. 29, 37, 40 and 53); or by car, using the capabilities of the GPS satellite navigation system, coordinates: 53.908012,27.556571.

Shouldn't we go to Nemiga?

In almost all Belarusian, and even more so Ukrainian, cities founded back in the Dark Ages, in the historical centers there is a traditional set of a castle, Rynok Square with a town hall, numerous churches and monasteries of the barefoot Bernardine brothers or Jesuits, pleasing to the eye of a tourist, and several blocks of civil buildings.
But Minsk was not lucky. Having emerged during the time of the Tale of Bygone Years, having received the Magdeburg Law during the period of the Commonwealth, the city, which became the capital of modern Belarus, has completely lost its original historical center. And the reason for this is not only the urban planning decisions of the 19th century, dictated by political decisions, or the destruction of the last war, but rather the urban planning concept of the last decades of the 20th century, which, guided by the slogan "We will build our future!", Completely changed the picture of the urban landscape. As a result, we got probably the only capital of one of the fraternal republics within the USSR without any national flavor and architecture associated with national history, entirely aspiring to the beautiful far away with Stalinist avenues, numerous sports facilities and public lawns of the era of developed stagnation.

However, on this path of the triumph of Belarusian urban studies, there were also curious moments. Somehow, just after the total cleansing of Nemiga and Zamchischa, where even fragments of the old ramparts were not left of the castle, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev arrived in Minsk on the eve of the 1980 Olympics. For some unknown reason, Leonid Ilyich repeatedly tried to go see the old city (Where is the Old Town here, like in Warsaw?), which by that time practically did not exist. I don’t know how they got away, but they decided to correct the mistake, not to show the elderly general secretary of the slum next time. First of all, in the 80s, according to the project, they demolished almost everything that could be demolished, but in the Trinity Suburb they left one block of ordinary buildings of the 19th century, which in some places was based on earlier foundations. So they made an exemplary Old Place out of it ;-), which is now being shown to tourists and is loved by Minsk residents.

A little later, and especially in the last decade, the trick was repeated with the Upper Town, where, with the growth of national self-consciousness by building remakes and pulling out individual objects from later buildings, they tried to artificially collect at least some image of the historical center of the city in the way it is imagined by modern Belarusian architects. How it turned out, let's see together with you.

Our journey into the fabric of "historical Minsk" began with the search for parking. I found it near a high-rise building made of glass and concrete, which houses the Belarusian telecommunications company Velcom. Good start. Then we rushed on foot along Zybitskaya Street towards the 8th of March Square and the nameless bridge across the Svisloch.

The first attraction on Zybitskaya Street was mediocre, so I use someone else's photo from Wikimapia.org. Did you understand what is located on the sides and behind this small house at number 3 on Zybitskaya Street?

After walking 300 meters we turn around. In the distance is the office of Velcom, and on the right is the historical building of the Upper Town with numerous bars, on the left behind the fence is the construction of a hotel and an entertainment center. According to unverified information, most of the "wooden" houses on the right hand are remodeled.

The building at the crossroads of Zybitskaya and Herzen. There is a bar inside, there is a memorial plaque on the wall telling us that we are on the territory of the Upper City - the historical center of Minsk of the 16th-19th centuries, a complex monument of archeology, urban planning, architecture, history, revolutionary and military glory of the people. is under state protection.
Pay attention to how the facade of the building is decorated, or rather the doors and porch. There are entrance doors, the steps are marked, and the porch itself on the right is missing. And then this element of facade design is repeated twice more. What did the architect mean by this? Restore the historical design of the facade? But why then are the only working front doors made of glass, and not decorated in the same style? Why is the rhythm of the steps different and why this forged visor?

View up Herzen Street. On the right is the "Monastyrsky" complex in order of removal: the archaeological museum, a bar, a restaurant, a hotel.

In the distance, on the right, you can see the building of the Bernardine monastery for men, and in the future, Herzen Street rests on the complex of the Basilian monastery. It seems to me that the buildings of the entire block on the right belonged to the Bernardine brothers, but I am very confused by the heterogeneous and not neat, but in some places just modern masonry on nearby buildings. Pay attention to how the pavement is made. Where is now without a favorite tile, even on a historic street? But something like a cobblestone pavement runs in a narrow strip along the walls.

Scheme of the quarter on the wall of the archaeological museum. pleases the combination of the museum of archeology, the museum of karate and the museum of the Minsk horse-drawn carriage

Let's go further along Zybitskaya street to the next intersection with Cyril and Methodius street. On the left is a beauty salon, on the right it’s not clear what, but a little further the building of the Bernardine women’s monastery peeps out, and opposite it is the men’s. In the future - a guest yard. We will return there a little later.

And now we will go to the Svisloch River and climb the nameless bridge (1967). It is interesting that two streets of Nemiga and Maxim Bogdanovich meet on the bridge, but the bridge itself does not have a name now. View from the bridge to the historical property under construction in the area of ​​the former market square (Niniy market).

Once upon a time, on the site of the modern bridge, the most famous bridge of medieval Minsk, Khlusov, was located, connecting the Lower Market with the Trinity Suburb located on the right bank of the Svisloch. In the future, the building of the National Exhibition Center "BelExpo". In 2017, the demolition of this quarter along the right bank of Svisloch by an investor from the UAE began. He promised to preserve four historical buildings miraculously preserved from the Trinity Basilian Monastery.

On the other side of the bridge - the Trinity Suburb, or rather what is left of it

Let's go down under the bridge and look at the left bank of the Svisloch and the High City, where we just came from. In the foreground of the building, as it were, the 18th century (?), behind them looks out the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, the former church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary of the Bernardine monastery.

Trinity suburb from under the bridge opens in all its glory. Ordinary philistine buildings of the late 19th century are stylized as medieval architecture as it is represented by modern architects. Yes, this is not Lviv and not even Warsaw ... For a city with a rich history, of course, it looks wild and miserable. But, for any Russian province where there is no architecture other than Khrushchev, this is a good example of how you can make a confection out of the slums, especially if there is the will of the Secretary General. It is clear that the architects and designers of the last decade still worked here, adding about 2/3 of frank remodels and pop music, but the foundation for the preservation and reconstruction of the quarter was laid back in the 1980s.

A look back at the nameless bridge across the Svisloch and the Upper City

Heading to the Medieval City

Please note that here the pavement is mostly lined with paving stones.

Inside the quarter. All this bourgeois development is now not residential, but is a haven for various catering establishments, hostels, art salons, museums, shops, galleries and other things.

House of Nature. The building was built in 1874 as a "Kitaevskaya" synagogue for the townspeople of Minsk.

Thanks to the balustrade, the former synagogue is a favorite place for selfies among Belarusian girls

After wandering around the quarter, which was just waking up from hibernation, we got tired of its monotony and artificiality and went to the Isle of Tears. There will be a separate report about him. And along the way we came across a sculpture of a girl with an owl. Strange combination. It seems not Pallas Athena, but with an owl.

Maybe it's some kind of Belarusian national story that I don't know?

We return across the bridge to the Upper Town and its dominant - the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, once the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary of the Bernardine Monastery. Founded in 1642, the church, having become an Orthodox church, retained the strict solemnity of a Catholic church. From the left, the clumsy new buildings of the Orthodox Theological Academy crawled into the frame for contrast. Stylish to say the least.

To understand how the landscape of this part of Minsk has changed, here are a few photos.
1940s. Please note that the hillock of the Upper City, prominent in the relief, took place, but now it is greatly smoothed.

View from the northwest of the ensemble of the Bernardine monastery with the church after the restoration of the 1980s

General view of the ensemble of Bernardine monasteries from a bird's eye view shortly before it acquired its current form

View from the 8 March Square towards the Zamchischa - downstream of the Svisloch River. In the foreground, a squat, arena-like building is the Republican Center for Physical Education and Sports. On one of its walls there is a memorial plaque stating that it was in this place that the city of Minsk arose in the 11th century and the Minsk Castle, an archeological monument of the 11th-16th centuries, was located. Protected by the state. as I said, this archeological monument was mostly demolished during the construction of what we see in the photo, as well as during the construction of the Nemiga metro station, located just under these paths, which is in the frame.

Let's cross to the other side of Nemiga Street, reach the intersection with Lenina Street and walk a little along it along Svoboda Square and take a look at the City Hall from the west. The Minsk City Hall (1) was built at the end of the 18th century on the Upper Market Square and was destroyed in 1851 by the personal order of Emperor Nicholas I. In 2003 it was restored to its historical place and is used as an exhibition hall.

View of the town hall from the north, from the other side. On the right, the frame includes the buildings of the Gostiny Dvor complex of the 18th-19th centuries (7) with shops, restaurants, and offices located inside.

A monument to Minsk obtaining the Magdeburg Rights in 1499, installed in front of the entrance to the town hall in 2014.

Scheme of the location of the attractions of the Upper City. I will give the numbering according to this scheme in parentheses when describing.

Let's take a look on the other side of Lenin Street at the Jesuit Church of the Virgin Mary (1700-1710), squeezed by Soviet new buildings, built in the Vilna Baroque style (15). In 1951, the cathedral was closed, and the main facade was heavily rebuilt, with the Sportsman's House located inside. In 1993, the building was returned to the Catholic Church, the original appearance was restored. Now it is the main Catholic church in Belarus. In the interior, the frescoes, which were plastered in Soviet times, are of particular value, now they are being opened and restored.

And now we will once again delve into the quarters of the Upper City, passing along the edge of the former Upper Market Square. Here, once male and female Uniate Basilian monasteries formed a kind of defense knot. The core of the monastery was the Church of the Holy Spirit, built on the site of an Orthodox wooden church around the 1650s.
In the photo on the left is the Church of the Holy Spirit, on the right is the Gostiny Dvor, in the perspective you can see the building of the Belarusian State Academy of Music.

Plan of the Basilian monastery complex. Reconstruction by L. Ivanova based on materials by V.M. Denisov. In the upper part there is a convent, in the lower part there is a male monastery with the Church of the Holy Spirit.

The monasteries were a kind of fortress. The male building with the church formed its southwestern side. Women's building - northeast. They were connected to each other by a covered gallery with small loophole windows, which at the same time was an entrance gate in its lower tier. There is nothing on the plan on the fourth side, but it is very likely that initially the monastery courtyard was still closed by a stone wall: it is mentioned in the documents of the 17th century (“... a stone fence and battles upper and lower””). The pearl of the complex was the church - a single-nave temple without towers with a five-sided apse covered with cross vaults resting on massive internal buttresses. High lancet windows, faceted form of the apse, vaults, buttresses refer to the Gothic style. The Renaissance is the main facade, all built on a combination of pilasters of the Corinthian order, and the Baroque influence is already felt in the figured shield.

Dimensional drawing of the main façade, 1843.

The main artistic feature of the Church of the Holy Spirit was the painting of flat niches on the facade with frescoes depicting saints. The structure of the niches and the order in which they were filled with frescoes corresponded to the Orthodox iconostasis. Art historians happily rub their hands - this is almost never found in the cult architecture of Europe: so that the iconostasis and immediately on the facade.

The main facade of the Minsk Church of the Holy Spirit. Reconstruction by Sergei Baglasov. It is very curious to compare its difference from the same measured drawing of 1843 (see above).

In the 19th century the church was taken away from the community, “donated” to the Orthodox and rebuilt in a pseudo-Russian style. Demolished in 1950. In 2011, the Church of the Holy Spirit was recreated from scratch. The measurement drawing of 1843 officially served as the basis for the reconstruction. The building is currently used as a children's philharmonic.
View of the remodel of the Church of the Holy Spirit from the northwest. In the foreground is the sculptural composition "City Scales".

View of the main facade of the Church of the Holy Spirit from the west. Compare with the drawings of the facade of 1843 and you will understand what the difference is, for example, the design of the lower tier.

Another angle. In the background, the Church of St. Joseph of the Bernardine Monastery.

View from the Church of the Holy Spirit on the Upper Market Square with the Church of St. Joseph of the Bernardine Monastery and the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary of the Bernardine Monastery.

Opposite the heavily rebuilt buildings of the Basilian monastery is the sculpture "The Crew", the prototype of which was the governor's carriage. The joke is that, as Dmitry Shelekhov writes to me in a personal, this "carriage" is a copy of Tobolsk and Kursk. There, what also served as a prototype for the carriage of governors?
In the background is the building of the Belarusian State Academy of Music

Carriage in Tobolsk. Photo by Dmitry Shelekhov. Minsk sculpture is undoubtedly cast in the same mold. Just a little more rough on the surface.

And this is a Kursk carriage. Still, they say there is a similar one in Dolgoprudny. Photo from the expanses of tyrnet.

Unfortunately, I did not go to the building of the Basilian Monastery and I have to use someone else's photo.
This building was very well, not in our opinion, restored. Wooden windows, natural tiles, a baroque figurative shield restored as in its best times, no bulbs for you - why not always do this? I haven't been inside, though.

But back to the Upper Market Square. Modern view of the Bernardine monastery and the Church of St. Joseph. The church was built in 1652 and rebuilt several times. In 1752 he received late baroque decor. In 1860 the monastery was abolished, the buildings were confiscated. The last time the building of the church was restored in 1983, at present, archives are located in it and the adjacent buildings of the monastery.

It's time to get back to the car. Now we will sell in a slightly different way along Musical Lane. Building number 1 is often seen in tourist photos. To the left is Herzen Street, which we observed at the very beginning of the report.

We go down the Muzykalny lane and turn back to the new office building and the quarter with the former Czech embassy

That's all for now.
Summary: As we can see, Minsk is one of those cities of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth, which has almost completely lost its historical appearance. However, due to a strange quirk of the leadership of the USSR, local restorers tried to recreate it to the extent of their depravity. And everything would be fine, moreover, this reconstruction could serve as an example for a number of Russian cities, completely, for a number of reasons, that have lost their heritage, but on the example of Minsk there was a strange substitution of concepts in the Belarusian restoration. This highly controversial and somewhat curious experience "out of hopelessness" in an effort to imitate civilized Europe was taken at the forefront of the current restoration. Now every collective-farm Belarusian builder imagines himself an architect, and then a restorer, reproducing this unique Minsk experience serially as a carbon copy, trying to build up our future with dubious antique replicas, while demolishing the remains of a genuine national treasure with the other hand to the right and left.
And what is this? The original heritage does not look presentable and it is not clear whether it is freshly plastered multi-colored houses under an onduline with chimneys.
For this case, Lotman's quote is more appropriate than ever - restoration is a legalized form of the destruction of heritage.

Materials used:

The Trinity Suburb of Minsk is undoubtedly the most beautiful urban area not only of the capital, but of the whole of Belarus. It is located on the left bank of the Svisloch River. The name Trinity Suburb came from the Trinity Church once founded by King Jagiello.

The development of the Trinity Suburb (Trinity Hill) began in the 12th century. Medieval Minsk grew in suburbs. Richer people settled in the Trinity Suburb. In the XIV-XV centuries, there was even the administrative center of the city. After receiving the Magdeburg Law and the construction of the town hall, the Trinity Suburb lost its status as the main district of Minsk.

In the XVI-XVII centuries, earthen ramparts were poured around the Trinity Suburb and ditches filled with water were dug. The area acquired the status of an important defensive fortified place.

Until the 19th century, the Trinity Suburb was considered a suburb of Minsk, and the houses in it were wooden. In the 19th century, the suburb entered the city limits. Its center was considered the Trinity Market, on the site of which the Opera House and the square are now built.

The Trinity Suburb acquired its current appearance thanks to the strongest fire in 1809, when all the wooden buildings burned down. The mayors decided to demolish the remains of the foundations and build new city blocks in accordance with the canons of classical building, when the streets had to intersect at right angles, forming rectangular blocks. The houses adjoined each other closely, forming a single facade. High tiled roofs of houses with mansards and attics gave the Trinity Suburb a unique flavor.

Now the Trinity Suburb has been reconstructed, repaired and landscaped. It looks attractive at any time of the year, at any time of the day and in any weather, thanks to the famous tiled roofs, multi-colored facades and modern dynamic lighting (changing colors like dancing fountains).