Sightseeing Nesvizh: description and reviews

Whatever they say, and the most acceptable option for a Russian tourist who wants to go to near abroad, is Belarus. Nesvizh, whose attractions will be described in this article, absorbed the best of the history and culture of this friendly country. The town is located in the Minsk region. Therefore, to get there from the capital of Belarus and return in one day will not be difficult. The decoration of Nesvizh is a palace and park complex. Nesvizh Castle is listed on the World Heritage List and is under the patronage of UNESCO. But in a town with a population of only fifteen thousand people there are other attractions.

How to get to Nesvizh

From Minsk, the town is separated by more than one hundred and twenty-five kilometers. To see the sights of Nesvizh, you need to get to the capital's bus station "Vostochny" first. A ticket to the city will cost about sixty thousand Belarusian rubles. The first bus to Nesvizh leaves from Minsk at seven in the morning, the last one at eight in the evening. Travel time is about two hours. You can reduce the cost of the road if you sit in the general car of the train (16 thousand rubles). But he will take you only to the next city, from which to Nesvizh eighteen kilometers. So you have to change to a shuttle bus.

History of Nesvizh

To fully understand the sights of Nesvizh, one must understand the vicissitudes of its origin. Previously, the name of the city scientists associated with Prince Yuri Nesvitsky, who died in the battle of Kalka (1223). However, this version was refuted by historians. And archaeological research does not find traces of buildings older than the fifteenth century. The first mention in the annals also refers to 1446, when the Grand Duke of Lithuania Kazimir Jagellonchik transferred the city as a gift to Ian Mikolai Nemirovich. This family owned Nesvizh not for long. Already in 1492 Nesvizh is in the hands of the richest Lithuanian tycoon Peter Kishke.

A representative of this family, Anna, married in 1513 for Jan Radziwill the Bearded. Nesvizh "in tow" went to these noble aristocrats. The son of Jan and Anna, Mikolaj Cherny, achieved for himself the title of "prince of the Roman Empire". Thus, the possessions of the Radziwill family received the legal status of ordinations. That is, they were inherited by the eldest son. From this moment the golden age of Nesvizh begins. Radziwill's ordination lasted until 1939, until the Soviet troops captured this part of the then Poland.

Nesvizh (Belarus): attractions

The starry hour for the city was struck with the accession to the right of the ordinate of the son Mikolai Chernoy - Christopher Radziwill, nicknamed the Orphan. In his youth, this nobleman traveled to European countries. Arriving home, he enthusiastically set about arranging his ancestral nest. Those attractions Nesvizh, which we admire today, laid or was built by Christopher Orphan. He demolished the old castle to the ground . And in 1583, a little bit later he began to build a new one. Reforms touched the city. Chaotic in terms of development is replaced by orderly quarters. But this is not what the burgesses of Nesvizh remember their ruler. The orphan has abolished many taxes. Speaking in modern language, he announced a tax holiday, why Nesvizh poured into the settlement craftsmen and merchants. Literally for several decades the city blossomed and turned into a lively industrial and commercial center. In 1586, Nesvizh was granted the Magdeburg Law. The city was surrounded by powerful walls, girded with a moat. Inside there were many churches and monasteries.

What to see in Nesvizh (sights)

The photos of this city and especially its castle are decorated with guides to Belarus. Unfortunately, from the powerful once-fortified walls there were only one gate - Slutskaya Brama. She meets travelers who come from the eastern side. To understand the greatness of the medieval Nesvizh, go to the central market square. In the middle of it stands the symbol of city self-government - the town hall, built in the early seventeenth century in the Baroque style. Christopher Orphan was a well-known philanthropist. He invited scientists and people of free professions into his city. As a result, the first printing house in Belarus and the Arian school, where they studied natural sciences, theology and languages, were working in Nesvizh.

Monasteries and cathedral

In the large and rich Nesvizh there used to be a lot of sacral constructions. The population of the city was multinational. There was a synagogue and an Orthodox church here. The main was the cathedral of the Body of God. It is unique in that it is the second largest church in the world, fully baroque (after the Roman Temple Il Gesu). In the script of the cathedral there is the family shrine of the Radziwills - those powerful magnates who once belonged to the town of Nesvizh. Sightseeing places are his monasteries. There were several of them. In the city, the Order of the Bernardines, Benedictines, Dominicans, and Jesuits built their monasteries.

History of the castle

What is interesting for Nesvizh? The sights, the description of which is given in the article, are just a perfect prelude to that wonderful symphony that you will see in the palace and park ensemble. But the castle was built not one day. From the old wooden fortress nothing was saved. The first stone buildings were erected by the Dutch masters of the fortification case still under Mikola Chern Radziwill. In May 1583, Christophe Sirotka laid the castle south of the wooden fortress. There were moats around it. Later they were filled with the waters of the Ushi River. Creation of the fortress was first attributed to the Italian architect Giovanni Bernardoni, but this version is doubtful for the reason that the architect specialized in the construction of sacred structures, rather than fortifications. And the castle of Nesvizh was fortified so much that it sustained two sieges of the Russians (in 1654 and 1660). And even when the Swedes took the city, the regiments of Charles the Twelfth, after a long siege, were forced to withdraw, not salting from the walls of the citadel. And only at the end of the Northern War the castle, surrounded by many thousands of armies, accepted the honorable terms of surrender.

Turning into a palace and park complex

The Swedes thoroughly ruined the citadel. When the military passions died down, the Radziwills in the 1720s began to reconstruct their patrimonial nest. But now they invited no military engineers. The fashion was no longer the same, and the artillery had reached such a level of defeat that its powerful walls did not save its attacks. That is why narrow loopholes and redoubts were replaced by graceful forms of the present palace. Around him was a garden with ponds. Nesvizh is famous for the beauty of the palace and park complex. The sights of the birthplace of the Radziwills were recreated with the utmost precision and reflect the life of the eighteenth-century tycoons. By the way, you can read about the filling of the suite of luxurious halls in the novel "Princess Tarakanov" by G. Danilevsky. Tourists can visit not only the main halls and library, but also the castle chapel.

Palace in the XIX-XX centuries

As further developments showed, the Radziwills hurried. The defenseless castle was taken by the Russians during the partition of Poland. Then they were plundered by them during the retreat of Napoleon's army. Russian troops took out the riches of the eleventh ordinal Dominic Jerome on ten bricks. But in the sixties of the XIX century the castle again returned to the possession of the Radziwills. New generations of this kind began to beautify the territory around the palace. Thanks to them, Nesvizh's attractions such as the Castle, Old, New, English parks and the Japanese Garden appeared. By 1939 the area of the complex was about ninety hectares. When the Second World War raged on the territory of Poland, the Soviet troops advanced westward and captured the castle without a shot, arresting the Radziwill family. Italian diplomats rescued them from the execution. Representatives of the genus were allowed to emigrate to Italy. And in their castle there is a hospital and a sanatorium. Only after the collapse of the USSR did the restoration work begin in the palace and park complex. The museum was opened in the summer of 2012.