| Duration: | 1 Day(s) - 0 Night(s) |
| Tour Category: | Full Day Tours |
The museum of Dudutki is your choice number one. It is located 40 km far from Minsk, in Pukhovichi district, in a picturesque place near the Ptich River, a kilometer and a half far from the village of Dudichi.
This village was first mentioned in chronicles in the 11th c. According to the texts of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign . Sinc then it belonged to many noble and famous historical families, In XXIII century Dudichi became a famous craft and commercial hub. Regardless of the king’s privilege fairs took place monthly during the dark moon. There people could buy not only traditional bread and cattle but chiefly farm commodities and local handicrafts. The estate in Dudichi keeps the memory of the life of its last owners – the family of Elskis. Stanislav Elski was famous for his love of music and his musical talent. He was distantly related and well acquainted with the renowned musician and hetman Michał Kazimierz Ogiński who owned the nearby estate of Ducora. The latter even dedicated his “G-dur polonaise for the violin and piano” to his “dear cousin Stanislav Elski and his wife Rose nee Prozor”. The ability for music was inherited by Stanislav’s son Karol who was taught by famous musicians Kieferling and Deschinski and turned Dudichi into “the estate of muses”. His son Michael was a prominent violinist.
World War I and World War II together with the 1917 October Revolution destroyed the Elskis’ heritage in Dudichi. Their offspring left the family estate and fled abroad (in Poland, Ukraine, Germany and France). In the 40s-80s of the 20th c. there could be found only the parkland with the remnants of the watermill and the system of the bypass channels. By the beginning of the 90s even old residents of the area had practically forgotten the history of these lands.
In October 1994 on the basis of this farm the museum complex of Dudutki dedicated to ancient folk crafts and technologies was created and had its first visitors. The place is ewed and developed and that gives us a chance to make popular not only Belarusian folk crafts but the way how people lived in such noble estates as well.
Nowadays Dudutki offers to their visitors:
