Duration: | 2 Day(s) - 1 Night(s) |
Tour Category: | Culture Tours |
Day1: City Tour
During the Minsk city sightseeing tour, you will learn the history of the city-hero Minsk, its foundation, and revival after numerous wars and fires, and see its nowadays beauty. The tour route covers the main streets and squares of the city. You will visit Station Square and see the new modern building of the Railway station. Then you’ll visit the administrative and political center- Nezavisimost Square. There you’ll be told how monumental the building of Government House was built manually without technic use.
You will see the Red Castle construction at Nesavisimoosti Square with the magnificent Houses of Parlament where the state Government is sitting, go along the Nezavisimosty Avenue built in the Stalinist Empire style You’ll see the oldest [part of the city Zamchishche (the place of ancient Minsk founding).
You’ll know about the annalistic history of the city and try to imagine the appearance and the way of life of middle-aged Minsk, which was built in the village on the island near two rivers junction and surrounded by Earth deposits. You will see a renewed town council, Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Cathedral – Minsk icon of the Mother of God and its miraculous occurrence to people.
You will have a nice walk along the quiet streets of the Troitskoye Suburb and feel the spirit of the city of the XIX century. Then you will visit Victory Square the monument built in memory of victory in the Great Patriotic War as well as visit the outstanding museum (you may book the tour to the museum) ), and the unique National Library of the Republic of Belarus
Day2: The National Library Tour Which is a Landmark of Belarus
This is a multipurpose center that combines high technologies, ultramodern design, and unique architecture. National Library history started in 1922 when it was founded under the aegis of the Belarusian State University and Initially contained 60,000 books. Later In 1926, the Belarusian State Library became an independent institution. During the Great Patriotic War, the Belarusian State Library named after Lenin lost about 83% of its books and special equipment.
It managed to evacuate all the rare and early printed books, editions stored in the circulation department, and reading halls while the reserve fund building burnt down completely together with what was inside. After the war the library was reborn and developed, collecting more books and establishing international ties. In 1992 as part of the sovereign state, it was renamed the National Library of Belarus. With time its collections grew much larger, requiring the construction of new, larger, and modern premises. In 1989 a USSR-wide contest was held to choose the best architectural design for the Library.
The winners – architects Viktor Kramarenko and Mikhail Vinogradov – suggested the Belarusian diamond design that combines functionality and modern design solutions. The design envisaged the construction of an original building in the shape of a rhombicuboctahedron — a complex polyhedron of 18 squares and 8 triangles resting on a supporting podium (stylobate). The surface of the diamond is covered by heat-reflecting mirror glass. The authors wanted the cut diamond shape to symbolize the value of knowledge and the endlessness of the perceptible world. The space of the building is multifunctional and boasts modern equipment. The total area of the building is 113,669m2 or one-fourth of the Vatican territory.
The building weighs 140,000 tonnes, roughly 14 times as much as the Eiffel Tower (about 270,000 tonnes with books and equipment. The collection of the "diamond of knowledge" contains about 9 million editions on various media. Those are printed editions, manuscripts, microcopies, digital materials, and other materials created in Belarus and abroad in over 80 languages.
The main part of the collection is located on ten floors of the storage facility. Over 500,000 copies are available for public access and in reading halls. Digital resources can be accessed via computers in the Library while some are available via the Internet.
A center for international meetings and negotiations boasts multifunctional modern equipment and special communication solutions and allows the hosting of top political, cultural, and educational events. Every year the Library hosts culture days of individual nations. The days involve exhibitions of books, paintings, and photos. As a unique feature of the architectural design, the book storage facility is located in the upper part of the building for the sake of waterproofing and enabling comfortable conditions for the books.
On the first floor, you can find the information and registration desk and a tour office in the entrance hall. The Library has special workstations for blind people and visually handicapped people, people with physical disabilities.
The open-air Skydeck is worth mentioning. It is located 73m above the ground in the upper part of the Library’s book storage facility. Over there visitors can admire the view of the Belarusian capital and take a look at remote locations using a panoramic binocular. There are various educational tours to the National Library
Address: 116, Nezavisimosti Ave, Minsk, Belarus