No matter what they say, the most acceptable option for a Russian tourist who wants to go to the near abroad is Belarus. Nesvizh, whose attractions will be described in this article, has incorporated the best of the history and culture of this friendly country. The town is located in the Minsk region. Therefore, getting there from the capital of Belarus and returning in one day is not difficult. The decoration of Nesvizh is a palace and park complex. Nesvizh Castle is inscribed 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
More than one hundred and twenty-five kilometers separate the town from Minsk. To see the sights of Nesvizh, you first need to get to the metropolitan bus station "Vostochny". A ticket to the city will cost about sixty thousand Belarusian rubles. The first bus to Nesvizh leaves Minsk at seven in the morning, the last at eight in the evening. Travel time is about two hours. You can reduce the cost of the road if you get into a common train car (16 thousand rubles). But it will only take you to neighboring Gorodeya, from which it is eighteen kilometers to Nesvizh. So you have to change to a suburban bus.
History of Nesvizh
To fully understand the sights of Nesvizh, you should understand the vicissitudes of its occurrence. Previously, scientists associated the name of the city with Prince Yuri Nesvitsky, who died in the battle of Kalka (1223). However, this version has been disproved by historians. And archaeological research does not find traces of buildings older than the fifteenth century. The first mention in the annals also dates back to 1446, when the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Casimir Jagiellonchik, donated the city to Jan Mikolai Nemirovich. This family did not own Nesvizh for long. Already in 1492, Niasvizh was in the hands of the richest Lithuanian tycoon Peter Kishke.
A representative of this family, Anna, married in 1513 to Jan Radziwill Bearded. Nesvizh "towed" went to these noble aristocrats. The son of Jan and Anna, Mikolai Cherny, achieved the title of “Prince of the Roman Empire”. Thus, the possessions of the Radziwill clan received the legal status of ordinations. That is, they were inherited by the eldest son. From this moment begins the golden age of Nesvizh. Radziwill ordination lasted until 1939, until Soviet troops captured this part of what was then Poland.
Nesvizh (Belarus): attractions
The finest hour for the city struck with the entry into the law of the ordinate of the son of Mikolai the Black - Christopher Radziwill, nicknamed Orphan. In his youth, this nobleman traveled to European countries. Arriving home, he enthusiastically set about arranging his family nest. Those sights of Nesvizh, which we admire today, were laid or erected by Christopher the Orphan. He demolished the old castle to the base . And in 1583, a little distance away, he began to build a new one. Reforms also affected the city. Development chaotic in plan is replaced by ordered quarters. But this was not what the rulers of Nesvizh remembered for their ruler. The orphan has abolished many taxes. In modern language, he proclaimed a tax holiday, which is why Nesvizh rushed to the settlement of artisans and merchants. In just a few decades, the city has flourished and turned into a vibrant industrial and commercial center. In 1586, Nesvizh was granted Magdeburg Law. The city was surrounded by powerful walls encircled by a moat. Inside there were many churches and monasteries.
What to see in Nesvizh (attractions)
Travel guides for Belarus adorn photos of this city and especially its castle. Unfortunately, only one gate remained from the once powerful fortress walls - the Slutsk Gate. She meets travelers from the east. To understand the grandeur of medieval Nesvizh, head to the central market square. In the middle of it stands the symbol of self-government of the city - the town hall, built in the early seventeenth century in the Baroque style. Christopher the Orphan was a famous philanthropist. He invited scientists and people of free professions to his city. As a result, the first printing house and the Arian school in Belarus studied natural sciences, theology and languages in Nesvizh.
Monasteries and Cathedral
The large and rich Nesvizh previously had many sacred structures. The population of the city was multinational. There was a synagogue and an Orthodox church. The main one was the Cathedral of God’s Body. It is unique in that it is the second church in the world, completely sustained in the Baroque style (after the Roman temple of Il Gesu). In the script of the cathedral is the family tomb of the Radziwills - those powerful magnates who once owned the city of Nesvizh. The sights of the town are its monasteries. There were several of them. In the city built their cloisters of the Order of Bernardine, Benedictine, Dominican, Jesuit.
Castle history
What is interesting Nesvizh? The sights described in the article are just a wonderful prelude to that wonderful symphony that you will see in the palace and park ensemble. But the castle was built more than one day. Nothing has been preserved from the old wooden fortress. The first stone buildings were erected by the Dutch masters of fortification even under Mikola Black Radziwill. In May 1583, Christopher the Orphan laid the castle south of the wooden fortress. Ditches were dug around him. Later they were filled with the waters of the river Ushi. The 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 so fortified that it withstood two sieges of the Russians (in 1654 and 1660). And even when the Swedes took the city, the shelves of Charles the Twelfth, after a long siege, were forced to leave without salty slurping from the walls of the citadel. And only at the end of the Northern War the castle, surrounded by thousands of armies, accepted the honorable conditions of surrender.
Turning into a palace and park complex
The Swedes thoroughly ravaged the citadel. When the military passions died away, the Radziwills in the 1720s began to reconstruct their family nest. But now they did not invite military engineers. The fashion was not the same, and the artillery reached such a level of destruction that powerful walls could not save from its blows. And so the narrow loopholes and redoubts were replaced by the graceful forms of a real palace. Around him was a garden with ponds. It is the beauties of the palace and park complex that Nesvizh is famous for. The sights of the Radziwills clan nest were recreated with maximum accuracy and reflect the life of the magnates of the eighteenth century. By the way, you can read about filling the suite of luxurious halls in the novel “Princess Tarakanova” by G. Danilevsky. Tourists can visit not only the front rooms and the 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 it was plundered by them during the retreat of Napoleon’s army. Russian troops took out the wealth of the eleventh ordinate of Dominic Jerome on ten wrecks. 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 improve the area around the palace. Thanks to them, such attractions of Nesvizh appeared as Castle, Old, New, English parks and the Japanese Garden. By 1939, the area of the complex was approximately ninety hectares. When World War II raged in Poland, Soviet troops advanced west and occupied the castle without firing a shot, arresting the Radziwill family. From the execution they were rescued by Italian diplomats. Representatives of the clan were allowed to emigrate to Italy. And in their castle housed a hospital and a sanatorium. Only after the collapse of the USSR, restoration work began in the palace and park complex. The museum was opened in the summer of 2012.