Minsk Favorites

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Favorite thing: The park was aroused our interest when we saw the modern sculpture in the entrance to the park (though the park was open in 1950), I guess sculptures took place many years later :-). The park is opposite to the National Circus building

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Favorite thing: St Aleksander Nevsky Church is situated on the military cemetry on Kozlov Street. The church was built in 1896-1898 in honour of soldiers killed in Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. At present you may see many monuments in hnour of victory in WWII.
There is an interesting fact. During bomb attack in 1941 the bomb broke the church roof and fell in front of St.Nikolay icon and bomb didn't blow.

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Favorite thing: The cathedral is situated in Nemiga area, just near of exit of the metro station. It was built in 1642 and then reconstructed in the end of XVII century. The cathedral was built in time when Mins was a part of the catholic Lithuanian Kingdom and has a classical style in architecture. Now it is orthodox, though.

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Favorite thing: In Nemiga region there is Island of Sorrow in Svisloch River. It was constructed in honour of memory of soldiers of Afghanistan war 1980-1988. In any way, as far as I know, now the place is popular to visit by young persons during wedding ceremony though.

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Favorite thing: Sts Peter and Pavel Church was built in 1613. Then, in the end of XVIII century, when Minsk became the part of Russian Empire, it was re-named to St Ekaterina. During 90-s of XX century the church was renovated (for example, as result, the church has new roofs of the towers). It is situated in Nemiga area. The original name the church has since 1941.

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Favorite thing: The place is historical place for trading (the excavation of 1976 found the marks of XII century). Nowadays it is restorated historical place with 1-2 floors houses. The place is situated along Svisloch River, near the bridge of Maksim Bogdanovich Street.
The name of the place is rather related with Troitsa, the Slavic word which means The Trinity. There was the first city Cathedral, named Trinity Cathedral, that wasn't kept till the present.

Favorite thing: Somewhere in media I have heard that Minsk is like a collection of the best soviet style architecture. I can't compare much soviet style cities together with Minsk, but I liked that kind of soviet architecture I have seen (Government Palace, Republic Palace, City Council building and so on).

Let say, Vilnius, Riga or Tallinn has examples of Soviet architecture as well, but such architecture is not so beautiful here, not so monumental and not very well preserved as in Minsk. Probably it is because Minsk has not much preserved old (non-soviet) time architecture, so soviet style buildings, especially in central part, is like objects for presenting Minsk.

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Favorite thing: The oldest structures in Minsk you could find are from 17th - 18th centuries (Minsk Orthodox main Cathedral, Bernardine monastery). The old town is from the 19th century. Anyway, almost all Minsk was built or rebuilt at the middle of 20th century - most with soviet style structures.

For longer time city haven't had such called "skyscrapers", but now it is possible to see tall glass buildings as well (National Belarusian Library, so on).