Children’s Philharmonic Hall, Minsk

Anastasia from Minsk sent me this lovely card.

The Church of the Holy Spirit was built in the 17^th century. Today it is reconstructed and serves as the Children’s Philharmonic Hall. Some researchers believe that the stone temple of the Holy Spirit was built around 1616. It is believed that the construction took place later - in the 30 - 40 years of the 17th century. Originally the church was Uniate, but in 1795, was handed to the Orthodox Church, and has since become known as the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

After the reunification of the Uniate chirch with the Orthodox (1839) Minsk icon of the Mother of God was returned to the Orthodox sanctuary in the Cathedral.

In 1835 there was a fire, after which the church was mostly rebuilt. Second restructuring of the church took place in 1893. In 1930, the cathedral was closed and transferred to the organization to collect grain. In the same year it was denied the bells in the city. In 1936, the church was blown up. At the site of the church was constructed a menagerie.

In 2009 began the restoration of the church building, designed by architect Baglasov S.G. You can have a look on the ancient foundations of the church by going down to the basement of the building.

A Concert hall for 240 seats has balcony where the choir can be placed. At the side of the restored buildings are administrative offices, costume, artistic room and cloakroom. Special hinged gallery connects the structure to the music school located in the neighbourhood.

Braslau Lakes

Braslau Lakes is one of the four national parks in Belarus. The National Park was set up in September 1995. It is a unique ecosystem with a number of lakes and a large area of pine forests. It has a total area of about 700 km² (270 square miles). This includes 30 lakes. Three largest lakes are Dryvyaty (fifth largest in the country),  Snudy (ninth largest in the country) and Strusta (sixteenth largest in the country).

The territory of the National Park is separate and is in the Braslaw Raion in the northwest of Belarus, near the border with Lithuania. In the north it is adjacent to Belarusian-Latvian border. The park is elongated from southwest to northeast. In this direction it is 55 km (34 miles) long and between 5 km and 29 km (3 to 18 miles) wide. The total area of the park is 69,100 hectares or about 270 square miles. The southern part of the park consists of lowlands covered with forests. Much of the area is occupied by different types of bogs. There are several beautiful forest lakes, including Boginskoye - considered to be one of the most beautiful in the Braslav area. The forests here belong to coniferous-deciduous group, and occupy 31,000 hectares (120 square miles). One can distinguish the following woodlands: Borunsky, Belmont,  Boguinsky,  Druiskaya Dacha. Pine woods and fir woods are widespread.

There is a network of 30 connected large and small lakes, spread over an area of 114 km² (44 square miles). The biggest lakes are Drivyaty, Snudy, Strusto, Voiso, Volosovo, Nedrovo, Nespish, and Berezhe. This group of lakes makes up the core of the Braslav Lakes National Park.

Of the rare species listed in the Belarusian Red Book, the area is the home of the badger, lynx, brown bear, and swan. The swan was almost extinct in this area but now inhabits the Braslav lakes. Other native species include the black stork, common crane, silver seagull, willow grouse, and dunlin. The lakes of Braslav are rich with different kinds of fish. Pike perch, bream, whitebait, tench, whitefish are widespread. Eel is of special value. Also widespread are boar, roe deer, squirrel, brown and white hare, fox, raccoon, wolf, marten, otter, and mink.

Thank you Dear Oksana for this lovely card.

Easter Greetings

Easter Greetings from Kate in Belarus. Thank you Kate.

Aleksandrovsky Square, Minsk

Aleksandrovsky Square is a small public garden in the heart of Minsk has a rich history and not by chance serves as the centre of “gravity” of a city life. And, in this card look at the car, we would call it a vintage model today.

 Its official, faded name is the Central Square. Long ago people renamed it in its historical version - Aleksandrovsky, probably, due to closeness to the residence of the head of Belarus Aleksander Lukashenko.

Thank you Eugenie for this nice old card.

Chapel tomb of Paskevichs family in Gomel

The Rumyantsev-Paskevich Residence is the main place of historical importance in the city of Gomel, Belarus. The grounds of the residence stretch for 800 meters along the steep right bank of the Sozh River. An image of the residence is featured on the Belarusian 20,000-ruble bill. Other buildings on the grounds are the Russian Revival chapel with the tombs of Ivan Paskevich and his family, a winter garden (which originated as Prince Paskevich's sugar-mill), several subsidiary outbuildings, and a set of cannons captured by Paskevich's soldiers in the course of the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829). By far the most conspicuous landmark in the park is the Neoclassical church of Sts. Peter and Paul. It was commissioned by Count Nikolay Rumyantsev from architect John Clark in 1809 but was not consecrated until 1824. The church is the seat of the local Orthodox bishopric.

Thank you Kate for this pretty card.

Nesvizh, Belarus

Nesvizh is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative center of the Nesvizh District (rajon) of Minsk Province and location of the Nesvizh Castle World Heritage Site. Its 2009 population is 14,300.

The Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh, Belarus (the one on the card) is an early Jesuit church and one of the oldest baroque structures outside Italy, influencing the later architecture of Belarus, Poland and Lithuania. Commissioned by Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł and constructed in 1587-1593 by Gian Maria Bernardoni, it contains graves of members of the powerful house of Radziwiłł.

Thank you Alexander for this nice card.

Old Believers’ manuscript “ The roll from the White Sea Coast region (late18th – early 19th Century)

The roll or scroll shown on on the card is one of many in the National Library of Belarus. This roll is from the collection of Old Believers’ manuscript “ The roll from the White Sea Coast region (late18th – early 19^th Century). This card was sent to me by Alexander from Minsk.

The National Library of Belarus is the main information and cultural centre of the country. Its depository collections include 8 million items of various media. In 1993 the National Library of Belarus started to create its own electronic information resources. It has generated a collection of bibliographic, factual graphic, full-text, graphic, sound and language databases that comprise more than 2 million records. The scope of databases is quite wide: humanities, social sciences, history, art and culture of Belarus. Library users also have access to databases of other libraries and academic institutions, including foreign ones.

Minsk Railway Station Square

Viktor from Minsk sent me this pretty card. The square was formed in the period 1947-1956, before the beginning of the 60s near the square stood a water tower. In the late 20th century, construction of a new railway station began at the square. And in the early 21st century the square had acquired a modern look.

Minsk Passazhirsky  is the main passenger rail terminal in Belarus. It is located in the centre of Minsk. It is sometimes called Minsk Ploshchad Lenina due to the metro station serving the terminal, or simply Minsk.

The station was built in 1873 as Vilenski vakzal, Vilnius station. The initial wooden building was demolished in 1890 and rebuilt in stone. During World War II Minsk railway station was completely destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1945-1946 and served until 1991. The new building of Minsk-Passazhyrski railway station was built in 1991-2002. Its construction was delayed due to financial difficulties. However now Minsk boasts one of the most modern and up-to-date railway stations in the CIS. There are plans to move all suburban rail traffic from Minsk-Passazhyrski to smaller stations Minsk-Uskhodni (East), Minsk-Paudnyovy (South) and Minsk-Paunochny (North) by 2020.

The two large buildings at the Station Square are centrally located and are characterised by the obvious Stalinist architecture .

Minsk - Upper Town

Minsk is the capital and largest city of Belarus, situated on the Svislač and Niamiha rivers. It is the administrative centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region (voblast) and Minsk raion (district). In 2009, it had a population of 1,836,808.

The card shows a nice view of Upper Town of Minsk, with Svislach River in the foreground and the main churches.

Minsk’s Upper Town is “Where Angels Fear to Tread” is popularly believed.  Minsk’s few remaining historic buildings cluster around the handful of surviving churches that cling grimly to the small hill in the center of the old town that seems to have protected them just as well from the architectural purges of Stalin as it once did from the seasonal floods of the Svisloch River. The architecturally anomalous Holy Spirit Cathedral and its attached monastery complex dominate all with a unique Vilna-Baroque façade and a prime position on the very summit of the upper town. Equally worth looking out for are the Virgin Mary Catholic Church with its attached former Jesuit College and the heavily fortified Saints Peter and Paul Church that was once built into the city wall.Finally remember to drop by the reconstructed Town Hall for a quick look into the city’s somewhat glorious past and it’s hopefully glorious future.  My friend Larissa from Minsk sent me this nice card.

Niasvizh Catholic Corpus Christi church

Nesvizh is a city in Belarus. It is the administrative centre of the Nesvizh District (rajon) of Minsk Province and location of the Nesvizh Castle World Heritage Site. Its 2009 population was 14,300.
Niasvizh Catholic Corpus Christi church was built in 1587–1593 according to the design of the Italian architect Jovanni Maria Bernardoni at sponsorship of Mikolai Christopher Radziwill the Orphan. The Jesuit church in Niasvizh was the first construction in Baroque in the whole territory of Rzecz Pospolita. The temple interior is richly decorated with paintings. The frescoes were performed in 1750–60-s with participation of the artist K.D. Gesski (restored in 1900–1902). The frescoes embrace 40 individual compositions depicting Saints, allegorical scenes and biblical stories. The fresco compositions include cartouches with the Bible stanze and references. There is K.D. Gesski’s picture "The Lord's Supper" (1753) in the main shrine. In addition to the paintings, the church interior contains a lot of plastic images, i.e. bás-reliefs and bust gravestones of the 17th – 19th centuries, marble altars and monuments. There is a choir with an organ above the temple entrance. An entrance into the family crypt – a burial vault of the Radziwills – is located next to the bás-relief under the altar of Christ. There are over seventy burials of the mighty dynasty in the semi-basement.
My friend Eugenia sent me this nice postcard.

Fountains of Pershamaiskaya Street

Mogilev also spelled  Mahilyow, is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 km from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. As of 2011, its population was 360,918. It is the administrative centre of Mahilyow voblast and the third largest city in Belarus. The picture on the card is of the Fountains in Pershamaiskaya street in Mogilev.  Alina sent me this card.

Arts & Crafts of Belarus

My friend Konstantin from Minsk sent me this lovely card which depicts national traditions such as I handicraft, clothing, ornaments, music (in this case, a balalaika playing doll is shown) et al. The cover in which this card was enclosed had these lovely stamps on it.

Earthmoving Vehicles

BelAZ is a Belarusian manufacturer of haulage and earthmoving equipment such as the one shown on the card. It is located at Zhodzina. The factory opened its doors in 1948 and has produced over 120,000 vehicles for use in the erstwhile Soviet Union. BELAZ is a site for one of the largest Commonwealth of Independent States investment projects. The factory finalized two of the three scheduled phases of the technical re-equipment and upgrades. The Quality Management System applied in research and development, fabrication, erection and after-sale service of the equipment complies with international ISO 9000 standards.

The range of business applications of these companies is as broad as the list of their partners and geography of supplies and deliveries. They supply quarry equipment, communal machinery and passenger transport, provide technical service and transportation of raw materials. The companies this group comprise of the dealers of such leaders of heavy engineering industry as BELAZ, MAZ, BELKOMMUNMASH, KOMMMASH, LINCOLN etc. The client base of CBS GROUP includes such major cement manufacturers as Holcim, Heidelbergcement, Cemex and Lafarge. They assisted their partners in building the large power stations in the Pamirs, extracting alumina in Africa, building roads in Cuba and mining coal in Kuzbass. Olga from Gomal in Belarus sent me this card.

Belarus – Kobrin

Kobryn or Kobrin is a city in the Brest voblast of Belarus and the center of the Kobryn Raion. The city is located in the southwestern corner of Belarus where the Mukhavets River and Dnepr-Bug Canal meet. The city lies about 52 km east of the city of Brest.. It is at an altitude of 485 feet. It is a station on the Brest – Homiel railway line. As of 1995, the population was around 51,500. River transport is very common in Belarus. The picture on the card shows the river station at Kobrin City. This pretty card was sent to me by Alesia.

In prehistoric times it was inhabited by ancient Baltic Yotvingian tribe. After the Partition of Poland in 1795, the town was annexed by Imperial Russia. Occupied by Germany during the World War I, following the Polish-Bolshevik War it was handed to Poland under the terms of the Treaty of Riga and became a seat of a powiat within the Polesie Voivodship. During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 the town was the scene of heavy fighting between the Polish 60th Infantry Division of Colonel Adam Epler and the German XIX Panzer Corps of General Heinz Guderian. After three days of fighting the Poles withdrew southwards. Between 1939 and 1941 occupied by the Soviet Union, then until 1944 by Nazi Germany. During the latter period the majority of Jewish inhabitants were first amassed in a ghetto and then murdered by the Germans in their extermination camps. In 1945 the town was occupied once more by the USSR and attached to the Byelorussian SSR. Since 1991 it is a part of Belarus.

Birds on Stamps

Exotica... Upon hearing the word some immediately think of Amazon jungles, others see endless Sahara sands, and yet others imagine climbing in Nepal and Tibet. For many foreigners Belarus is an unknown land. And yet there is no need to go to the arctic shores or to Siberia in order to see thousands of birds, deer, or wild boars. You can see them all here, in Belarus. All that is needed is knowledge of places and enough patience to take good photographs.
Byelarus is home to an impressive number of species of birds that vary from residents, that stay all year around, to breeding birds, that spend a good part of the growing season in Belarus to raise their young, migrants who pass through Belarus with the seasons, to wintering birds who like to spend a good part of the winter in Belarus to escape colder conditions up north. While many species of birds are relatively common as they are part of the ecosystems of the state, it is always a thrill to stumble upon a rare bird or vagrant, that does not really form part of any the Belarus ecosystems. Maybe it got lost during its travels between its summer and winter residence or it got displaced by bad weather.
Among the species of the birds of Byelarus you can find waterfowl and wading birds, a large suite of song birds, raptors, game birds, swifts and nighthawks, etc., many of which occupy several ecosystems simultaneously, as they fly to and from forests, meadows, shorelines of waters, cities and and urban green spaces. Maria sent these two lovely maxicards. Both the stamps issued were in commemoration of Bird of the Year. In 2010 it was the Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). In 2011 this unique honour went to the Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata).

Belarus – Mir Castle

Mir Castle is a unique monument of Belarusian architecture, it was built by duke Ilinich in early 16th century near village Mir (Grodno Region) instead of wooden feudal farmstead, which existed there in 15th century. This is a square-planned building with towers at the corners. The fifth tower had a drawbridge and a forged grille chersa which could urgently stop a sudden attack. The castle was well adapted for gunshot defense. Its walls had two rows of loop-holes, and its towers were intended for heavy cannon shooting from them. The basis of the volumetric castle's composition is its high towers which jut out beyond the wall-line. All of them have the same structure - tetrahedral core with octahedral top, but they differently decorated which gives original decorative value and beauty to the castle. Since 1568 the Mir Castle was owned by Dukes Radziwils, who finished its building in Renaissance style. A three-storied palace was built along the eastern and northern walls. Its plastered facades were decorated with lime-stone portals, plates, balconies and porches. During excavations they collected a lot of glazed tiles with vegetable and geometrical ornaments, and coats of arms of the castle's owners. Earth walls were made around the castle with bastions at the corners; a water moat surround them. To the north of the walls an Italian garden was laid, to the south - an artificial lake. Despite numerous destruction's (the heaviest were during 1812 war) the Mir Castle survived till now; and at present it is being successfully restored. This monument is under UNESCO's auspices. This lovely card was sent to me by Maria.

Belarus - Minsk

Minsk is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is also the administrative centre of Minsk Region (voblast) and Minsk raion (district). It has a population of 1,837,000 inhabitants (2009). The earliest references to Minsk date to the 11th century (1067), when it was a provincial city within the principality of Polotsk. In 1242, Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and it received its town privileges in 1499. From 1569, it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodship in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was annexed by Russia in 1793, as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1919–1991, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1499 Minsk received the so called Magdebourg right - the right of an independent city, the inhabitants of which were released from feudal duties, from the court and the authority of voivodes and other state persons.

The picture is of the very impressive Independence Square in Minsk. There is a monument of Lenin there. As a matter of fact the previous name of this square was in fact Lenin Square. The red building to the right of the picture is the Catholic Church of St. Simon & Helen. The locals also call it the Red Catholic Church. My friend Nastya sent this card to me.