Museum sights in Belarus
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Dudutki Open Air Museum
Near the sleepy, dusty village of Dudutki, is an open-air museum, where 19th-century Belarusian country life comes to life. If you only make one day trip from Minsk let this be the one. Traditional crafts, such as carpentry, pottery, handicraft-making and baking are on display in old-style wood-and-hay houses.
You can wander around the grounds, taking in the fresh air, spying on a working farm as it was a century ago. Nearby is a working windmill which you can climb. You can also go horse riding or just rest on bales of hay.
Best of all though is the meal you can order, prepared on site using traditional recipes and techniques. Homemade cheeses, bread, draniki(potato panc…
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Dudutki
Near Dudutki, 40km (25mi) south of Minsk, is an open-air museum where 19th-century Belarusian country life comes to life. Traditional crafts, such as carpentry, pottery, handicraft-making and baking are on display in wood-and-hay houses. Best of all is the traditional meal you can order, washed down with a shot of local samagon (moonshine).
If you only make one day trip from Minsk, let this be the one. You can wander around the grounds spying on a working farm as it was a century ago. Nearby is a working windmill which you can climb. You can also go horse riding or just rest on bales of hay. Public transport to Dudutki is iffy. About three daily buses go to Ptich from Min…
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Chagall Museum
One of the most important names in 20th-century art, visionary Marc Chagall (1887-1985), often grouped with surrealists, was born in Vitsebsk on 7 July 1887. Nestled in a pretty park, Chagall Museum has two floors filled with 300 original, colourful lithographs (all donations), as well as reproductions of some of his famous paintings, including the infamous murals he did for the Moscow Jewish Theatre, considered so mesmerising that they were banned from the stage for distracting the audience.
There would be more originals at the museum had Soviet authorities accepted Chagall's offer to donate some to the city of his birth; they didn't think much of his art and declined. T…
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Art Museum
Immerse yourself in what distinguishes Vitsebsk from other Belarusian cities: art. Nowhere else in the country will you get such a concentrated dose of quality art! The grand halls of the Art Museum are decked out with mainly local art, both old and new. There are numerous 18th- to 20th-century works, including those by Repin and Vladimir Egorovic Makovsky. A highlight is the collection of very moving realist scenes of early 20th-century Vitsebsk street life by Yudel Pyen.
Of the 793 paintings he donated to the city before he died, only 200 have survived, most of them held here.
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Museum of the Great Patriotic War
Don't leave town without visiting the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, where Belarus' horrors and heroism during WWII are exhibited in photographs, huge dioramas and other media. Particularly harrowing are the photographs of partisans being executed in recognisable central Minsk locations. The big sign above the building (ПОДВИГУ НАРОДА ЖИТЬ В ВЕКАХ) means 'The Feats of Mankind Will Live On for Centuries'.
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Museum of the Great Patriotic War
This sobering museum (Great Patriotic War is the Soviet name for WWII) is an excellent place to understand the most devastating event affecting the region. Twenty-eight rooms graphically display the horrors of WWII and go a long way towards explaining Belarus' apparent obsession with the Great Patriotic War, which claimed the life of one in four Belarusians.
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Regional Museum
A few houses away from the Art Museum, past the town hall distinguishable by its clock tower, is the Regional Museum, where you are guaranteed something interesting and thought provoking. There are up to five temporary exhibitions (usually paintings and photography) plus a permanent one full of 11th- to 14th-century artefacts from the city and region.
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Belarusian State Art Museum
The Belarusian State Art Museum is a very interesting place. Here you'll find the country's largest collection of Belarusian art, in two rooms devoted to works depicting the depopulated agrarian bliss of the 1920s and 1930s. There are also impressive works by Arkhip Kuindji, Nikolai Ghe, Ilya Repin, Isaak Levitan and Konstantin Makovsky.
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Museum of Confiscated Art
The city's most interesting museum is the Museum of Confiscated Art, a display of valuable international art pieces (paintings, sculptures, ceramics) seized by Brest border guards as they were being smuggled out of the country. It is no doubt the most eclectic art collection in Belarus. It often has great temporary exhibits.
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History of Brest Museum
In the History of Brest Museum there's a small exhibit on the city in its different guises throughout history. Check the painting of Brest-Litovsk in medieval times to see what a vibrant European city it was then. The quiet neighbourhood around the museum, lined with quaint wooden houses, is worth strolling through.
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Museum of the Belarusian Army
The Museum of the Belarusian Army, set up by veterans of the Afghan War, has some touching exhibits on the history of war on Belarusian soil from the 6th century, as well as of Belarusians participating in foreign wars. The museum is difficult to find on your own; take an around BR8000 taxi from the centre.
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Museum of the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party
The Museum of the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party is where the Russian Social-Democratic Workers Party - Russia's original Marxist party - held its illegal founding congress in 1898. Today, you can wander around the small museum inside, just as Fidel Castro did in 1972.
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Brest Art Museum
Heading south inside the Brest Fortress, there's the Brest Art Museum, which showcases local arts and crafts. To the right is the unmistakable Kholmskie Gate; its bricks are decorated with crenulated turrets and its outer face is riddled with hundreds of bullet and shrapnel holes.
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Belarus National Museum of History & Culture
Most visitors leave here with their head spinning (Belarusian-only explanation panels don't help). It takes you on a journey into the turbulent history of the nation, and features a replica of the printing press used by national hero Francyska Skaryny.
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Museum of Garadnitsa History
This tiny city history museum has almost nothing in it, but it's pleasant to walk around the 18th-century wooden home it's housed in, and they sell curious handcrafted items and souvenirs.
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Defence of Brest Fortress Museum
Inside Brest Fortress is the Defence of Brest Fortress Museum . Its extensive and dramatic exhibits demonstrate aptly the plight of the defenders.
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Regional Museum
The Regional Museum, has an odd exhibit on the history of science, and a small display on the Chornobyl disaster.
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