Belarus, the last European Country is famous as the “Lungs of Europe”. This landlocked country offers it tourist many attractions which include fortresses, historic monuments, cathedral and beautiful fields. This European country despite lots of beautiful places remains highly unexplored among foreign visitors. But its heritage sites brought worldwide recognition. The Mir Castle Complex, the Struve Geodetic Arc, the Belovezhskaya and Nesvizh Castle are the four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the country. Mir Castle Complex is one of the most beautiful castles in Europe.
So before planning the Belarus trip, you must think of visiting Mir Castle. But why? What is so special is that it is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Let’s discuss more about this Castleb complex in detail.
Mir Castle Complex Overview
In the Belarus City Mir, in the Kareličy District of the Hrodna. The famous Mir castle is situated. Mir Castle is a unique example of a central European castle, exhibiting different cultural influences in its architecture and layout.
It showcases the magnificence of Belarus and its history in a different way. Mir Castle is located in a region with a long history of political and cultural clashes and convergences which tourists can notice in its design. UNESCO designated Mir Castle as a World Heritage Site in December 2000.
History Associated With Mir Castle Complex
The Ilinich family constructed the castle to fight Crimean Tatar assaults. The family died out in the same century, and the castle was passed down to a Radziwill family member. It was turned into a Renaissance-style home castle for them. Dominik Hieronim Radziwill died of combat injuries in 1817, after the castle had been abandoned for nearly a century and had sustained major damage in the Battle of Mir, and the castle passed to his daughter Stefania, who married Ludwig Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.
Prior to their deaths, German forces took the castle and turned it into a ghetto for the local Jewish people when they invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The castle was used as a housing facility between 1944 and 1956, causing damage to the interior. In 1992, the castle became home to a branch of the Republic of Belarus’s National Art Museum. And finally, in 2000, it become part of the UNESCO heritage site.
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Architecture Details of Mir Castle Complex
Mir Castle Complex has a height of 164 metres. At end of the 16th century, Duke Juryj Ivanavi Illini began construction of the castle near the settlement of Mir in the Polish Gothic style. This castle is built in various architectural styles of Europe such as Gothic architecture, Baroque architecture, Renaissance architecture, Belarusian Gothic.
But Gothic, Renaissance and Rococo influenced the architecture of the Mir castle more. In modern Belarus, the Mir Castle Complex is one of the few remaining architectural relics of the medieval Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Thus it represents the versatility in the culture and architecture of Belarus.
What does this Heritage Complex Consists of?
The complex is made up of a residence-fortress, an English-style park, an Italian garden, a pond, a chapel-tomb and wayside chapels. The castle’s courtyard was encompassed by five towers, the walls of which formed a square of 75 metres on each side. There are parks and a pond surrounding the property.
The grounds also include a chapel with the Svyatopolk-Mirsky Princes’ burial tomb, a landscaped garden with an artificial lake and a Mir ghetto memorial, in addition to the castle. A water canal surrounded the fortress, which was surrounded by earth walls with bastions at the corners. An Italian garden was built to the north of the walls, and an artificial lake was built to the south. You can watch Joust in front of the complex which is a kind of temporary battle happen for tourist.
Protection & Management of Castle
The last proprietors of the castle were the svyatopolk-Mirsky Worldly family (until 1939), after which the castle passed to the state. From that time till now, this location has had to go through a lot of changes to remain sustainable, including restructurings, takeovers, and renovation. Despite multiple destructions which happened during the War of 1812, the Mir Castle has survived to till today day and is currently being refurbished.
How You Will Reach Mir, Belarus?
There are many routes that will take you to Mir from Belarus from there you have to go Mir Castle complex. After Columns, there will be a reference to the town of Mir on the M1 highway in the direction of Brest. Travellers from the road to the town you will reach in around 15 minutes. The distance between Minsk and Mir is approximately 100 km.
Mir Castle is regarded as one of Europe’s most magnificent castles. It is a popular tourist destination in modern-day Belarus, with over 300,000 annual visitors. Thus whenever you are on a trip to Belarus and you love history and love to explore historical castles and different architecture You must visit Mir Castle Complex. Especially in the winter season as snow cover the castle ground as the top which depicts the castle as a cherry on the cake.
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