Journey to the Vitebsk Province

Minsk - Begoml - Polotsk - Vitebsk - Orsha - Smolyany - Belaya Tserkov' - Borisov - Zhodino - The Mound of Glory - Minsk

The length of the route: 700 km
Duration: 3 days/2 nights
The first day 
08.00-10.00 Transfer Minsk - Begoml (110 km)
10.00-12.00 Begoml is an urban-type settlement with five centuries of history, which was the township, the city and even the district center. Museum of national glory, library, as well as the House of Culture provides cultural rest for inhabitants and visitors of Begoml. The museum has 17 383 exhibits, including 13,783 exhibits of the main fund and the 3600 of scientific. In the courtyard of the museum there is an exhibit - IL-14. It personifies the memory of time and lives, spent on the fight against the Nazi occupiers. Begoml charmes tourists with its tiny size and modest architecture. Church of All the Saints in Begoml combines the features of Russian church architecture and retrospective style. And for fans of legends there is the "Styop-stone" in Begoml.
12.00-13.30 Transfer to Polotsk (120 km)
14.00-17.00 City tour to Polotsk. Visit to the monastery of St.Euphrosyne, architectural monument of XII century., which is one of the major pilgrimage places.  The monastery houses relics of St.Euphrosyne of Polotsk. Overlook of the Saint Sophia Cathedral, the museum of belarusian printing.
17.00-18.30 Transfer Polotsk - Vitebsk (100 km)
Overnight at the hotel
The second day
Breakfast
10.00-12.30 City tour to Vitebsk.
Vitebsk is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. It was founded in 974, and the first mention of the city on the Western Dvina refers to 1021. According to legend, it was founded by the Grand Duchess Olga. After a successful campaign, she stopped to spend the night at the intersection of the Vitba and the Western Dvina. Here she had a dream of a beautiful city. Waking up, the princess gave orders to lay a wooden castle, which she called Vitebsk (from the name of one of the rivers).
Location at the crossroads of trade routes ( the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" was through Vitebsk) let the city to develop rapidly and become an important cultural and economic center of Belarus.
In Vitebsk, buildings XVIII - pp XIX centuries preserved partly. A Town Hall always has a particular interest of tourists . This is one of the few remaining town halls in Belarus. Present building dates back to 1775, now it is the Regional Museum of Local lore.
A calling card of the city is  the Summer Amphitheatre, where the festival "Slavianski Bazaar" is hold  for 23 years. The hall was built in 1988. It is designed for 10 thousand seats.
There is a historically complex building In the center of Vitebsk. Its border runs along the Lenin street, Kupala street, Suvorov street, Polytechnicheskaya street and Tolstoy street . Here are residential buildings XVIII - beg. XX centuries., Town Hall, Governor's Palace. Near the town hall is the Church of Holy Resurrection, which was destroyed in the 1930s.
13.00-14.00 The house-museum of Marc Chagall in Vitebsk
This museum is known informally as "brand of Vitebsk". Chagall owned four houses: one in stone and three wooden. But in spite of this number of houses on the Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, the family was considered to be poor. During the war all the wooden buildings were burned, and one-storey red brick house miraculously survived. Here now a museum exposition is. In the house there are five small rooms. The exhibition consists of five halls: "Bakaleinaya Lavka", "Komnata Mal'chikov" "Gostinaya", "Krasnaya Komnata", "Kuchnia". The museum receives over 30 million visitors a year. Basically,they are tourists from Russia and Western Europe. Museum organizes International Chagall reading, a series of meetings "Dialogues of culture. XXI Century ", a traditional holiday " Visiting Mark and Bella "International Summer School of the Arts for young artists, dancers, musicians, actors.
14.00-15.00 The Art-center of Marc Chagall in Vitebsk
This is a building that is depicted in the famous painting of Chagall "Nad gorodom". The museum was opened in 1992. The Art Center of Marc Chagall is one of two places in Belarus, where works of the famous artist are stored . The art center has 300 original works of the artist. Besides the works of Chagall, the museum contains works of other artists of the European avant-garde. Among of them are works of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Henri Matisse and others. A small shop is on the ground floor of the museum. Here tourists can buy souvenirs: postcards, magnets, calendars, reproductions of works of Chagall, etc. Totally the museum is visited by approximately 30 thousand tourists a year.
16.00-19.00 Free time. Walk down through Vitebsk. Overnight at the hotel in Vitebsk
The third day
Breakfast
08.00-09.30 Transfer to Orsha (87 km)
09.30-11.30 Sightseeing of Orsha. The restored Jesuit College. Holy Dormition Monastery on the banks of the Dnieper. Restored Church of Nativity, Kutein monastery. This is not a complete list of attractions that can be found in the city.
11.30-12.00 Transfer to Smolyany(28 km)
12.00-13.00 In Smolyany a rare for Western Europe concentration of unique monuments has remained. They are the remains of the Castle "Belyi Kovel"  and monumental construction of the Dominican church, founded in 1678.
Near the village Krapivno is the battlefield. At this point, in September 8, 1514 the troops of the Great Hetman Konstantyn Ostrogski  defeated the army of Vasily III, stopping the invasion of the lands of the Grand Duchy. A few kilometers from Krapivno in Dubrovno there is 200-year-old Bernardine Monastery.
13.00-14.00 Transfer to Belaya Tserkov' (65 km)
14.00-14.30 The church was built at the turn of 16-17 centuries and is one of the first Baroque monuments in the Belarus.
14.30-15.30 Transfer to Borisov (89 km)
15.30-17.00 Sightseeing tour "The city on the Berezina river".  You will visit the most modern stadium in Belarus - "Borisov Arena", which is home of the club "BATE" and the national team. Next,will see the modern part of Borisov and get acquainted with its ancient history. The city was founded in 1102 by prince of Polotsk Boris Vseslavich as a fortress of the Polotsk principality on the Berezina river.
You will see the old Borisov: Batteries - tête-de-pon, earthworks, built before the war in 1812 according to the project of a Russian engineer General Count Opperman. It is a unique monument of engineering of the end of the XIX century. You climb the bank, visit the observation deck, which has views of  Borisov and the Berezina River. Torgovaya Square, monuments of civil architecture of the XIX century, the Cathedral of the Resurrection (1874.), a synagogue (the beginning of XX century.), The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (the beginning of XIX century.)
17.00-17.30 Transfer to Zhodino (19km)
17.30-18.30 Sightseeing tour to Zhodino (arboretum, church of Our Lady of Fatima, St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, as well as plant BelAZ)
18.30-19.00 Transfer to the Mound of Glory
19.00-20.30 Visit to the Mound of Glory (18km from Minsk). This is a monument in honor of the liberators of Belarus. You can climb to the top of it,  see military equipment on the observation deck. The mound  is especially beautiful in the evening.
20.00-20.30 Return to Minsk.

Дополнительно оплачивается

• certified guide services (from 100 €);
• organization of transfer on a shuttle bus / car if necessary; 
  
• catering;
• souvenirs;
• entrance tickets to the museums, temples, cathedrals;