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An open invitation

Meet Minsk.

A river through the middle, avenues built for parades of light, and a library that glows all night. Come and see it.

Plan a perfect day Play Metro Minsk

  1. Blue hour

    The Upper Town on its hill

    Above the Svislach, the twin towers of the Holy Spirit Cathedral and the slim tower of the Town Hall catch the last light.

  2. Dusk

    Trinity Suburb, window by window

    Across the river, the steep roofs of Trinity Suburb's restored 19th-century streets light up one window at a time.

  3. Evening

    The Gates of Minsk

    Facing the railway station, two towers finished in 1953 frame the way into the city. Arrive by train and they are the first thing you see.

  4. Lights on

    Lamps along the avenue

    Independence Avenue runs about 15 km from the centre to the northeast. Watch the lamps come on, one after another.

  5. Night

    A diamond begins to glow

    Out along the avenue, the National Library's glass diamond turns into a screen made of light. Keep scrolling: further down, you can play with it.

Why come

Five reasons to come

  1. Pastel yellow and white houses with red tiled roofs in Trinity Suburb, lit by low sun above a grassy bank of the Svislach

    Photo Kirill Maltcev · Unsplash

    Two old towns face each other across the river.

    On the high bank, the Upper Town gathers a 17th-century cathedral, a rebuilt town hall and Freedom Square around its old market place. Across the Svislach, Trinity Suburb's restored 19th-century streets hold small museums, shops and cafés.

    Freedom Square Trinity Suburb

  2. A calm bend of the Svislach between willows and tall grass, with a footbridge in the distance

    Photo Evgeni Adutskevich · Unsplash

    A river you can follow for 25 km.

    A paved path runs along the Svislach right across the city, past Gorky Park, Victory Park and Lošycki Park. Walk a stretch, sit by the water, then walk a little more.

    Gorky Park Victory Park Lošycki Park

  3. Aerial view of the National Library's glass diamond surrounded by snow in soft winter light

    Photo Eugene Krasnaok · Unsplash

    A library that glows at night.

    The National Library is a 23-storey glass diamond whose facade of 4,646 LED fixtures turns into a giant screen after sunset. Until late in the evening, a glass lift takes you up to a deck more than 73 metres above the city.

    National Library of Belarus

  4. A plate of golden potato pancakes with sliced tomato and cucumber on a wooden table

    Photo Natalia Gusakova · Unsplash

    Draniki, and a market to graze.

    Start with draniki, crisp potato pancakes with sour cream, then try machanka for dipping or kalduny dumplings. Kamarouka, the city's main food market since 1979, and the cafés of Zybitskaya Street keep you fed all day.

    Kamarouka market Zybitskaya Street

  5. Warm lantern-like lamps on angular columns under the vaulted ceiling of a Minsk metro station

    Photo kiryl · Unsplash

    Metro stations like underground palaces.

    When the metro opened in 1984, its first riders said they felt they were in underground palaces, and every station still has a look of its own. Find folk ornament at Plošča Jakuba Kolasa, glass chandeliers at Park Čaliuskincaŭ and a steel sun at Jubiliejnaja plošča.

    Plošča Jakuba Kolasa Jubiliejnaja plošča

One day, start to finish

A perfect day

Old streets in the morning, a market and the river in the afternoon, the library's light at night. Times are only a suggestion: wander.

A quiet cobbled square in the Upper Town in low sun, with white baroque church towers and a pavilion of bronze figures

Photo Christina Radevich · Unsplash

Morning

The Upper Town and the river

  1. 09:00

    Freedom Square

    Start where the old market place has stood since the 16th century, on the high bank of the Svislach.

  2. 09:20

    Holy Spirit Cathedral

    Built from 1633 to 1642, its two towers are the Upper Town's best-known silhouette.

  3. 09:45

    Town Hall

    Pulled down in 1857 and rebuilt from 2002 to 2004 from old pictures, it stands on the square once more.

  4. 10:15

    Coffee on Zybitskaya Street

    Rebuilt in the 2010s in the old style, it is now the city's café and bar street.

  5. 11:00

    Trinity Suburb

    Cross the river to the left bank: 19th-century streets, restored from 1980 to 1985, with small museums, shops and cafés.

The Ferris wheel in Gorky Park, with a red Minsk sign at its hub, against a deep blue sky

Photo Christina Radevich · Unsplash

Afternoon

A market, a museum, a park

  1. 12:30

    Kamarouka market

    The city's main food market since 1979: graze on bread, cheese and smoked fish, and find the bronze horse and sparrow by the fountain.

  2. 14:30

    National Art Museum

    More than 30,000 works, from medieval Belarusian icons to Repin and Aivazovsky. It is closed on Tuesdays.

  3. 16:30

    Gorky Park

    Laid out in 1805 by the river: old lime trees, a Ferris wheel and a planetarium. Then follow the Svislach on foot.

Lit apartment towers along the water at blue hour, their lights reflected in long coloured streaks

Photo Sergey Strashevskiy · Unsplash

Evening

Along the avenue to the diamond

  1. 18:30

    Independence Avenue

    Stroll the grand 1950s stretch of the city's main street, about 15 km long from end to end.

  2. 19:30

    Line 1 to Uschod

    Ride the metro out along the avenue and get off at Uschod, right beside the library.

  3. 20:00

    The library's rooftop deck

    A glass lift climbs more than 73 metres to decks with the whole city below. The library lists it as open daily until 23:00: check before you go.

  4. After dark

    The light show

    Step back out onto the square and look up as the facade turns into a screen of light.

Play with the light

A library that glows all night

Tap the diamond to change the show, drag to turn it, or write a word across its facade.

The real building is a rhombicuboctahedron: 26 faces of glass, 23 storeys and about 74 metres tall, opened in 2006.

Its facade carries 4,646 colour-changing LED fixtures, so after sunset the whole building becomes a screen.

See it on the map

Stay a while

Before the trip, two ways to play

Game

Metro Minsk

Drive line 1 from Malinaŭka to Uručča. Stop the doors in the green zone and collect a postcard from each of the 15 stations.

Play

History

959 years in one scroll

From a battle on the Niamiha in 1067 to a city of two million: watch the map of Minsk grow as you scroll.

Read the story

Before you go

Many visitors can enter Belarus without a visa. Rules differ by country and change often: check Belarus's official visa-free page and your own government's travel advice before you book.

Belarus's official visa-free page