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Castles and Sights of of Belarus

Summary: When on a working week in Minsk we read up on Belorussian history and visited Mir castle, 90 km southwest of Minsk. We took our information from Bradt's Belarus travel guide by Nigel Roberts, which provides detailed knowledge in an entertaining way.

Mir is one of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Belarus, a powerful building "overlooking a serene lake and built largely of stone and red brick."

Walls and towers "first appeared in the 1520s, followed by the construction of the Renaissance palace itself in the late 16th and early 17th centuries".

Extensive renovation of the castle after WW2 brought an impressive result. Even the adjacent town of Mir itself is worth a visit and is praised as an example of cosmopolitan living and religious tolerance.

This trip can easily be combined with sightseeing at nearby Nesvish (also spelled Nasvish). Alternatively one could start with Nesvish, see Mir Castle and proceed westward to Grodno via Novogrudok. Grodno is a little interesting town with a church dating back to the 12th century.

We need to come back!

The hike: The following is a short stroll around the lake at Mir castle. No GPS required, though we wanted to put Belarus on the map!

Maximum altitude:	173 meter
Minimum altitude:	163 meter
Cumulative height:	10  meter
Cumulative length:	1.6 kilometer roundtrip
Difficulty	easy
Time:	30 minutes
Date of this record	September 2014
Download GPS info:	Mir Castle walk

General location and approach: Nesvish, Mir and Grodno can easily be reached by car.

Other Information: Entrance formailities to Belarus seem to be getting easier, but more expensive. For a private visa we had to bay 190 Euro, so better get yourself invited to something official. In contrast car rental was easy.

GPS and trailmaps: The map and trailinformation is generated by , based on GPS information collected from the actual hike. Waypoints can be downloaded to a GPS device from Wikiloc. If necessary, use GPSBabel to convert GPS data to different formats. For more hike descriptions by Palmtreetreeproduction, browse this website or visit Wikiloc and search for "Palmtreeproduction". You may also find nearby trails from other authors.

Google Earth: You may also view the trail in 3D by clicking "view in Google Earth" when on Wikiloc. You need to have Google Earth installed on your computer.