Nature

 

There are more than 20000 rivers and more than 10000 lakes in Belarus. The biggest lake is Naroch (79,6 sq. km.). Forests take one third of the territory; swamps take 13% of the territory of the Republic and are of significant climatic and hydrologic importance. National parks, reserves, monuments of nature are created in Belarus to preserve and increase the number of rare and disappearing species of flora and fauna, to organize the monitoring of the nature changes. The territory to preserve is about 7% of the whole territory of the Republic.

The biggest parks are: National parks “Belovezhskaya poushcha”, “Braslavskiye Oziora”, “Pripiatsky”, “Narochansky”; Berezina biosphere and Polesye radiation-ecological reserve and others. The last years ecological tourism develops successfully here. Hunting is organized in experimental hunting forestries attached to reserves and National parks.

 

 

 

Climate

 

The climate of Belarus is temperate-continental with mild and damp winter and warm summer. The warmest period is May-September, the average monthly temperature in this period is about +13—+19 ?C. The warmest month is July, the coldest one is January.

The average temperature in Minsk

January—-6; February—-3; March—+1; April—+8; May—+13; June—+17; July—+18; August—+17; September—+14; October—+7; November—+1; December—-1

 

Clothes

In summer it is recommended to wear light clothes made of natural cloth. In autumn it is recommended to wear jackets, cloaks, umbrellas are also necessary. In winter when it’s freezing and snowing we wear fur coats, sheepskin coats and warm shoes.

Money

National currency is Belarusian rouble. We have only paper bonds of the value of 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 5000, 10000, 20000 and 50000 roubles.

 

Time

EET (UTC+2) {GMT +2} Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)

Religions

The Republic of Belarus is a multiconfession country. Today there are 26 confessions (15 Protestant confessions). The most numerous are: Orthodox (1224 communities), Catholic (432 communities), Christian confession of the evangelist believe (491 communities), evangelic confession of Christian-Baptists (270 communities). There are also old believers (35 communities), Mussulmans (27 communities), Israelites (25 communities), Greeks-Catholics (14 communities), Lutherans (17 communities), Mormons, Krishnas and representatives of other confessions.

The traditional religions are: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism, Judaism, and Islam. 50% of the population is believers: among them 80% of Orthodox, 14% of Catholics and 2% of Protestants. Today there are 983 churches, 135 are under construction, and 347 Catholic churches, 38 are under construction.

 

 

Famous Natives

Belarus offered many famous persons to the world. They became famous far from their homeland and thereby glorified Belarus. Kazimir Semionovich – inventor of the step rocket; Jakoub Narkevich-Iodka – inventor of the electrography and of the wireless transmission of signals; Ignaty Domeyko – national hero of Chili, explorer of its national resources; German Minskovsky – famous German mathematician and physicist, who proved the unity of vertebrates and invertebrates; Benedict Doubovsky, who described for the first time the fauna of Baikal, Amur and Kamchatka, Ian Chersky – geologist, explorer of eastern Syberia in honor of whom the mountain chain (Mountain ridge of Chersky) is named; Zigmund Mineyka – national hero of Greece, participant of the fight against Turkish conquerors; Nicolay Soudzilovsky – president of the senate of Hawaii isles; Lev Artsimovich – great scientist in the sphere of control over nuclear fusion; Alexander Chizhevsky – foundator of the helium biology; Alexander Malinovsky – founded the base of cybernetics. Engineers-builders of ports Riga and Krondshtadt Ian Baginsky and Iosif Zaretsky, creator of jet-propelled fighters and of the famous design office Pavel Souhoy are from Belarus. The famous mathematician Sophia Kovalevskaya descends from Belarusian family Korvin-Krukovskye.

Belarus is the homeland of the foundator of Polish romantic poetry Adam Mitskevich, of the national hero of the USA Tadeush Kostushko and of the Israeli Prime-minister Shimon Peres.

Mark Shagal loved Vitebsk till the end of his life and glorified it in his paintings. Our compatriots are: the first printer Frantishek Skorina who printed the first book in Belarusian in 1517; the spiritual enlightener Ephrasinia Polotskaya, who lived in the 12th century; Belarusian and Russian writer, enlightener, philosopher of the 17th century Simeon Polotsky; composer Michail Kleophas Oginsky.

The names of the classics of Belarusian literature Yanka Koupala and Yakoub Kolas are known all over the world.

 

 

Architecture

 

Different spheres of Belarusian art and first of all architecture, were connected not only with Russian art but also with Eastern Europe art and with Western Medieval art. This is one of the peculiarities of Belarusian architecture.

During centuries architects engineers, artists of different nationalities (Italians, Flamands, French, Germans, Belgians, Poles, Lithuanians, Russians) worked here. In one’s turn Belarusians including builders, masters of applied art became famous working in Russia and in many States of Western Europe. Before the 9th century monumental architecture was in the initial stage of the development and was represented by burial mounds and pagan temples.

The 9th – 11th centuries are characterized by the development of feudal relations, introducing the Christianity, and the flowering of all spheres of art. Principal’s mansions, churches and cloisters appeared in the period when the foundations of monumental stone architecture were laid down. Some appanage principalities appeared in Belarus in the 12th – 13th centuries. Monuments of this period are: Spass –Ephrasinia cathedral in Polotsk (12th c.), Blagoveshchenskaya church in Vitebsk (12th c.), Borisoglebskaya or Kalozhskaya church in Grodno (12th c.), Belaya Vezha in Kamenets (13th c.). These monuments are among the best monuments of Ancient Russia.

Frequent wars on the territory of Belarus had a significant influence on the development of town planning and architecture. The buildings of developed town fortifications, fortresses, castles and defensive churches were of great importance. Many towns were encircled by walls and towers forming a developed defensive system (Polotsk, Vitebsk etc.). In the most cases fortifications were wooden but there were walls and towers made partially or wholly of stone. Cloisters also were a part of town fortifications (Slonim, Nesvizh). The castles were built on the height (before the 15th c.) as well as on the low place, encircled by walls and towers (since the 16th c.). The first group includes castles in Grodno, Novogroudok; the second includes castles in Mir, Krevo, and Golshany.

Many castles of the 14th – 16th centuries have traits of Gothic architecture: original masonry, floors which look like lancet cross-vaulting or vaults with ribs, high windows and doors with lancet contours.

The defensive architecture is mostly represented by churches in Synkovichy (15th c.) and Mourovanka (the beginning of the 16th c.). They are characterized by compact and massive size with high roof and two or four corner towers with gun-slots.

In the 16th century Humanism and Reformation ideas began to penetrate into the territory of Belarus and brought the consolidation of art principles of Renaissance. The elements of Renaissance (Smorgon) and then the elements of baroque (Nesvizh) penetrate into architecture.

The main art tendency in the architecture of the 17th century was baroque. The architecture of early Catholic churches is in close connection with the influence of the Italian art school, but in the second half of the 17th century the monuments with local art traits appear.

Monuments of baroque are the most numerous and the most interesting objects of the architectural heritage of Belarus. These are palace ensembles in Nesvizh, Golshany, Rouzhany, churches in Grodno, Zhirovichy, Mogilev, Slonim etc.

Since the second half of the 18th century classicism, which finaly became consolidated in the end of the 18th century, supplant baroque. The buildings are characterized by the simplification of lines, sizes, details, simple but refined forms peculiar to the architecture of baroque appear. The outstanding monuments of classicism in Belarus are palaces in Gomel, Zhirovichy, Snov, the cathedral of Iosif in Mogilev, the cathedral of Piotr and Pavel in Gomel etc.

The second half of the 19th century – the beginning of the 20th century were a turning point in the history of Belarusian architecture. It was characterized by changes of principles in the building technique, by struggle and changing of art styles.

These are the main stages of the pre-revolutionary Belarusian architecture development. The most ancient buildings in Polotsk, Vitebsk and Grodno, monumental fortresses and castles in Novogroudok, Lida, Krevo and Mir, majestic and impregnable churches-fortresses in Synkovichy and Mourovanka, picturesque wooden churches in Polesye, original cathedrals in Mogilev, splendid palaces in Rouzhany and Gomel are the works of high artistic and architectural mastery.