2 Krasnoarmeyskaya Street, Mir, Belarus
Daily: 10.00am - 6.00pm
Mir Castle, described as an outstanding example of 16th century fortification art, is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Belarus. A successful blend of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles, the castle was initially constructed in the 1520s under the order of Duke Ilinich.
When the Ilinich dynasty ended in 1568, Mikolaj Radziwill came into the possession of the castle. The property has changed hands a few times, being refitted along the way to its present form.
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| Welcome to the castle compound that was covered with snow~ |
The first thing that my BFF and I did upon entering the compound was to walk along the perimeter of the beautiful castle.
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| The castle is 164 m above sea level. |
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| I thought that was a mini rock climbing wall. |
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| The castle belonged to the territory of Poland from 1921 to 1939. |
The castle suffered heavy damages during the Battle of Mir in 1812. Besides that, when German forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, they used to round up the local Jewish population. Between 1944 and 1956, it was used as a housing facility, causing inevitable damages to the interior.
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| The castle made it to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in December 2000. |
To our disappointment, the castle was closed. Despite not being able to see the interior with our own eyes, we made the most out of our very short adventure in Mir. Anyway, the admission fee for an adult is BYR 12.00 (~S$7.85) on weekdays and on BYR 14.00 (~S$9.15) on weekends.
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| Posing next to a well~ |
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| The castle has witnessed "a long history of political and cultural confrontation and coalescence". |
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| Birds, glorious birds~ |
To the south of the castle is an artificial lake.
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| Let's see the castle from across the lake. |
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| I wonder if that means swimming or fishing is prohibited? |
When we walked out from another gate, we saw maps and some information on the castle. Everything is written in Russian or Belarusian though.
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| The castle has got hotel rooms, a restaurant and a conference hall. |
I wonder if the castle is always closed during winter. Perhaps you may want to ask someone from your place of accommodation to give the office a call before you go to make sure that it's open.
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