Open-Air Museums Near Minsk: We continue to explore Belarus. This time we offer you to touch the fragile heritage of wooden architecture – and discover open-air museums near Minsk. Here you can immerse yourself in history, learn new things about your country and famous fellow countrymen, and also walk a lot and admire the deep Belarusian landscapes. Each of these museums is worthy of a separate trip, so we do not recommend trying to go around them all in one go. Plus, museums usually close early, so be sure to check their opening times before leaving. And pleasant discoveries!
Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in the village of Ozertso
- Working hours: 10:00 – 17:00 (ticket office is open until 16:30)
- Weekends: Monday, Tuesday
- Website
Open-Air Museums Near Minsk
Perhaps the largest and most beautiful museum in Belarus is dedicated to folk wooden architecture. It is better to plan a whole day for his visit – the territory of the museum is huge, and most importantly – very interesting.
The exposition presents original buildings brought here from three regions of Belarus: the Dnieper, Poozerie, and the central part (Polesye and other regions are not yet in the museum, unfortunately). There are churches, a mill, and many huts and sheds – and all of them once regularly served people. The most curious thing is that all the buildings are not arranged in random order: they repeat the layout typical for their region. This is all very interesting to study.
Do not hesitate to talk to the “keepers” of each of the attractions – this way you can learn a lot of interesting things about the object: where it was previously, whom it served, in what condition it arrived in the Lake. Museum workers are very willing to communicate with visitors and tell all sorts of stories about their “wards”.
If you get hungry, there is a tavern on the territory of the museum – and once this wooden building also served as an inn! We promised that everything would be as authentic as possible.
Ethnographic complex “Mlyn” in Zaslavl
- Working hours: 9:00 – 17:00
- Day off: Monday
- Website
Open-Air Museums Near Minsk
The Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve in Zaslavl is a whole complex of expositions, which includes a museum in the very center of the city, on the Market Square, a bunker museum of the Minsk fortified region, the Children’s Museum of Mythology and Forests and, in fact, the Mlyn Ethnographic Complex. We will go to the last one (although if you come to Zaslavl for the whole day, visiting all the local museums will be an excellent cultural program).
The ethnographic complex in Zaslavl is small but very nice. It consists of four buildings: a smithy, a mill, a sviran (or simply a barn), and a house of importers – something like a hotel for those who brought grain to the mill for grinding. While the miller was making flour, the client could spend the night in a comfortable environment. To this day, the atmosphere in the house is such that at any moment guests who are waiting for their torment can enter here: there is a bed, the table is set.
All these buildings are original. The most valuable mill is considered here, which dates back to 1910 – it is more than 100 years old! At the same time, the mill is not simple, and the steam mill was a rather luxurious thing for Belarus in those years. And this is the only mill of its kind that has survived on the territory of our country.
Branch of the Yanka Kupala Museum “Vyazynka”
- Working hours: 10:00 – 17:00
- Day off: Monday
- Site
Open-Air Museums Near Minsk
Not only a museum but also an ideal stroll. It was in Vyazinka that the national poet of Belarus Yanka Kupala was born. The poet’s house was restored here in 1972. Now in the rooms where the poet and his family once lived, the interior of those times has been restored. To make everything look as authentic as possible, things and household items for the exposition were collected in the vicinity of Vyazinka itself.
On the territory of the museum, in addition to the hut, there is also a sviran (with another exposition), a Kanishka, an old oak tree, and a monument to Kupala by Azgur. In general, Vyazinka is a very picturesque place, where it is beautiful and blooming in spring, and lush summer, and golden autumn, and snow-white winter. A real place of power, where it is so pleasant to rush from the bustle of the city to be alone with yourself and your thoughts.
Farmstead Rakutevschina
- Working hours: 10:00 – 17:30 (the ticket office is open until 16:30)
- Weekends: Monday, Tuesday
- Website
Open-Air Museums Near Minsk
In Rakutevshchyna there is a very compact and cute museum of Maxim Bogdanovich. And he settled down in the farmstead of Pan Lychkovsky, the uncle of the Lutskevich brothers (those who published the newspaper “Nasha Niva”). What’s the connection? And here’s what: the Lutskevich brothers invited Maksim Bogdanovich to visit their uncle in Rakutevshchyna – and this was the first time the poet found himself in Belarus at a conscious age. During the two summer months of 1911, Bogdanovich wrote many poems here, the trip to his homeland became so inspiring for him. These works were included in the cycles “Old Belarus” and “Places”. The poems “At the Oars” and “Veranika” were immediately born.
The museum complex consists of a manor house, a tenant’s house, and a barn, which were restored in the 1990s. Inside there is an exposition telling about the life and work of the poet. The territory of the museum is very pleasant and well-groomed. And here we have already written what other interesting places are nearby if you want to make your trip around the area more detailed.
Read more about Museums in the world
