What is a museum in our opinion? Exhibits behind glass, solemn silence in the rooms, a guide who knows everything in the world. But there are other museums where, for example, visitors faint from horror or learn where to find a sample pact with the devil. Do you think such places are located somewhere in other countries? Not at all. Having set the goal of finding the most unusual Belarusian museums, we ourselves did not expect to find so many “treasures”. So, we present to your attention the TOP 15 most unusual museums in Belarus.
We thought for a long time about what order to place them in. But each museum is so unique that organizing them according to any criteria turned out to be an impossible task. Therefore, we based geographical factor: from the capital to the regions. And the first place where we will go will be - no less than - the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus.
History exhibition money circulation National Bank of the Republic of Belarus and the Munzkabinet of the Faculty of History of BSU.
The unusualness of the exhibition on the history of monetary circulation of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus begins right from the threshold. During the Soviet era, all the republic's cash was kept in the room where it was located. To get here, you need to open the huge doors by turning two keys at the same time. In the museum today you can find out what the first coins on the territory of Belarus were, what the “Amber Road” was and where it passed, how a denarius differs from a dirham, and what Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who was part of the embassy of the Baghdad caliph, wrote in his diary in the 10th century , about our ancestors.
Meeting of the Romans with local population. Diorama
Among other things, here are Byzantine coins of the 10th-11th centuries, very rare in Belarus, a leather wallet in which 127 coins of the Golden Horde of the late 14th - early 15th centuries were discovered, numismatic complexes of Prague groschen, Western European thalers (patagons of the Spanish Netherlands; Levendaalders ( lionfish), Riksdaalder (sword) of the Northern Netherlands; Spanish reals, etc.).
Museum showcase. Monetary circulation during the period of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Do you know how the Scottish double penny became the first copper coin on Belarusian lands? What is a copper solid and what disservice did it provide? Italian Titus Livius Boratini of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? Or how many coins has the Brest Mint minted since its opening on December 4, 1665? The museum will not only give you detailed answers to all these questions, but will also show you what the above coins looked like. Viewing the exhibition further, visitors are transported to XIX century Among the specimens from this period, the treasure found in a champagne bottle is of particular interest. It consists of 80 large silver coins of Russia and Prussia from the period of the late XVIII - first half of the 19th century century. Probably some dashing hussar, having hit the jackpot in a game of cards, decided to hide his unexpected wealth!
"Hussar" treasure
However, there are no less interesting items here. For example, a copper vessel in which, in the first years of Soviet power, someone hid coins, banknotes, jewelry interspersed with coins, and religious objects of the period XIX - early XX centuries.
Copper vessel and its "treasures"
Banknotes of the early twentieth century
Here visitors will see what the coins of the Soviet period looked like, gold chervonets of 1923, rubles, commemorative coins and, finally, coins of the Republic of Belarus issued from 1996 to the present. Measured bars with the abbreviation of the National Bank - silver, gold and platinum - also attract attention.
Unfortunately, due to renovations, the Numismatic Museum of the National Bank is closed to the public. The museum will be ready to receive visitors no earlier than in a year. But you can see many coins and find out answers to questions in another place, no less interesting museum- a classic münzkabinet*, which is located on the top floor of the building of the history department of BSU.
General form museum exhibition
Here, visitors will be happy to be told not only about the development of monetary circulation on the territory of Belarus, but also about where and how to properly look for treasure, why a hanged man’s tooth and tear-grass can be useful in this matter, how to correctly conclude a pact with the devil... On display in the museum presented coins and paper money from various periods, rare treasures of real and counterfeit coins - you can talk about all this for hours. One of the most famous Belarusian treasures is kept within the walls of the museum - the so-called Vishchinsky treasure. It also contains silver ingots - hryvnia - means of payment. XI I centuries, and the most beautiful women's jewelry: silver beads, pendants, earrings with images of birds on the shields, a bracelet with amazing ornaments and much more. In addition to the numismatic collection, the museum has a hall dedicated to Belarusian archeology and ethnography, and a hall of ancient sculptures.
Coin treasure from the 1620s, found near Logoisk
Women's jewelry from the Vishchinsky treasure of the end XII - early XIII centuries
This pot from a burial mound contains human ashes
Museum address: Minsk, st. Krasnoarmeyskaya, 6
Working hours: from 9.00 to 18.00 (except Saturday and Sunday)
Admission ticket:free, only for organized groups by appointment
Contact phone numbers: (8-017) 227-42-44
*Münzkabinett (German: Münzkabinett) is a common name in Germany for scientifically systematized collections of coins, medals, paper money and other objects of interest to numismatists (coin stamps, toolscoinage, seals, stamps, securities, etc.), which are stored and studied by numismatists.
To be continued
Museums of Minsk, which not every resident of the capital knows about, museums of the city, whose idea and exhibition surprises, fascinates, makes you smile, museums of the capital, which are yet to be included in guidebooks to Minsk as the most popular and interesting. During your visit, it will be useful to have on hand both a list of museums that you should definitely visit in Minsk, as well as museums that can safely be called unusual. After all, who knows, suddenly between matches, no, no, and even a desire to visit one or two museums in Minsk will appear..
It is also a museum open air, which is open around the clock, without lunch and on weekends, and a natural monument of republican significance, and a huge map of Belarus in stone. More than 2130 stones and boulders from all over Belarus are in this museum. Some of them are greetings from our glacial past, some are sacrificial stones, some are gravestones, there are also simply interestingly shaped exhibits. It’s worth visiting this place, especially since a trip to this museum can easily be turned into an outdoor picnic.
Address of the Stone Museum in Minsk: Uruchye, Shugaev and Academician Kuprevich streets
Working hours: around the clock
Museum of the History of Belarusian Cinema in Minsk
In this museum you can not only learn everything about Belarusian cinema, the history of Belarusian cinema and the best Belarusian films of all types and genres, but also watch a Belarusian film, some retrospective or retro program from the museum’s film and video fund. The cinema museum is open every day except Sunday. It is very easy to find - it is located behind the Red Church.
Address of the Cinema Museum in Minsk: Sverdlova st., 4
Working hours: Mon - Sat: from 10:00 to 17:30, ticket office until 17:00 (Wed, Fri until 18:30)
To the delight of beer culture lovers, the Alivaria Brewery Beer Museum welcomes guests in Minsk. And he not only accepts, but also conducts entire training. By appointment, everyone can learn the philosophy of brewing and the culture of drinking the finished product at the Beer Academy at the museum. Even .
Address of the Beer Museum in Minsk: Kiseleva st., 30
Working hours: Mon - Tue: closed, Wed - Sun: from 14:00 to 16:00 and from 18:00 to 20:00
Great Soviet sculptor Z.I.Azgur is one of those who sculpted the face of Minsk in post-war years: a monument to Yakub Kolos on the square of the same name, participation in the creation of the Victory Monument, monuments to Gritsevets, Dzerzhinsky, Lenin... Copies of his works are in the museum. The memorial museum itself is located in a building that was the sculptor’s workshop for 11 years. The museum has been operating since 2000, but few people know about it.
The most money
What did the first coins look like on the territory of Belarus? What is the “Amber Route” and where did it take place? You can learn about this and much more by visiting the exhibition of the National Bank, which also includes Byzantine coins of the 10th-11th centuries, rare in Belarus, a leather wallet with 127 coins of the Golden Horde of the late 14th - early 15th centuries, numismatic complexes of Prague groschen, Western European thalers, Spanish reals, etc. Among the specimens of the 19th century, the treasure found in a champagne bottle is of particular interest. It consists of 80 large silver coins of Russia and Prussia from the late 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. As a bonus - coins of the Soviet period, gold chervonets of 1923, rubles, commemorative coins and coins of the Republic of Belarus issued from 1996 to the present day, silver, gold and platinum bars with the abbreviation of the National Bank.
First private
The love of collecting is in the blood of many Belarusians. There are officially 14 private museums in the country. Since 2011, in accordance with the Presidential Decree, they have equal rights with state ones in terms of taxation. The Ministry of Culture believes that, thanks to the participation of private business, new art galleries, local history museums, new regional museums and enterprise museums will appear. As an example for potential investors, one can cite the unique ethnographic complex “Dudutki”, which is located 50 km south of the city of Minsk. Founded in 1993, the first private museum became a real business card countries where ordinary Belarusians first invite their dearest guests and state officials bring high government organizations.
The most feminine
The Belarusian village of Bezdezh in the Drogichinsky district of the Brest region has long been famous for its beauties and needlewomen throughout the entire district. A homeless woman based on the patterns on her apron (detail national costume, in which they walked until the 80s of the twentieth century) could be recognized half a kilometer away. Each village resident had at least 12 aprons, made with her own hands from home-woven fabric and embroidered with colored (soot-dyed, onion skins, oak bark and alder cones) threads.
Now a unique collection of authentic patterns folk art kept in the Bezdezhsky Apron Museum. The oldest apron on display is over 130 years old.
The most monographic
Two cities so far can boast of an operating monographic museum of one sculptor - Paris and Minsk.
Workshop building folk artist USSR and BSSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, full member of the USSR Academy of Arts Zaire Azgur on Traktornaya Street (now it bears the name of the sculptor himself) in the center of the Belarusian capital was built by order of Pyotr Masherov in 1984. The sculptor worked within its walls for 11 years. After Azgur’s death, in 2000, a museum was located here, in three halls of which you can get acquainted with the life and work of the famous Belarusian sculptor. The exhibition in the sculpture hall alone includes about 300 statues and busts of leaders, scientists, partisans, writers, musicians, artists, philosophers, created by the master since 1942... In total, the museum has about 4 thousand exhibits.
The Azgur Museum is also interesting because the most striking photo sessions and unusual performances take place here.
The most childish
Children's Museum the city of Polotsk is the only one in Belarus where the exhibits are not allowed, but must be touched and played with. It was opened in 2004 and is part of the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve. This is the territory of children's fantasy: within the walls of the museum, little visitors can get acquainted with a variety of objects (clocks, bells, cameras, samovars, etc.), learn the history of their invention and improvement, understand that man is essentially a creator, creator, not a destroyer. The exhibition is represented by 8 collections, which includes more than 1000 amazing items. In the computer room of the Children's Museum you can play games that develop logical thinking, memory, attention, imagination.
The most oceanic
It would seem that Belarus is a land country. But every Belarusian who is not indifferent to sea romance can satisfy his interest in the underwater depths at the Open Ocean cultural and educational center. Touch the remains of the Kursk submarine, see the inhabitants of the world's five oceans, and see how a small catfish and adult piranhas coexist in one aquarium.
Five halls are dedicated to the five oceans of the Earth. Each with its own underwater inhabitants, which the center’s specialists consider their pets. In the center there is a workshop, a library, a small video room with an excellent collection, and a special aquarium computer PROFILUX, which can even simulate thunderstorms, ebbs and flows in the aquarium, and control all kinds of sea currents.
Most militarized
The historical and cultural complex “Stalin Line” is located near the village of Loshany, Minsk region, 6 km from Zaslavl in the direction of Molodechno. This grandiose fortification ensemble represents military history museum open air.
This is both a memorial in honor of the defenders of the Motherland and a museum of the first days of the Great Patriotic War. The museum's exposition consists of bunkers in which the wartime situation has been restored, trenches and communication passages with cells for machine guns and dugouts. All this was created according to pre-war drawings. In addition, one of the most complete collections of small arms, artillery, tanks, and aviation of the Soviet Army is collected here.
The most athletic
The Museum of Olympic Glory was created on July 6, 2006 on the basis of the State cultural and educational institution "Museum physical culture and Sports of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus".
The museum has two exhibition halls. The first - “Revival of the Olympic Idea” - introduces visitors to the history of the development of the international Olympic movement, the activities of international sports federations sports, the role of the International Olympic Committee in the revival of the modern Olympic Games, as well as the work of the International Olympic Academy, the IOC Museum in Lausanne and the popular Fair Play movement.
The second exhibition hall - “Belarus: equal among equals” - is dedicated to the achievements of Belarusian athletes at summer and winter Olympic Games, talks about the history and development of physical culture and sports in the republic. One of the main places in the exhibition is given to the role of the National Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus in modern history countries.
Most theatrical
State Museum of the History of Theater and musical culture The Republic of Belarus was created on March 23, 1990.
The museum's exhibits comprise 10 collections, including: musical instruments, music manuscripts, documentary materials (personal documents, director's developments, montages of performances, texts of roles with notes of performers), reproductions and negatives, posters and programs, sound recordings, rare printed publications and others.
Available 24 hours a day
The only museum in the country that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the Museum of Boulders, is located in the park area of the Belarusian capital. The exhibition of the museum, which was created in Minsk in 1985, contains more than 2,130 stones from all over Belarus. There are boulders brought to Belarusian land glaciers, there are also sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. And also a stone that served in ancient times as the center of a pagan temple. According to experts, in terms of its scale (occupies an area of 6.5 hectares) and landscape design (the stones are laid out in the form of a map of the country), the museum of boulders has no analogues in Europe.
