According to TOPB2BWEBSITES, Vitebsk is one of the oldest cities in Belarus, the center of the Vitebsk region. It is located 277 km northeast of Minsk. The first mentions of Vitebsk are found in the annals of 974. The legend says that it was founded by Princess Olga of Kyiv. Vitebsk was a major center on the way “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, in the 17th century it served as a refuge for the Old Believers who fled from Moscow, and during the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 became the scene of many important battles.
The center of the historical part of the city is Millennium Square. It is located on the left bank of the Western Dvina River. Church of the Annunciation stands on the square early 12th century. It is believed that it was also founded by Princess Olga. According to legend, Alexander Nevsky was married in the Church of the Annunciation. In 1962 the church was blown up, in 1992 it was rebuilt. Many buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries have been preserved in Vitebsk. These are the Holy Intercession Cathedral of 1760, the Assumption Church of 1858, the Mitrofanovskaya Church of 1847, the Church of St. Barbara of 1885, the governor’s palace of the 18th century and the Jesuit Collegium of the 18th century. The old City Hall (1775) now houses the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. The collections that laid the foundation for the museum began to take shape at the end of the 19th century. Now more than 200 thousand exhibits are stored here. Museum collections include archaeological finds, copies of old handwritten and printed books, ancient weapons, handicrafts, materials on the history of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, numismatics collections, as well as collections of paintings and drawings. The City Art Museum is under the jurisdiction of the local history museum., which has more than 7 thousand exhibits and is famous for its collection of European art of the 18th-20th centuries and the collection of works by the teacher Marc Chagall – Yu.M. Pan. Of the museums under their care, the Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art, the Literary Museum, the Museum of Private Collections and the Museum of the Memory of Patriots of Vitebsk Region are also of interest. Sights of the present are presented in Vitebsk by a memorial to Soviet soldiers who liberated the city in 1944, on Victory Square, the Afanasievskaya Church of 1989, the St. 1992-1998).
Vitebsk and its picturesque surroundings have always attracted artists, writers and composers. And today the city is one of the main cultural centers of Belarus. Every summer, the festival of arts “Slavianski Bazaar” takes place here. Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk, in 1919 he created the School of Arts here. In 1992, a monument was erected in the city for the artist’s birthday. It stands on Pokrovskaya Street, which Marc Chagall liked so much. At the end of the 19th century, the great Russian artist Ilya Repin lived in the Zdravnevo estate 15 km from Vitebsk. In 1988, a branch of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore was opened in the estate – the museum-estate of I.E. Repin “Healthy”. The museum complex consists of a manor house, where the main memorial expositions are located, a manager’s house with office space and an exhibition hall, and a restored cellar. Gorodok is located 30 km northwest of Vitebsk.. In the first half of the 17th century, a castle was built on the site of the modern city, the ruins of which have survived to this day. The author of the poem “Taras on Parnassus” Konstantin Verenitsyn was born in the vicinity of Gorodok. The local history museum is interesting in the city with collections of items found during archaeological excavations in the region, and materials about the history of the region and the Great Patriotic War. The town is surrounded by lakes, rivers and forests, where you can relax from the bustle of the city. Another picturesque place in the Vitebsk region, suitable for a relaxing outdoor recreation, is the outskirts of the city of Shumilino, known as the “city of nightingales”. In the Shumilinsky district there is the largest boulder brought by the glacier to the territory of Belarus. It is 11 m long, 5.6 m wide, and 2.8 m high. The boulder was declared a geological monument of nature.
