Mir Castle

Mir Castle is one of the priceless historical monuments in Belarus. This beautiful royal palace is situated in the small town of Mir, of Belarus in the Hrodna region, being situated about 85 kilometers to the southwest of Minsk. Mir Castle was built not far, about 30 miles northwest of another world landmark – The Nesvizh Castle.

The beautiful building of the palace is painted in autumn brown and pink colors, it was built in 16th century by the Prince and originally its facade is distinguished by its Gothic style. A little later the palace passed into the possession of the family Radzivil who decide to add to the Gothic Renaissance architecture. They decided to move along the east giving the north wall of the castle another impressive three storey tower.

The royal Mir Castle was built in a rectangular form as every corner has a tower erected. Besides the four towers, in the central part, the west wall is built one that which is associated with a floating bridge. Each of the towers differs from the others, probably because all were modeled separately at different stages of the construction. Today you can see different, mostly transparent embrasures and rich decorations.

The Mir Castle has a moat built around it; once it was completed they built the defensive wall with fortifications. It is about 75 meters long, and reaches a height of 13 m. The protective gear, however, always failed to protect the Mir Castle, as a result of which has been damaged several times. The largest damage the Mir Castle suffered was during the Napoleonic wars.

In the 19th century reconstruction of the area around the palace has turned the surrounding land in a beautiful park. Today the Belarusian historical monument Mir has been declared part of a world heritage by UNESCO. In recent years one of the towers of the castle Mir houses a museum, which in set exposures folk costumes and weapons.