Parks & Squares

Summer in the city lacks the intensity of Minsk’s rival European capitals. The city is a truly peaceful place to be and to really appreciate it you have to spend an evening meandering, like the locals, through its parks and squares. In true Soviet style all parks actually have an address. I hope that pendants will forgive me for not including the street number of each location.

Gorky Park
Prospekt Nezavisimosti (Проспект Независимости )
Entrances near Victory Square (Ploshad Podedi) and the rear of the circus.
Downtown Minsk’s biggest green space is a great place to walk or just to sit and watch the locals. Officially a children’s park, it is has been ‘dry’ for a few years now so smoking and drinking alcohol is forbidden. Here you’ll find all manner of traditional fairground attractions including a big wheel which offers stunning views of the city. It’s also the home of the Yunost Minsk ice-hockey team whose stadium is in the south-east corner. Despite these attractions it still remains a very peaceful place. There are three cafés dotted around the park and there is also a square by the main entrance near Victory Square that hosts free concerts and other events throughout the summer.

Yanki Kupala Park
Prospekt Nezavisimosti (Проспект Независимости )
Just across Prospekt Nezavisimosti from Gorky Park, this wooded area contains a statue and a museum dedicated to the poet from whom it takes its name. Snaking the bank of the river Svisloch, there are pedalos for hire in the summer. There are no cafes or other attractions here, which makes it one of the calmest places in the city centre.

Park Chelyuskintsev
Prospekt Nezavisimosti (Проспект Независимости )
Etnrances on Prospekt Nezavismosti by the metro station with the same name.
Minsk’s party park is where groups of boys, girls and lovers come to promenade throughout the summer months. There are fairground rides and lots of summer cafes, many of them offering shashlik for around 5,000br per 100 grams. The atmosphere along the main thoroughfare in the evenings is vibrant but always relaxed. Away from the main drag the park is a little more peaceful and there are plenty of quiet benches upon which there always seems to be a courting couple. There is a small huddle of tables where groups of old men gather throughout the year to play chess and draughts whatever the temperature. They’ll happily take you on and they’ll probably beat you. In recent years the park has been enclosed with a fence, a rather grand affair, but the huge iron gates stay open all night long. Sadly the cafés now close at 9pm.

Victory Park & Komsomol Lake
The vast open space North-West of the centre leads you to a man made lake named after the members of Komsomol, the Soviet youth orgnisation, whose members landscaped the area. If you approach it from the Minsk hero city monument on Prospekt Pobediteley you’ll see a few surviving wooden cottages along the way. A leisurely walk around the lake, dotted with small islands, will take an hour or two. On your way you’ll pass through small wooded areas where you’ll quite possibly be the only soul and larger open areas full of sunbathers, boys playing volleyball and occasionally grazing cattle. You may emerge from the tranquillity of the woodland and the water a little bewildered when you recall that all the time you’ve been so close to the city centre.

Mikhailovski Square
This busy little wooded square near the railway station and the Hotel Minsk always seems to be populated with chattering students and sleeping drunks. Since 2000 it has also attracted three permenant residents, sculptures by Vladimir Zhbanov; ‘Guy asking for a light’, ‘Girl with Umbrella’ and ‘Unknown Lady’. Each has its own story but the most interesting surrounds the guy asking for a light. It’s modelled on fellow artist Vladimir Golynski who claimed that if the statue wasn’t accepted by the people of Minsk he’d have it put on his grave instead. As it turned out Golynski died before the work was completed and the statue stands both as a work of art and a tribute to the artist, who is now one of Minsk’s most familiar faces.

Botanical Garden
Prospekt Nezavisimosti (Проспект Независимости) next to Park Chelyuskintsev
10:00-18:00 daily from 1 May – 31 October (dates may vary depending on the weather)
Admission 2,000br
There’s a token charge to enter the Botanical Garden, which is run by the nearby Academy of Sciences. It’s a lovely place to spend a few hours, but it’s not as peaceful as some would have you believe due to the constant noise from the amusements in Park Cheluskintsev next door. At the far end, through the woods, is a small lake. There is now a café on the site, run by the same company that own the Air Grip café. In Winter there is a Orangery, which you enter from the side of the site.

Central Square
Prospekt Nezavisimosti (Проспект Независимости) Opposite Ploshad Oktyabrskaya
This is my favourite place to sit and watch the world go by. Also known as Alexandrausky Park, it has been here since 1872. There are always people gathered around Minsk’s oldest public fountain, on their own or in small groups, drinking beer or reading a book.  In the corner of the park, near the Yanka Kupali theatre there is an unusually attractive public toilet, which has its own little history. According to local legend a local architect designed a house for a wealthy man who then refused to pay him in full. As revenge, the architect used those same plans to design a public toilet in what was then Minsks’ most fashionable park.

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