The rout: Minsk – Mieračowščyna  – Kosava – Ružany – Slonim – Albiercin - Minsk.

Length: 500 km.

Duration: 12 hours.

Long time ago there lived gentry in Belarus. They used to fight, pass the laws, feast, betray and accomplish feats. In free from politics time they built residences. Minor gentry built modest wooden estates with straw roofs.  Powerful gentry built gorgeous baroque palaces with gardens and parks. Now there are almost no gentry in Belarus and the country where they used to live also not exist. However their family estates and palaces remained. Most of them stay in ruins, some are totally destroyed but nevertheless some are preserved in a good condition. And for sure all of them more or less are worth visiting. You will enjoy the beautiful places, imagine yourself in those old days and finally understand who they were, the “citizens of the Republic of Two Nations”.

Near little town Kosava  one can find tract Merechevshina. Two different buildings are situated there one facing another. One of them is a small wooden house; the other is big stone palace. The house is an estate of not very rich gentry clan Kostiushko. In this house in cold winter of 1746 the future hero of Poland, America, Belarus and Lithuania Andrei Tadeush Bonaventura Kostiushko was born. The pseudo gothic palace that towers above the neighborhood only in a hundred-meter distance from the Kostiushkoes’ estate is the residence of rich gentry clan Pusloŭski. They turned from the common gentry into one of the most powerful landlords in Belarus in a secret way in the beginning of ХІХ century. The stories of both clans are interesting and breathtaking and both buildings are worth the most expensive camera lens.

30 kilometers from Kosovo, in Ružany village we will see one more residence. What’s more, it belonged neither to poor gentry nor even to a rich clan. It was the property of the Sapiehas, one of the richest magnate clans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Although the palace now lies in ruins it gives us a complete picture of mightiness and richness of this ancient clan. The Sapiehas once lacked only a couple of steps to become the owners of nearly whole territory of Belarus. Now these majestic ruins of baroque palace of XVIII century give us a nice chance to know about the history of this clan a bit more than we have learned in school. The museum that is situated in recently restored wing of the palace is waiting for visitors.

Slonim, which is now the administrative center of this region, hides in its nooks the memory of former greatness of powerful clan Aginsky. In XVIII century this clan turned the small town into one of the European cultural centers.

Faubourg Albercin in Slonim finishes our tour. One more estate of clan Pusloŭsky has remained here. Maybe it is not as pompous as one in Kosava, but it is almost not ruined. The estate is circled by the Ancient Park with the lake in the outskirts.

Pusloŭski, Kasciuška, Sapera. Each of these surnames has left here in Belarus its graves, churches, palaces, parks and mysteries. Some of them we will try to resolve all together during our tour.