Minsk, Marx, Chagall and Belorussia

When I think of Minsk and Belorussia I see Chagall's visions of idyllic flowers and calm cows and bedecked brides and villagers arm in arm, dancing through their simple happy lives in the nearby villages. And the cities, with their grand gold  domes and stately buildings, magical centres of learning and opera, and the humour. The stoic yokels and cultured writers.

That is the romantic view. But what can you see today? A street called Karla Marksa. Who would that be? But let's start with the museums.

Here's my wish list. M i n s k e r s (predictive text wants to replace with ministers) and tourists can enjoy about twenty museums including those in the list below:

Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War. (Alphabetically)
Museum of Ancient Belarusian Culture.
Museum of the History of Minsk.
Museum of Modern Fine Arts.
Museum of Nature and Ecology.
National Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Opera and Ballet. (Bolshoi means big.)
National Art Museum.
National History Museum.
State Museum of Theatre and Music.

Yakub Kolas Memorial Literature Museum.

Street Names
Regarding finding your way about and language, they seem to add the letter a onto everything which makes life easy. For example, The Museum of Nature (etc) is in Karla Marksa street. Ah. Karl Marx.
The State Literary Museum of Maxim Bogdanovich is in Maxima Bogdanovicha street. The State Literary Museum of Yanka Kuala is in Yanki Kupaly street.

Chagall
The Marc Chagall Museum is in Vitebsk. If you can't make it to Belorussia, or want to do a grand tour of Chagall sites in more than one country, there's a Chagall Museum in France. (See TripAdvisor.)

Vitebsk is also associated with the classic haunting tale of The Dybbuk, written by Ansky.

• S. Ansky (1863–1920), playwright, The Dybbuk
• Marc Chagall (1887–1985), artist

www.artmuseum.by
www.minsktourism.by
www.warmuseum.by
www.yakubkolus.by

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.