"Postcard from Belarus"

      Hello, dear friends! This is our weekly project “Postcard from Belarus” with Tatiana Maksimchik on Radio “Belarus”. Today, as usual, we’ll take you to a virtual journey to our wonderful country, get acquainted with famous Belarusian towns and cities and discover new places of interest.

The most captivating places of interest in Belarus, surprising castles and family manors, magnificent temples and monasteries, unique nooks of pristine nature, ancient engineering constructions, interesting museums and ethnographic villages, birthplaces of famous painters, writers, and scientists…In our guide rubric you can learn about the key places of interest of all the regions of Belarus, can get familiar with interesting facts and figures, can study the intriguing history and compile your own travel itinerary for the hospitable country in the center of Europe.
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The pristine nature in the valley of the Pripyat River, unique swamps and inundated oak woods, rich natural resources represent the fascinating land called Polesie, which is unparalleled in Europe and the rest of the world. Today we will have a virtual journey to these wonderful lands. National Park Pripyatsky is one of the four national parks of Belarus, is located between the rivers Pripyat, Stviga and Ubort. Special protection has been granted to about 190,000 hectares with more than a third represented as a wildlife reserve.
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The unique geographical and historical cultural region in Belarus’ south is located in the valley of the middle reach of the Pripyat River. The huge area of the Belarusian Amazon land is home to the pristine natural systems with a wide variety of flora and fauna — vast swamps, wide inundated lands, oak woods, and broad-leaved forests. The Pripyat Polesie area is truly the lungs of Europe since it is home to the continent’s largest complex of forests and swamps are the best at generating oxygen.
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The structure and the flora content of the inundated oak woods of the Pripyat Polesie area are unique for the entire Eastern European plane. At present in the Pripyat Polesie area there is an entire system of protected territories where any kind of activity that may harm the environment is prohibited. Polesie is a treasury of mineral and raw materials. The considerable amount of dried lands and the intensive development of agriculture are another peculiarity of modern Pripyat Polesie.
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In addition to the pristine nature the Pripyat Polesie area has preserved rich folk traditions and unique ethnocultural identity. The authentic songs and dances, peculiar Polesie dialects, the way of life and ancient crafts are the legacy of the local residents that has become a tourist attraction.
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You can see how Polesie people lived in the past in farm tourism estates. Many of them have been opened in ancient homes in hard-to-reach areas of the Polesie land, entire villages are available. Since 2010 the National Park Pripyatsky has been home to the festival of ethnocultural traditions Polesie’s Call. For several days choirs and vocalists perform Polesie songs while craftsmen represent ancient crafts. The festival also offers a venue for traditional competitions of fishermen and boat racing, merry entertainment, fairs and exhibitions.
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Some words about the history of National park. The idea to create a swamp preserve in Polesie was mentioned by scientists in the 1920-1930s. Polish academician Vladislav Shafer suggested Europe’s largest perfectly preserved Olmansky swamps for this purpose. Thanks to researches of Polesie’s unique nature over several decades the scientific base for creating the preserve evolved.
In June 1969 the Pripyat state landscape and hydrological preserve was created. In 1996 it was converted into the National Park Pripyatsky. In 1995 the preserve set up an experimental hunting enterprise Lyaskovichi. In 1998 Belarus’ first Nature Museum was opened.
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At present the National Park Pripyatsky is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Belarus. Wild nature fans go there for captivating photo safaris because you can see a truly impressive number of animals in their natural habitat there. Picturesque forests occupy about 95% of the park. Those are mainly pine trees and oaks, forests of birch trees, alder trees, ash trees, asps. One may encounter maple forests, lime woods. Flora is represented by 929 species of plant, including 45 ones in the Red Book of Belarus.
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The National Park Pripyatsky has a magnificent Nature Museum, which vividly demonstrates landscapes of Belarusian Polesie with its denizens in different times of the year. The museum has amassed rich collections of large hoofed animals, insects, reptiles and amphibians. The Nature Museum also has a hall dedicated to the ethnography of the Polesie land and a stylized hut of a Polesie resident dedicated to the cultural and historical uniqueness of this region.
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I hope you have got interested and the following information will be useful for you. So, how to get there and where to stay?

The National Park Pripyatsky is located in the territory of Zhitkovichi District, Lelchitsy District, and Petrikov District, Gomel Region. The administrative center is the agro-town Lyaskovichi, Petrikov District. The distance from Minsk is 260km, 270km from Gomel, and 350km from Brest.The most convenient way to get there is by car after checking your route on the map. A regular bus from Minsk can take you to Turov or Zhitkovichi and then you can get a taxi to Lyaskovichi. Passenger trains from Brest and Gomel to Zhitkovichi are available every day.
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 In the National Park there are several places you can stay at: the hotel Nad Pripyatyu, several tourist complexes, the guest house for fishermen and hunters Cheretyanka, the cottage Sosny.