We left the big city behind today; Svetlana, Vitaly and Ihar wanted to show us a bit of the country and drove us out of Minsk to get to two of the highlights of the country – the castles of Mir and Njasvizh.

Our first stop was straight at Mir Castle – a fortress going back to the 16th century and one of the four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Belarus. We started our visit here with a walk around the castle itself, checked out a nearby church – before finally making it into the castle and its excellent museum.

From the castle we continued into Mir village to have a look at the market and another Orthodox church.

Afterward we made our way to Njasvizh by car (around half an hour drive from Mir); here we had lunch before having a look at the Farny Polish Roman Catholic Church.

It was now time to continue to Njasvizh castle itself – also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.