Southwest of Molodechno is the city of Volozhin. It is known as the place where the first higher spiritual school for the training of rabbis was located in Eastern Europe. The buildings of the grandiose palace of the Tyszkiewicz family of the 18-19th centuries, built in the style of classicism, the church of St. Joseph of the early 19th century and the church of St. Constantine and Helena of 1866 have been preserved on the city square of Freedom. Not far from Volozhin there is a sanatorium-preventorium “Isloch”, which once belonged to the Belarusian Literary Fund.
In the western part of the Minsk region, south of Volozhin, the Nalibokskaya Pushcha forest stretches. The Pushcha is dominated by pine and spruce forests, and there are pockets of hornbeam forests. This is a wonderful place for recreation, where sanatoriums and rest houses are located. Dzerzhinsk is located 38 km southwest of Minsk. During its history, it has changed three names: Krutogorye, Koydanovo and Dzerzhinsk. Highmountain was first mentioned in the middle of the 12th century. In 1932 the city was named Dzerzhinsk. in honor of the famous communist figure Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, who was born a few kilometers from the city. In the city and its environs, the Church of St. Anna of the 15-18th century, the Holy Intercession Church of 1851, the ancient settlement “Gashtoldova Gora” and places associated with the battle on November 3, 1812 with the French, in which Russian troops won a major victory, are of interest. Mount Dzerzhinskaya (345 m) rises near the city – the highest point in Belarus. Near Dzerzhinsk, the country’s first adventure park “Krutogorye” operates, and there is also a recreation park “Yakutskiye Gory”. One of the most famous cities in Belarus – Nesvizh is located 120 km southwest of Minsk.. For the first time Nesvizh is mentioned in chronicles of the 13th century. The city became famous after it was chosen as a residence by the Lithuanian princely family of the Radziwills in the 16th century. In the period from the 16th to the 18th century, an impregnable castle was built here, which was surrounded by ditches and ramparts. For this, the Radziwills ordered the Italian architect Giovanni Bernardoni. In the 19th century, a park zone with a total area of over 200 hectares was created in the central part of the complex. Today, the Nesvizh Palace and Park Ensemble is one of the most popular and most mystical sights of the country.
According to Behealthybytomorrow, in the northern part of the Minsk region there is the famous Belarusian Lakeland, where the largest lake in the country is located – Naroch with an area of about 80 square meters. km. In 1999 around Lake Naroch on the territory of 94 thousand hectares, the National Park “Narochansky” was founded. The national park covers the northwestern part of the Minsk region, the western part of the Vitebsk region and the northern part of the Grodno region. The administrative center of the national park is located in the resort village of Naroch , which is located on the northwestern coast of Lake Naroch. 17.1% of the park area is occupied by lakes, there are about 40 of them in total. The lakes are surrounded by untouched forests with rare species of animals. The national park offers tourists not only sightseeing, but also recreation on the shores of lakes, horseback riding, hunting and fishing tours. Not far from the village of Naroch there is a resort village Myadel . In addition to lakes and picturesque nature, an abundance of historical monuments is concentrated around Myadel. Here are mounds, burial grounds, settlements and sites of ancient people, starting from the Stone Age. In the center of Lake Myastro there is an island with the remains of the city’s fortifications from the 11th century. It is believed that it was a border fortress of the Polotsk principality. In the 15th century, a stone castle was erected on another island of Lake Myastro during the reign of the Radziwill family. The castle was destroyed during the Northern War, now only ruins have survived from it. Another attraction flaunts on a high city hill – the Church of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, built in the middle of the 18th century in the Baroque style.
In the northern part of the Minsk region and in the southern part of the Vitebsk region, 120 km northeast Minsk is located another protected area of Belarus – Berezinsky State Biosphere Reserve. The reserve was founded in 1925 as a state hunting reserve, the main purpose of which was the preservation of an endangered animal – the river beaver. It received the current status of the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve state nature protection institution in 2001. The area of the reserve is 107.4 thousand hectares. Today, the reserve is designed to protect the rich diversity of flora and fauna in the upper reaches of the Berezina River. The reserve offers hiking, bus and water routes (some of them are part of the ancient route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”), photo safaris, multi-day ecological tours for observing wild animals and birds in their natural environment, botanical tours, hunting tours based on the hunting farms “Badgers” and “Berezina”, located outside the boundaries of the reserve, and fishing tours, because in the local reservoirs there are asp, bream, pike, tench and many other types of fish.
