Independence Palace

Minsk


This enormous addition to Minsk's totalitarian architecture is the country's new presidential palace in all but name. Architecturally uninspiring, the glass-fronted eyesore has hundreds of rooms spread over 50,000 sq metres and is a symbol of Alexander Lukashenko's permanence in Belarusian politics.

It is now where Luka hosts visiting international leaders, as he did in 2014 when he helped broker a (short-lived) peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Completed in 2013, the palace has been compared to similar structures in Turkmenistan and North Korea. It is not open to the public.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Minsk attractions

1. Museum of the Great Patriotic War

0.94 MILES

Housed in a garish new building, Minsk's best museum houses an excellent display detailing Belarus' suffering and heroism during the Nazi occupation. With…

2. Zaslavsky Jewish Monument

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This extremely moving sight, rather hidden away in a sunken gully amid trees off vul Melnikayte, commemorates the savage murder of 5000 Jews from Minsk at…

3. Island of Courage & Sorrow

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Standing on a small island connected to the Old Town by a walking bridge, this evocative Afghan war memorial is known colloquially as the Island of Tears…

4. Trinity Hill

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Trinity Hill is a pleasant – if tiny – recreation of Minsk's pre-war buildings on a pretty bend of the river just a little north of the centre. It has a…

5. SS Peter & Paul Church

1.92 MILES

Off the vul Lenina overpass is the attractively restored 17th-century SS Peter & Paul Church. The city's oldest church, it was built in 1612, looted by…

6. Cathedral of the Holy Spirit

1.99 MILES

Off the northern edge of pl Svabody is the baroque, twin-towered Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, built in 1642. It was once part of a Polish…

7. Pl Svabody

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In the heart of the Old Town just off central vul Lenina is charming pl Svabody, lorded over by the white medieval Ratusha (town hall). Off the northern…

8. Ratusha

2.07 MILES

Minsk's ratusha has been rebuilt in the place where it was originally constructed in the 1800s and now lords it over pl Svabody, its pointed steeple…

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