Metravel city quest
City Grodno: free walking route “Quest: Tyzenhauz's Gorodnitsa” along the sights. 9 points. Approximately 1 h 40 min. Quests and legends - straight from your
Grodno has two different faces. One is royal: castles above the Neman, churches, a fire watchtower, a synagogue. There is a separate route through that part of the city, “Grodno: the Royal City” — if you have not walked it yet, you have a whole second journey ahead of you.
This quest is about another Grodno. The one that would not exist if an almost obsessively energetic man had not arrived here in 1765: Antoni Tyzenhauz, administrator of the royal estates and right-hand man to the last king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. His brief was to put the treasury in order, but instead he embarked on a utopia: to build a model Enlightenment district from scratch, with manufactories, a theatre, a medical academy, a botanical garden and standardised houses for craftspeople. That was how Gorodnitsa grew on the city's northern edge — a “little Versailles” amid the marshes of Polesia.
Tyzenhauz brought in specialists from all over Europe: French, Germans, Italians. One of them, the botanist and physician Jean Emmanuel Gilibert, planted a garden here that, within three years, was considered the best in Europe. The project bankrupted Tyzenhauz himself, the king and half the treasury — yet a few things survived: the garden, the country's oldest theatre stage and a craftsman's house. Later they were joined by two twin towers with the affectionate names Kasia and Basia.
What to do: 1) Read the story and task at each stop. 2) Find the place on the map and walk up to it. 3) Look around and answer the question.
This walking route is about two and a half kilometres long, running from south to north through the old town. We start with the youngest character on the route: the Grodno Drama Theatre at 35 Mostovaya Street. Let's go!
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
Let's start with a contrast. Before diving into the 18th century, take a look at what this city of eccentrics was doing in the 20th.
Walk a couple of minutes further into the district and you will see a pair worth a special trip to Grodno. Two octagonal brick towers, about twenty-two metres tall, stand almost side by side.
Head to the heart of the old town: Sovetskaya Square. Here, in a corner of the former Jesuit quarter (the Cathedral Church of St.
Opening hours: Daily 09:00–19:00, open every day
Sovetskaya Street leads from the square towards Gorodnitsa. It is Grodno's main promenade and one of the most beautiful pedestrian streets in Belarus.
Sovetskaya will bring you into green Gorodnitsa. First, find the light-coloured building with two little towers on the edge of the park.
At the entrance to the park, an elegant gentleman from the century before last welcomes you. This is Jean Emmanuel Gilibert himself, the botanist and physician from Lyon in France who, you could say, is the whole reason we put this route together.
Now simply step into the park itself, and take your time before leaving. This garden is a quarter of a millennium old: it was founded on 8 April 1775 and is older than almost every city park you have seen elsewhere.
On Ozheshko Street, at the edge of the park, a little house nestles: the “Craftsman's House”, also known as the “Bosnian house”. The military guards of the Grodno royal estate were called Bosnians, and a whole street of standardised houses was nicknamed after them.
Opening hours: Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, closed Monday (ticket office until 17:30) · Ticket: Adults 4,50 BYN, students/pensioners 3,50 BYN, schoolchildren aged 7 and over 2,50 BYN, children under 7 free
The last stop is another of Tyzenhauz's legacies, and the most unexpected. Walk to the white Neo-Gothic church with a spire: this is St.
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.
Traveller articles about this city will help round out the walk.