Metravel city quest
City Gomel: free walking route “quest: a winter tale of Sovetskaya Street” along the sights. 9 points. Approximately 1 h 50 min. Quests and legends - straight
Winter in Gomel is long, with enough celebrations for everyone. In Belarus, Christmas is celebrated twice: by Catholics on 25 December and by Orthodox Christians on 7 January, and both dates are public holidays. Between them comes New Year, with a tree in the square, and around them the twelve days of Kalyady: kutya, carols, costumed revellers, a “goat”, and the batleika puppet theatre, where the story of Bethlehem was performed inside a wooden box.
Today you will walk through that whole winter along a single street. Sovetskaya is Gomel's main axis, formerly Rumyantsevskaya. At its northern end, far from the palace park, many festive places are tucked away: a church with the town's most Christmassy name; a university where students face their winter exams; a confectionery factory assembling sweet gifts for December; a circus whose building welcomed its first performance in December; and a puppet theatre that directly inherits the batleika tradition. The finish is beside the theatre, almost in the town centre.
This is a walking route of about 2.2 kilometres, without doubling back, with a warm café stop halfway along. December to mid-January is the best time, when the lights glow and the air smells of mandarins, but all the tasks work throughout the year: the answers are on façades and sculptures, not on Christmas trees or strings of lights. You do not need to enter the church — the whole task is outside, and services may be taking place.
Reaching the start is easy: almost all the town's public transport runs along Sovetskaya Street. Get off beside Students' Square, near the “Турист” hotel.
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
Before you is a pale Catholic church, with a tall tower over the entrance and a small turret with a spire above the sanctuary. Its story did not begin as a Catholic church at all: in 1886, an Orthodox church was consecrated here in Novikovsky Cemetery.
Walk south along Sovetskaya Street for about five hundred metres. On the right stretches the university's long white building, constructed in 1973 to a design by Gomel architect Sergei Pevny.
A hundred metres farther south, beside the fifth building, a bronze young woman sits on a parapet with a book on her knees and a handbag nearby, as though she has stopped between classes. She was installed in 2010 as a gift for Students' Day, and the students themselves voted for the best design from several models.
Turn left off Sovetskaya Street into Khatayevich Street. The grounds of the Spartak confectionery factory begin here, and its own shop operates beside the factory offices.
Half the route is behind you — a good time to warm up. Coffee&Toast stands at the corner of Sovetskaya and Rogachevskaya streets, a couple of steps from the “Гомель” department store.
Opening hours: usually daily 07:00–23:00 (according to Google Maps, October 2026)
Farther along Sovetskaya Street, beside Vosstaniya Square, stands the oldest building on this stretch of the street: a two-storey school of 1818 with a grand portico. Architect I. Dyachkov built it with the participation of the Englishman John Clark, following the idea of Count Nikolai Rumyantsev, the owner of Gomel.
After a couple of minutes' walk, the circus appears ahead, with its shallow dome resembling a flying saucer. At its entrance stands a bronze clown with his dog.
Gomel's tallest structure rises above the roofs: a lattice television tower more than 190 metres high. Its ruby lights first shone in 1960, and it has been visible from almost anywhere in the centre ever since.
The final turn takes you into Pushkin Street, to a yellow building with white columns and a balcony: Gomel Puppet Theatre. Bronze fairy-tale characters greet you at the entrance, while the theatre's name is written in large letters above the columns.
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.