Metravel city quest
City Kosava: free walking route “Kossovo — Ruzhany Quest: the Pusłowski and Sapieha Palaces” along the sights. 9 points. Approximately 3 h. Quests and legends
Today you are driving through Polesia in search of two palaces and two great families, piecing together history from clues left in stone and bronze.
In Ruzhany, the Sapieha chancellors' ‘Versailles of Polesia’ awaits you: ruins, a triumphal arch and the family coat of arms above the entrance. Twenty kilometres along the road (about twenty minutes behind the wheel), in Kossovo, stands the Pusłowski family's fairy-tale Neo-Gothic castle. Opposite it, across the valley, is a modest house where a man whose name is borne by squares and bridges on three continents was born. Magnates and a hero, splendour and stillness — all will fit into a single day on the road.
Read the signs at each stop: they will tell you who owned these walls. We begin in Ruzhany.
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
You are standing before the triumphal gate of Ruzhany Palace, the residence of the Sapieha family, chancellors of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This ‘Versailles of Polesia’ once rivalled royal palaces: monarchs were received here, the state treasury and archives were kept here, and it had a theatre and greenhouses.
That very sign from the coat of arms seems to have pointed the way: just a few steps from the palace stands the stone Holy Trinity Church, the Sapiehas' family church. Chancellor Lew Sapieha himself founded it in the late sixteenth century, and the stone Baroque building rose here in 1615–1617.
An optional stop — a recommendation rather than a riddle. There is a place near the route worth making a small detour for.
Opening hours: Wed–Sun 9:30–18:00; closed on Monday and Tuesday.
A drive to Kossovo — and there it is, the most fairy-tale castle in Belarus: the Neo-Gothic Pusłowski Palace. Kazimierz Pusłowski began building it in 1838 to a design by Warsaw architect Franciszek Jaszczołd, and his son Wandalin completed it.
Opening hours: Sep–Oct: 10:30–19:00 (closed Mon). Nov–Mar: 9:30–18:00 (closed Mon, Tue). Apr: 9:30–18:00 daily. May–Aug: 10:30–19:00 daily. The ticket office closes 15–30 minutes earlier. · Ticket: Adults — 20 BYN, students and schoolchildren — 10 BYN, pensioners — 18 BYN; children under 6 — free.
An optional stop for pleasure rather than riddles. Some of the best discoveries on a journey happen over a cup of coffee.
Cross the valley from the palace, and luxury gives way to quiet. Here, on modest foundations, the manor where Tadeusz Kościuszko was born in 1746 has been recreated: the leader of the 1794 uprising, a national hero of Poland, Belarus, Lithuania and the USA, and an honorary citizen of France.
Opening hours: Daily 9:30–18:00 (tickets until 17:30), open every day. · Ticket: Adults — 20 BYN, children and schoolchildren — 10 BYN, pensioners — 18 BYN; children under 6 — free.
Beside the house where he was born, Kościuszko now stands in bronze. This is the first monument to him in Belarus, installed at his family manor.
A large boulder with a commemorative plaque stands beside the manor. A relief portrait of the man at the heart of this story is set into its surface, with a text about his birthplace next to the portrait.
The last stop on the road is St Anthony's Church on the edge of Kossovo, a couple of kilometres from the palace: drive there, or walk if you still have the energy. It was built of brick in 1868 in the Russian Revival style.
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.