Metravel city quest
City Lyubcha: free walking route “Lubcha quest: Lubcha Castle above the Neman” along the sights. 6 points. Approximately 1 h 30 min. Quests and legends
Here is how the legend goes. Young Prince Mindaugas, soon to become Lithuania's first and only king, was crossing the Neman when he saw a girl named Marta on the bank. One look, and he was lost. Marta became his wife, and he named the nameless settlement by the crossing Lubcha, from the word ‘to love’. This is a legend and must be told as one, but few places on a map have a name and explanation like that.
Then comes history. Written sources mention Lubcha from the early 15th century. In 1581, its owner Jan Kiszka founded a castle beside the Neman. The town received Magdeburg rights in 1590 and belonged from 1606 to the Radziwiłłs, the Grand Duchy's most powerful family. Under them came its golden age. A printing house producing books for half of Europe moved here, merchants from Minsk and Novogrudok traded on the market square, and stone towers rose above the river.
Wars, fires and two hundred years of slow decline followed. By the start of our century, only two shabby towers remained, and the story might have ended quietly. But in 2003, Lubcha-born Ivan Pechinsky returned for a reunion at his school, standing right in the castle courtyard. He looked at the ruins and decided this would not do. Volunteers have restored the castle ever since: students, engineers and pensioners, around three thousand two hundred people over the years. Not a state or corporation, simply people who care. This is a unique story for Belarus, and today you will see it yourself.
It seems the legend did not lie: love really does sustain this place. Eight centuries ago it founded it; now it is rebuilding it.
What to do: 1) Read the story and task at each stop. 2) Find the place on the map and walk to it. 3) Look around and answer the question.
This walking route is about two kilometres long, without retracing your steps, through the town centre to the castle and the Neman. We start in northern Lubcha beside a distinctive building near the river where half the town prayed a century ago. Let's go!
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
Before you stands one of old Lubcha's principal witnesses. More than a century ago it was a synagogue.
Walk a couple of hundred metres south from the cultural centre towards the town centre. You will see the white church on a small rise from afar.
Now head south down the street from the Orthodox church. A block away stands the Catholic Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and St Mary.
This stop is optional. On the way to the castle, Lubcha's secondary school houses a community museum of local history.
Opening hours: Community school museum at Lubcha secondary school: open on school days; arrange a visit in advance through the school.
Continue east. The street leads to the park and castle beside the Neman.
Enter the courtyard and look around. All the threads of our story meet here.
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.