Metravel city quest
City Myadzel: free walking route “Myadel quest: Koszyc’s vow and the ozernitsy of Dead Lake” along the sights. 8 points. Approximately 3 h. Quests and legends
The story of this little town's name goes like this. A man once lost his way in the local forests, grew exhausted and came upon an enormous lime tree. Inside its hollow he found honey. He ate, regained his strength, reached a lake and exclaimed: blessed be the place that gives people honey! That, they say, is how Myadel appeared, the “place that gives honey”. The chronicles are more modest than the legend: Myadel was first mentioned in 1324. Since then the little town between Lakes Myastro and Batorino has been a magnate's estate, a district town and a gateway to a region of almost a hundred lakes, including Naroch, the largest lake in all Belarus.
But today's route rests not on honey, but on two promises.
The first was made by a man. In the 18th century, Myadel's owner, the magnate Antoni Koszyc, long had no heir. According to tradition, while in Rome he made a vow: if a son is born, I will build a church. The site of the future shrine, they say, was shown to him in a dream. A son was born. Koszyc kept his word so fully that his vow still stands above the town in stone and wood, and today you will follow it from beginning to end.
The second promise, if the legend is to be believed, was made by creatures of the water, ozernitsy, the local sisters of mermaids. They lived in a forest lake fed by healing springs from its bed, and healed everyone who came with a pure heart. How that promise ended and why the lake is now called Dead is something you will learn at the very end, and you will need a car to do so.
The walking section is about four and a half kilometres through all Myadel from southeast to northwest: from the white church on the hill, through a square with a bronze poet and the Myastro embankment, to a Baroque Catholic church and then beyond the town boundary to the calvary, the local road to Golgotha.
We begin at the Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity in the town's southeastern part.
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
We begin with a story about how Myadel refuses to give up. The Orthodox parish here is ancient: in 1559 King Sigismund Augustus issued a charter to Myadel's “попу святой Тройцы”, the priest of the Holy Trinity.
From the church, walk northwest towards the town centre. In about ten minutes you will reach Sharangovicha Square.
From the square, turn towards the water and you are on the Myastro embankment, the town's favourite promenade: an amphitheatre for summer concerts, paths along the water's edge and, in fine weather, a glittering surface stretching to the horizon.
Now follow the embankment and continue north along the lake. Ahead, on a rise, you will see the church for which this whole route was conceived.
Koszyc did not stop with the church. According to tradition, the site of a new shrine was again shown to him in a dream.
Beside the Calvary gates you can take a short detour to the first station. It lies on the other side of the gates from the road to Golgotha, so after viewing it you need to return the same way.
The main route to Golgotha continues from the Gates of Forgiveness. If you visited the first station, first return to the gates the same way.
One last story remains, the one about the second promise. You need a car for this.
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.