Kalozha Church of Saints Boris and Gleb
Twelfth-century Black Ruthenian stone-and-brick church above the Neman
Inscribed on UNESCO's Tentative List for its acoustic amphorae and boulder-inlaid walls.
Grodno, Belarus
Ideal: 2 daysBest: May–SepPrice: Moderate
In 60 seconds
Grodno in 60 seconds
Set on high bluffs above the Neman River in western Belarus, Grodno preserves the richest concentration of historic architecture in the country. On adjacent hills stand the Old Castle of Grand Duke Vytautas and King Stephen Báthory and the eighteenth-century rococo New Castle, while further along the river bluff rises the twelfth-century Kalozha Church of Saints Boris and Gleb, its brick walls inlaid with polished boulders and glazed ceramic crosses.
Best for
- Architecture
- Castle
- History
- Baroque
- River
Known for
- Kalozha Church of Saints Boris and Gleb
- Old & New Royal Castles
- St Francis Xavier Cathedral & Pharmacy Museum
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Official travel advisories currently warn against travel to Belarus.
Your match
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See
Must experience
The things that would make the trip incomplete without them.
Old & New Royal Castles
Hilltop residences of Grand Duchy and Polish-Lithuanian monarchs
Connected across a deep ravine by a seventeenth-century stone arch bridge above the Neman.
St Francis Xavier Cathedral & Pharmacy Museum
1705 Jesuit Baroque cathedral with a twenty-one-metre carved wooden altar
Adjoins the 1709 Jesuit apothecary, the oldest continuously operating pharmacy in Belarus.
Beyond the obvious
Hidden gems
Less obvious, rarely queued for, and usually the part people remember.
Great Choral Synagogue of Grodno
Late sixteenth-century synagogue rebuilt in eclectic Moorish-Renaissance style in 1902
Stands above the river bluff near the castle hill.
Zhiliber Park & Horodnichanka Valley
Eighteenth-century botanical garden founded by French naturalist Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert
Follows the stream ravine through the historic centre.