- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- 1583 · 16th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Minsk Region, Belarus
- Style
- baroque architecture
- Commissioned by
- Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł
- Architect
- Giovanni Maria Bernardoni
- Heritage
- part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site (an old town or a valley, for example)
- Visiting
- probably – Wikidata lists it as a museum or gives tickets, opening hours or visitor numbers; check before you go
- Coordinates
- 53.2229°, 26.6917°
History
Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, known as the Orphan, began building a masonry castle here in 1583 on the site of an older wooden residence. It was surrounded by earth bastions and a moat, and from 1586 Nesvizh was the seat of the Radziwiłł family entail. Swedish troops wrecked the castle during the Great Northern War in 1706, and the family rebuilt it in Baroque style in the 18th century. In the late 19th century Antoni Wilhelm Radziwiłł and his wife Marie de Castellane remodelled the interiors and laid out extensive parks. The family lost the estate after 1939 and the castle became a sanatorium. Following years of restoration it is now a museum and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005.
What to see
A gate on the causeway leads into a courtyard framed by the palace wings, where state rooms have been restored with Radziwiłł portraits, historic weapons and hunting trophies. Ponds and landscaped parks surround the castle. In town, visit the Corpus Christi Church designed by Giovanni Maria Bernardoni, whose crypt holds dozens of members of the family.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q719422
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