Mogilev is not the brightest city. But this does not mean that you should not go here in principle. There are excellent SPA hotels and good establishments (with prices twice as low as in Minsk); as well as fragrant bakeries, distinctive street art and beautiful ancient monuments hidden among simple high-rise buildings.
Mogilev is not immediately revealed, but if you look at it more closely, it can be a great destination for a weekend. Today I will share with you seven ideas on how to spend an interesting weekend in this city. And get ready to be surprised at how charming and interesting the “ugliest city in Belarus” can be.
Idea No. 1. Find out what to see in Mogilev?
I counted only 8 interesting places in the city, worthy of the flashes of your photo cards. These are:
- Mogilev City Hall (with observation deck) and pedestrian street with Bishop’s Palace;
- A brutal drama theater made of red brick and the Church of St. Stanislaus, hidden in the courtyards next to it.
Somewhere in the second half of the rating, the area of Stars remained, Pozharny lane with a street museum of rescue equipment, St. Nicholas Monastery and the flat building of the business center at 4 Mironova Street. From some angles, it really seems thin as a sheet, and it looks extremely unusual against the background of other buildings in Mogilev.
These eight places are the basic set for a walk around Mogilev. City guides usually suck 5-7 more points out of your finger, but in my opinion, you won’t lose anything if you don’t look The Arch of Glory with a portrait of Lenin, “Lev from Mogilev” or the Maslennikov Museum, which is currently displayed on a 200-ruble banknote.
Two hours of leisurely walking will be enough for you to make your impression of this city. Well, I’ll tell you what to do next.
Idea #2. Dive into the world of Mogilev gastronomy
I probably wouldn’t be much mistaken if I called Mogilev one of the cheapest cities in Belarus. At least in Minsk, I haven’t seen burgers for 10 BYN, breakfasts for 9.99 and coffee for seventy rubles (1.7 BYN) for a long time. At the same time, there are quite a lot of good and original establishments in the city. And this fact definitely needs to be taken advantage of.
Personally, I have been to Mogilev 5 times, and during this time I have compiled this list of my favorite places in this city. I liked:
- Buffet Cafe (at Komsomolskaya 5), where delicious shakshuka is prepared and free coffee is served for any breakfast;
- BakeHouse bakery (on Pervomaiskaya Street) with a huge selection of cakes and branded tea to which currants and cloves are added;
- And also a small restaurant “Owl”, where I go for the sake of a pleasant atmosphere.
If you want something more unusual, go to the street-food bar called “Da Grill” to try the signature Mogilev tarts. There are a couple dozen of them on the menu. There is smazhenka with strachatella cream cheese, Tom Yam smazhenka, Pepperoni smazhenka and even smazhenka with borscht, which is served with a cup of broth. See the detailed menu and prices on the websitedagrill.by .
I also liked the Burger House (with the same burgers for 10 BYN) and the Merci coffee shop (with a good cappuccino for 3 rubles and a Drunk Cherry cake for 2.60 BYN).
Both of these establishments are located on pedestrian Leninskaya Street, so it’s not difficult to find them. Well, to make it more fun for you, read the article at the link below. There I put together a whole route through the most interesting institutions of Mogilev.
Idea #3. Soak up the SPA
A trip to Mogilev is a great opportunity to afford a little more than you usually do in Minsk. For example, I did not dare to pay 475 BYN for a night in a Minsk SPA hotel.”Beijing“. But in Mogilev, I quickly found its equivalent.
Here it is. The Mogilev Atrium Hotel.It costs half the price, but it looks no worse. The hotel is located in the very center and provides unlimited access to the SPA for all guests.
There are sauna galleries, salt rooms, and pools with hydro massage… Personally, I came to Mogilev 4 times out of 5 precisely because of this opportunity to arrange a SPA weekend.
Idea #4. Go in search of Mogilev street art
A few years ago, the DOMA festival was held on Mogilev streets, during which colorful stairs, huge murals, walls with poems by Belarusian poets and other examples of street art appeared in the city. There are about forty similar sites in Mogilev right now, and you can easily create a separate route to their addresses.
There is an “embroidery staircase”, and travel hatches depicting various sights of the city, and huge paintings on the walls of houses. You can find all the addresses and select the most interesting works on the website.streetart.urbanistic.by . Once upon a time, informal tours were even conducted in these places, but since January 2024 they have been temporarily suspended. Most likely, the project will return next summer. But that’s not accurate.
Idea No. 5. Listen to stories about how Mogilev lost its past
It began in the 30s of the USSR, when, as a result of the Soviet-Polish war, Belarus lost its western regions. The border passed in the area of Zaslavl. And Minsk has actually become a border city.
It was then that the idea of moving the capital to Mogilev began to be actively promoted at the level of Stalin. And a large-scale restructuring has begun in the city itself. Blocks of ancient buildings were demolished near the Dnieper River, making way for large areas, and more traditional cultural centers and government buildings for the USSR grew up in place of churches.
In 1941, the war began, which further changed the appearance of the old city. Four years later, the border with Poland was pushed back, which is why the idea of moving the capital disappeared by itself. As a result, Mogilev never became the main city of Belarus, but by the 1950s it had almost completely lost its former appearance.
Mogilev Theater Square (opposite the modern drama theater building).
You can see what the city looked like before these events in Mogilev subway on Glory Square. There, on the walls of a long corridor, there are photographs of Mogilev Castle, blown up churches and lost streets of the city.
A rather large model of Mogilev from the 18th century can also be seen in the museum of the local town hall. But personally, first of all, I advise you to walk around the city with a guide to see on the spot how modern streets looked in the past. As an example, I’ll show you two guided tours of Mogilev.:
- The first is “Welcome to Mogilev“.
- And the second – “In the footsteps of the mighty lion“.
I think this is a good opportunity to take a deeper look into the history of the city.
Idea No. 6. Go explore Mogilev region
If you have a little Indiana Jones in your heart who constantly pulls you in search of all kinds of antiquities, then here are some more ideas for a short trip from Mogilev.
St. Anthony’s Church in Knyazhitsy. Photo of the “Dormant spadchyna” project (@spiachaya.spadchyna).
Fans of untouched antiquity should go in search of local “abandoned buildings”. See St. Anthony’s Church in Knyazhitsy or the Gothic tomb in the village of Bogushevichi. These ancient monuments have been empty for many years, but they still retain the stamp of their former greatness.
St. Anthony’s Church in Knyazhitsy. Photo of the “Dormant spadchyna” project (@spiachaya.spadchyna).
Well, if colorful ruins are not for you, then go to Zhilichi, walk through the magnificent palace of the Bulgakov family. On the contrary, it has been perfectly preserved. For 200 years, the complex has never been destroyed or rebuilt (the only exception is the local greenhouse). Therefore, today the Zhilichsky Palace impresses not only with its external grandeur, but also with the luxury of its interior interiors.
Auto photo: Kasia Syramalot, @palasatka. The source 34travel.me
The small town of Mstislavl (which is one of the most ancient cities in Belarus) is also worthy of a separate trip. The silhouette of the Carmelite Church (17th century) soars above the cozy one-story houses. And on Castle Hill stands a recreated wooden fortress, where historical reconstructions and knight festivals have often been held in recent years.
Photo source mstislaw.by .
But if you are traveling with children, then a trip to the agro–town of Buinichi would be a good option for you. There is an ethnographic village of the 19th century and a beautiful zoo, where so-called “Railway Safaris” are held from April to October. People are put on a train and then driven through a forest where deer, roe deer and other animals roam freely. The trip is short, but very beautiful. And it costs only 8 BYN.
You can read more about these and other interesting places in the Mogilev region in my separate article on this page.
Idea No. 7. Arrange a weekend in nature
You can go out of town not only in search of ancient monuments, but also for the sake of good country hotels (which are 2 times cheaper in Mogilev than their counterparts near Minsk). Don’t you believe it? Here is one good example.
A beautiful park hotel 7 kilometers from Mogilev. It has its own SPA complex, a good restaurant, and a river surrounded by pine forests. In general, it’s a great set for a pleasant escape from the city.
There are also natural attractions near Mogilev. These are:
- Blue krinitsa is the largest spring in our country;
- Cretaceous quarries in Lozovica with steep shores and scattered small islands.
About 60 km from the city there is also the Nikolaevsky Ponds eco-complex. There is a sandy beach, houses on the water and an apple orchard nearby. To be honest, I haven’t been there myself. But on the Internet, this place is usually reviewed positively.
Afterword
That’s all. I hope my article helped you understand what to see in Mogilev and was able to inspire you to travel to this city. In the meantime, the Mogilev Tourism Department is preparing a certificate of honor for me – let’s briefly go over the organizational aspects.
- It is most convenient to get to the city from Minsk by trains and minibuses. The former are cheaper and more comfortable, but the latter are much larger and they travel almost every hour. Find current prices and schedules on the following websites: RW.BY (trains) and Atlasbus.by (minibuses);
- You can find affordable housing in Mogilev on this site;
- And for navigation in the city it is better to use the free application MAPS.me .
I also remind you again that I have a good article about restaurants and cafes in Mogilev. From it you will find out where you can eat inexpensively and drink delicious coffee.
Well, now I just have to say goodbye. Bye, everyone! And have a pleasant trip around Belarus.
