Belarus - Nyasvizh Castle

As many of my official cards got stuck last month, I decided to finally try tagging on the postcrossing forum :) UNESCO tag has immediatelly become my favorite one and I've already received several wonderful cards this way :) My goal of receiving cars showing 100 different UNESCO sites seems to be a bit closer ;)

This card comes from Belarus (And was written in Belarussian! I rarely have any opportunity to practise this language, so I'm always glad about it) and shows the main tower of Nyasvizh castle, which has been a UNESCO site since 2005.



Nesvizh Castle (Belarusian: Нясьвіскі замак, Niasvižski zamak) is a residential castle of the Radziwill family in Niasviž in Belarus.

The estate was owned by the Radziwiłł magnate family from 1533, when it was awarded to Mikołaj Radziwiłł and his brother Jan Radziwiłł after the extinction of the Kiszka family.
In 1582 Mikołaj Krzysztof "Sierotka" Radziwiłł, the Marshal of Lithuania, started the construction of an imposing square three-storey chateau. Although the works were based on a pre-existing structure of a mediæval castle, the former fortifications were entirely turned into a renaissance-baroque house. Construction was completed by 1604, and they added several galleries half a century later. The château's corners were fortified with four octagonal towers.

In 1994, the castle complex was designated the national historical and cultural reserve. Twelve years later, the castle complex was inscribed on the World Heritage List.