Mir Castle Complex

Few buildings wear their biography as openly as Mir Castle. Begun in Gothic brick at the close of the 15th century, it gained Renaissance and then Baroque additions, stood abandoned for nearly a hundred years, was battered in the Napoleonic era, and finally received a late-19th-century restoration that brought new elements and a landscaped park. The result, in central Belarus, is a compact chronicle of European castle-building, inscribed by UNESCO in 2000.