Domzheritsy

A small village of Domzheritsy is located in the wilderness of Belarusian forest among impassable swamps and heavy wind-fallen trees. It took its name after an ancient Russian proper name Domozhir that means «rich» or «wealthy» house.

WHAT IS IT RICH WITH?

Local area has long been famous for vast basins, thick woods and great variety of animals inhabiting them.

Buses don`t go there and it seems that someone`s careful hands have hidden this tiny village knowingly out of uninvited guests and their prying eyes. In reality, only true lovers of Belarusian wild beauty arrive here.

Village Domzheritsy is the center of Berezinskij Biosphere Reserve. Here you can come across various representatives of Belarusian fauna.

There are spacious crates in a kilometer-distance fr om the village wh ere people can see animals living in their natural environment. Deer, roe deer and wild boars are represented here as well as the famous quint of the largest mammals in Europe: elk, bison, bear, wolf and bobcat.

 Meanwhile Petr Mironovich Masherov, the leader of the BSSR, used to come here for hunting. There was his country house. Perhaps here, in the silence of this forest, Masherov could take important national decisions being far from cabinet fuss.

Domzheritsy is in a three-kilometer distance far from the motorway Vitebsk-Minsk. Tourists who don`t have their own means of transport have to get to the village on foot.

You know that everything brimmed with life here some time ago. The famous waterway «from the Varangians to the Greeks» run through the waters of the river Berezina. The Serguchskiy Canal built in 1804 tied the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.

More than a century, this man-made canal was a vibrant waterway but now it has entirely lost its transport significance. Only stone slopes spread along its banks and traces of dams and water gates covered with bushes can remind us of its ancient glory.

This small village did suffer from numerous wars. Local land witnessed the Great Northern War when Swedish army crossed the Berezina. They do remember great Napoleonic army too.

However, the greatest damage the reserve suffered during the Great Patriotic War. Guerrilla troops used to hide in vast area of swaps near Domzheritsy. А lot of documents and collector`s items were ruined, administrative buildings and living houses were burnt as a result of military operations.

At present, thanks to careful staff of the reserve, Domzheritsy has become a center of tourist life. Hundreds of tourists stay at a local hotel «Serguch» annually in order to enjoy to the full the original beauty of Belarusian nature.

Here everybody can find an activity appealing to his or her heart. True lovers of calmness come to Domzheritsy to follow routs of numerous ecological paths and to visit the natural museum of Berezinskij Reserve.  Those who are fond of active holidays can meet the challenge at the Great and Little Bear tracks or at the rope adventure park «Forest Fun».

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