“Museum Night at the Free Belarus Museum: ‘Five Artifacts – and Only One Night’”

The Free Belarus Museum opened an exhibition titled “Five Artifacts – and Only One Night”, timed to coincide with the Night of Museums. It features five unique items, each of which, according to the museum’s director Natallia Zadziarkouskaya, deserves its own exhibition.

Two of the artifacts were acquired thanks to the initiative “Maldzis”, named after Professor Adam Maldzis, who dedicated his life to returning Belarusian cultural heritage:

1. The Radziwiłł Map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 1630s — one of the earliest editions, created in Nesvizh by order of Prince Radziwiłł Sirotka.
2. The Third Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1693, Polish edition printed at the Vilnius Jesuit Academy), purchased in Kalisz to be transferred to Navahrudak, the first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The third artifact is a secret letter by the Brest Voivode Jan Antoni Horain (1773), reflecting the political struggle following the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Horain, a participant in the Bar Confederation, encrypted his name as “Niaroh” (reading backwards reveals “Horain”). The letter was written using allegories and hints to prevent enemy interception.

The fourth artifact is another Radziwiłł map from 1649, acquired by the Belarusian Club of Patrons with support from the Belarusian Cultural Council. The map was so precise that it served as the basis for all subsequent maps in the 17th–18th centuries.

The fifth artifact is a copy of “Peregrination” by Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł (1614, Antwerp), a valuable Latin edition documenting the travels of European aristocracy to the Holy Land.

Each of these artifacts has its own unique history and significance for the preservation of Belarusian cultural heritage.

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Original article: NEXTA