Talaka

Minsk


This relaxed and cosy basement place is done up in old Belarusian style, complete with waitstaff in period outfits and live folk music on most nights. It's a great place to sample authentic Russian and Belarusian cuisine, such as venison in cream sauce, khaladnik (cold borshch), herring-and-beet salad and draniki (potato pancakes).

Or plop down on the summer terrace and order a bread board of their fantastic beer snacks.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Minsk attractions

1. SS Peter & Paul Church

0.13 MILES

Off the vul Lenina overpass is the attractively restored 17th-century SS Peter & Paul Church. The city's oldest church, it was built in 1612, looted by…

2. Pl Svabody

0.3 MILES

In the heart of the Old Town just off central vul Lenina is charming pl Svabody, lorded over by the white medieval Ratusha (town hall). Off the northern…

3. Cathedral of the Holy Spirit

0.31 MILES

Off the northern edge of pl Svabody is the baroque, twin-towered Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, built in 1642. It was once part of a Polish…

4. Ratusha

0.33 MILES

Minsk's ratusha has been rebuilt in the place where it was originally constructed in the 1800s and now lords it over pl Svabody, its pointed steeple…

5. Trinity Hill

0.38 MILES

Trinity Hill is a pleasant – if tiny – recreation of Minsk's pre-war buildings on a pretty bend of the river just a little north of the centre. It has a…

6. Zaslavsky Jewish Monument

0.4 MILES

This extremely moving sight, rather hidden away in a sunken gully amid trees off vul Melnikayte, commemorates the savage murder of 5000 Jews from Minsk at…

7. Island of Courage & Sorrow

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Standing on a small island connected to the Old Town by a walking bridge, this evocative Afghan war memorial is known colloquially as the Island of Tears…

8. KGB Headquarters

0.5 MILES

An entire block of central pr Nezalezhnastsi is occupied by this yellow neoclassical building with an ominous, temple-like Corinthian portal – the KGB…