Gomel

The settlement appeared in the territory occupied by the Slavic tribe of Radimichi that together with Krivichi and Dregovichi made a basis of the Belarusian ethnos. For a long time Gomel remained a small settlement exposed to numerous devastation during the long wars between the Grand Principality of Lithuania and the Moscow Principality, and then between Rzech Pospolita and the Russian Empire. Only in 1852 Gomel really became a town and a regional center of Mogilyov province in the structure of the Russian Empire. Gomel has become a large industrial city in Polessye, an important railway junction and one of the busy trade centers by the end of the XIXth century.

 

The main Gomel sight is the extensive Rumyantsev-Paskevichy’s Palace-Park Ensemble. Started by the hero of the Russia-Turkish War Marshal P.Rumyantsev on the place of a wooden castle, this wonderful architectural sight was then rearranged by its next owner prince I.Paskevich in the middle of the XIXth century. It is one of the first examples of constructions in Classicism style in Belarus. The late Renaissance motives of the outstanding Italian architect A.Palladio are reproduced in this fine specimen of architecture. The hovering over the city palace is surrounded by a large landscape garden with rare species of exotic trees. The ensemble also includes the magnificent Peter and Paul Cathedral (1824) and a chapel (1889) with Paskevichy’s family tomb.