Winter holidays at the university are an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with the cultural heritage of the Republic of Belarus! That is why the VSMU students trade union committee together with the Faculty of Overseas Students Training of VSMU organized an excursion to Polotsk for first-year foreign students who arrived in Belarus from faraway and warm Sri Lanka.

As part of the excursion, the students visited two significant places for the history of Belarus - St. Sophia Cathedral and the Museum of Belarusian Book-Printing. Both of these places are important for our cultural heritage and were chosen not by chance. So the students got acquainted not only with the architectural monuments of the Polotsk land, but also with two of its prime representatives. St. Sophia Cathedral is rightfully considered the jewel of the architectural heritage of our country. During the tour around the Cathedral, students listened to stories about the history of this wonderful place, heard a couple of legends associated with it, and got acquainted with Euphrosyne of Polotsk, whose famous relic - the cross of Euphrosyne of Polotsk, was kept for some time in the cathedral.

Further, the tour continued at the Museum of Belarusian Book Printing, illustrating the history of the book from ancient times to the present day. The museum is dedicated to the book in all its forms, from the first handwritten rolls to the modern book, and introduced foreign guests not only to the history of the development of book culture in Belarus, but also around the world. In addition to the history of books, students also got acquainted with another equally famous Belarusian figure, Francis Skorina. Future doctors were able to highly appreciate the contribution of their colleague to the history of Eastern European book publishing.

During the excursion, they also got acquainted with the national Belarusian cuisine, which our guests appreciated and asked to share with them the recipe for “these potato pancakes”, which we all know as “draniki”.

The result of the excursion can be considered tired, but very satisfied and happy faces of our students, who sincerely thanked our administration for organizing and conducting this excursion.