The Victory Square

The Victory Square is located at the junction of Lenin, Zhestkov, Kalinin, General Beloborodov Streets and Moskovsky and Chernyakhovsky Prospekts.

The Square was designed by a team of architects headed by A.Danilov and L.Eingorn.

On 30 June 1974, a memorial complex to the heroes of World War II, liberators, partisans and members of the underground of the Vitebsk region was opened on the west side of the Square. The memorial was constructed by the project of the architect U.Shpit with the sculptor B.Markov and engineers V. Zhuravsky and V.Svoboda.

Fourteen stairs lead to the memorial located lower the Victory Square level. In the centre, over the Zapadnaya Dvina River (the Western Dvina), and surrounded by five stone pylons with the inscribed number of each year of World War II, there are three 56-metre obelisks. At the five-metre height they join into one monumental composition with the inscriptions: “Soldiers“, “Partisans“, “Members of the Underground“. Inside the composition there’s a ring with the inscription: “Glory to Heroes“. Under the monument there’s an eternal flame on the podium in the form of a star. Special importance and solemnity is given to the monument by two quadrate fountains (85 m. long and 10m. wide).

On the east side there’s a garden square (0.5 hectares) founded in 1974. The replanning of this part of the Victory Square started 2009. The Square was tiled, white cedars were planted and new fountains were built. The opening of this part of the Square attended by the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia took place on 27 September 2009.

The opening ceremony of the reconstructed west side of the Square took place on 8 May 2010. During the restoration process the memorial complex was faced in granite, the sculptures were restored. The eternal flame was illuminated with spotlights.

Currently, the Victory Square is the biggest in Belarus. Its length is 380m and width is 190 m. The first festival concert on the Victory Square was held in 2010 on a specially designed stage. The concert “Stars of “Eurovision“ featured the winners and finalists of the prestigious European music contest.

The tradition of night concerts was kept on by Sergei Lazarev, Mari Karne, the group “Premier Minister”, Bianka, Vlad Sokolovsky, groups “PlAZMA“, “REFLEX“, the show group “Marakatu“ and others. The Victory Square has been the venue of the Youth Day. Its events include sports and entertainment programmes, the fights of Djs, shows and master classes of the youth subcultures. The public is attracted by the International Youth Festival “The Fire of Dance“ taking place on the Victory Square since 2000. Since 2012, the Winners Park, located on the site of the former Kalinin Square next to the Victory Square, has been a traditional venue for the festival «City of Masters».