Quite how this ended up on the World Heritage list I’m not sure. Whilst it is a fairly pleasant place, it seems to be pretty unremarkable. When we visited there were fairly large crowds of Russian tourists waiting to clamber up one of the Towers, we joined the queue and were left wondering why. There was almost nothing to see inside the castle and you couldn’t even get a good view out. The rear side of the castle has gone through some pretty heavy restoration, in preparation of being turned into a hotel.

The most impressive thing about the castle was the exterior, especially when viewed from the other side of the ornamental pond.

To pick up on Christer’s comments below, I would say I was in full agreement with this. Whilst the sites we visited in Belarus were quite some way from being ‘World Class’ the country itself was a bit of a surprise. We visited it partly to see ‘the grim last remnant of the Soviet Union’, but actually found a fairly prosperous, very modern and extremely friendly country. The roads leading to Mir from Minsk and Nesvizh were absolutely superb, and by far the tidiest highway I have ever been along.

Mir was not a particular highlight of our trip, however getting to see something of the country outside Minsk made this a worthwhile day trip when combined with nearby Nesvizh.