Grodno State Museum of Religion History

The museum was founded in Grodno on July 7, 1977 as the Republican Museum of Atheism and Religion History, and opened for visitors on January 15, 1985. On August 12, 2005 the museum was granted its current name. The museum is the only one of this type in the Republic of Belarus. The objective of the museum is the acquaintance with the history and culture of the people living in Belarus, the development of respect for religious views and of tolerance to the representatives of various nationalities and confessions. In 1992, the building, in which there was a museum, was transferred to the restored nunnery. The museum was granted a new building, the monument of civil architecture — the palace of the 18th — 19th centuries. In 2009—2012, after the reconstruction of the building, there are the new expositions "The Epoch. The Time. The Building", "Religion and Culture in Belarus", two exhibition halls, a concert hall for 90 seats. The main museum fund (by 1 January 2012 was 65,944 items, and the additional one was 18,494 items, t.e. 14 collections totally. Besides traditional forms of work, tours around expositions and exhibitions, lectures, museum lessons, the museum developed the program "A Museum and Children", the programs to work with disabled children, orphans, lonely old-aged people, the thematic excursion around cult copnstructions of Grodno "The Music Left in Stone", concerts of sacred and classical music both in a concert hall and in a museum court yard.