"Minsk Awaits +1 Attraction!" Bloggers Brought to Former Volodarka Prison

The authorities organized an excursion for a group of bloggers to Pishchalau Castle — the former Volodarka prison — and now they are sharing their excitement with their subscribers.

Blogger Raidensy positions her content as "good news from Belarus". She has about 645,000 subscribers on TikTok and 130,000 on Instagram.

The girl published a post on Threads: "Pishchalau Castle now: reconstruction will be completed in 2027! It will open to everyone, there will be a museum, a cafe, and restaurants. The goal of the reconstruction is to maximize the preservation of the walls and structures. Minsk awaits +1 attraction!"

In the comments, Raidensy was reminded that people were tortured in the former prison. But the blogger ignored this and uploaded a video on TikTok, where she specifically emphasizes the word "castle" and says a phrase that would have sounded ambiguous until recently: "Pishchalau Castle will open to everyone!"

Blogger Maksim Pushkin adheres to the same theses: "I'm showing what Pishchalau Castle (Volodarka) looks like now in the center of Minsk. Once finished, they will open it to everyone! There will even be cafes."

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In Instagram Stories (where Maksim has over 80,000 subscribers), he notes: "They promise it will be very beautiful!"

Blogger and Instagram reality show creator Masha Sas generally didn't quite understand where she had ended up. She told her subscribers in Stories that they were brought "to some castle." And then she added: "There's just such a castle standing in Minsk. Restoration is in full swing here!"

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However, Masha was ultimately disappointed: "You romanticize all these castles... That some woman in a beautiful dress lived here... And it's a prison. I thought we would walk around now, and there would be some legend, a ghost..."

Her husband, Instagram blogger Ilya Sas, was also walking nearby.

Arkadz Lohvin, host and creator of a media agency (he has 72,000 subscribers on Instagram and about 120,000 on TikTok), was also spotted at the infamous location. He took a child with him on the excursion.

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His message doesn't differ from the others. He implies how good it is that a cool place for gatherings will be made in the 200-year-old castle — soon it will delight Minsk residents and guests of the capital. "Bars, restaurants, museums — such an unusual location will appear in the center of Minsk!"

Literally only a few words are said about the prison. However, Arkadz was mistaken, saying that Volodarka was closed for reconstruction in 2016.

This outraged journalist Ihar Losik: "Closed for reconstruction in what year? I was held there in 2020. Are you being recruited through ads?"

It seems that among the excursion visitors, Stanislau Ahinski — co-founder of the "Gastrafest" and "Piasochnitsa" projects — assesses it more or less adequately. He ironized in his Stories that it's only interesting to visit here as a guest. But he added: "We will return with an inspection in a year."

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Blogger Stas Semchanka was also seen at the event (last year he called on Belarusians to participate in elections and said that Minsk is cooler than Dubai).

Also uploaded her videos was former Ulka Pulka (aka Uliana Stoliarova, and now just Pulia). For her, Pishchalau Castle is also simply an "insanely beautiful location." She says it's very cool to be part of this story.

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Of course, such positive videos from the former prison, where political prisoners, among others, were tortured quite recently, outraged many.

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