Typical souvenir sections in department stores sell crafts made from straw and wood, lacquered boxes and spoons, traditional Belarusian linen, Russian dolls and hip flasks with Soviet emblems and badges on them. Here are some places where you’ll find something a little bit different.

Slavutiya Maystri (Славутыя Майстры)
Kommunalnaya Naberezhnaya 4 (Коммунальная Набережная 4)
10:00-19:00 Mon-Sat, closed Sunday
Pleasant little shop exhibiting works by Belarusian artists and craftsmen. In the old town overlooking the river, you’ll find it next to the Vyanok bookshop.

Kupalinka (Купалинка)
Prospekt Nezavisimosti 19 (Проспект Независимости 19)
10:00-20:00 Mon-Fri, 10:00-18:00 Sat, Sun
This souvenir shop next to Gum has a good selection of traditional Belarusian linen as well as pottery from Radashkovichi, a small town near Minsk.

Podzemka (Подземка)
Prospekt Nezavisimosti 19 (Проспект Независимости 19)
10:00-20:00 Mon-Sat, 11:00-18:00 Sun
www.podzmka.org
Contemporary art and design in this basement exhibition centre and shop 5 minutes walk from Victory Square.

Galareya Mastatstva (Галарея Мастацтва)
Prospekt Nezavisimosti 12 (Проспект Независимости 12)
10:00-20:00 Mon-Sat, closed Sunday
Tempting paintings by Belarusian artists that won’t fit inside your suitcase.

Vernisazh (Вернисаж)
Prospekt Nezavisimosti (Проспект Независимости)
09:00-18:00 Tues-Sun
An outdoor gallery situated on Ploshad Oktyabrskaya next to the war museum. It used to be down the road on Ploshad Svobodi on a site that was a small park but is now occupied by the town hall. Then it was much more fun, with paintings and souvenirs displayed on benches, against trees and on makeshift little stalls. Not as romantic nowadays but there’s still romance in the paintings, some of them beautiful, many just bizarre. Nothing is priced so prepare to haggle.

Collectors Club (Клуб Коллекционеров)
Chkalova 7 (Чкалова 7), which is the Railway Workers House (Дом Железнодорожников)
14:00-17:00 Wednesdays, 09:00-13:00 Sundays
Stamps, postcards, military items, beer bottle labels, phone cards and random bits of tat than mean something to somebody. It’s not too often that foreigners turn up here, in fact most locals don’t know about these gatherings. Everyone will take an interest in you but they’re a friendly, if rather serious, bunch of characters. Please note that you have to pay to enter at the ticket office at the entrance. If you pop up to the second floor there is a free exhibition dedicated to the history of the Belarusian railways.

Kristall vodka
Oktyabrskaya 15 (Октябрьская 15)
09:00-20:00 (10:00-19:00)
The Kristall vodka distillery is one of the oldest in the world and has an international reputation for quality. It’s not far from the city centre, behind Minsk concert hall, which itself is behind the Dynamo Stadium. There is a very old-fashioned shop there where you can stock up.
An even better selection can be found at their modern shop in the Stolitsa shopping centre on Independence Square. Enter from the subway near the Hotel Minsk and it’s about eight shops down on the left. Here you will find a wide variety of vodkas in all sorts of different sized bottles and fancy packaging at prices so low it’ll make you weep.

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