Belarusian businessman restored abandoned village

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-10 19:46

Four years ago, hunters drove through it. We looked around at the devastation and desolation, and upon returning to the city, one of them told his colleague-businessman Pavel Radyukevich about the unenviable share of the village. From that moment on, the Tenevichs quite unexpectedly stepped into the "era of the Renaissance."

- There were rumors that the businessman gave his children a village. This, to put it mildly, does not correspond to reality, - tells us the son of a businessman Ivan, who is the deputy head of the peasant farm "White meadows", which now owns almost all buildings in Tenevichi.

- The idea to revive the village, creating an agro-farm on its basis, came to the mind of the Pope. He himself was born in a village in the Lida region and, of course, missed the village. My sister and I supported my father's idea and are now making every effort to make it come true as soon as possible. In fact, today there are a lot of children who have never seen a cow with a turkey alive, and we are going to fill these gaps.

The village that the Minsk businessman and his children inherited was a pitiful sight. The plots were overgrown with bushes so much that there were no houses to be seen, you could hardly drive along the road - but it was still somehow kept in working order, as it led to the local cemetery. One house, apparently, used to burn, the other stood with a collapsed roof. Only two huts remained, which were used as dachas. Naturally, most of the sites were bought for a pittance: no one needed them anymore. The biggest challenge was finding heirs, persuading them to complete the paperwork and buy out the land.

Today it is difficult to imagine that four years ago the Tenevichs were on fire.

In addition to diverse residential buildings (some are larger, others are smaller, there are two families with separate entrances), there will be three baths, a large and a small tavern. A small vegetable garden will be set up near each house so that guests can pick onions, parsley, dill from the garden during the season, and dig up a couple of potato tubers.

There was a small river not far from the village, it was blocked by a dam, and now you can swim here in a decent-sized lake. A large stage and an auditorium are being built on the shore of the lake, which can accommodate up to 300 people.

In total, six preserved houses remained in the village, the rest were built from log cabins brought from other villages, and they were transported along with old furniture, cashing, floors. Most of these log cabins stand on the site of old buildings - they tried to preserve authenticity.

“We really want the Tenevichs to be perceived not as an agro-town,” Ivan admits. - Rather, we tried to create something in between Dudutki and Strochitsy. On the one hand, it will be pleasant and comfortable to relax here, we will try to create an unobtrusive educational and entertainment infrastructure, in which, for example, our guests can take a pottery master class, watch how honey is pumped out of honeycombs, and so on. But at the same time, all the buildings in the village are authentic, with their own special history, and most importantly, they are actually functioning. You can choose any and live in it.

- We have the opportunity to use our own equipment, we have building materials of our own production. This, of course, significantly reduced the cost of the project, - says Ivan. - It seems to many that well over a million dollars has been invested in this project, but this is not so. At the same time, we have created a lot of jobs. Today, 15 residents of the surrounding villages work in Tenevichi. The bus, to collect everyone, travels about 40 km.

Ivan is an architect by training; he is proud to show us one of his ideas: a spacious terrace overlooking the reservoir is attached to each village house standing here. "Modernization" went to the village huts to the advantage and fits quite organically. Inside, the house looks like a neat village hut, however, this hut has a boiler, sewerage system, and a shower.

In total, the peasant farm "White Meadows" has 40 hectares of land, of which only 20 are arable, the rest are inconvenient and meadows. So far, most of them are planted with buckwheat. He also has experimental plots planted with raspberries, an apiary, and soon they plan to plant medicinal herbs.

“We would like to see tourists here who come for a few days,” Ivan sums up. - Presumably, accommodation will cost about $ 40-50 per person per day, and this amount also includes meals. Thus, a 5-day tour will cost $ 200-250, I think it's not that much money. Add to this the daily cultural program, the obligatory bathhouse, and for a fee - several interesting trips, since there are Mirsky, Nesvizhsky and Novogrudok castles, Lake Svityaz and many other interesting objects nearby. Quite good! We understand that in order to interest a tourist, it is necessary to constantly be available to him. Therefore, we are quite careful about corporate parties and weddings. It is possible to conduct them on our territory, but this should not lead to the fact that for "mere mortals" the Tenevichs will become an object permanently closed for special services.