Region

POLOTSK, 16 May (BelTA) – Polotsk has started preparations for its 1150th anniversary celebrations. Local officials have announced biddings for the concept and decorations of the festival, and a separate bidding for the emblem of next-year’s celebrations, BelTA learnt from the culture department of the Polotsk City Hall. All three biddings are organized by the Polotsk City Hall. The local authorities want to find and encourage cultural initiatives and ingenious ides of celebrations. The concept of celebrations should represent Polotsk as the origin of the Belarusian statehood, enlightenment, and the depositary of millennium-old culture and Orthodoxy on the Belarusian lands. The concept should also show that today’s Polotsk is a historical, cultural, and tourist center of Belarus and the city is open to innovations and business ideas. While estimating the bids, the commission will give preference to the most spectacular works, which portray Polotsk as an economic, tourist and cultural center of the region. The Polotsk City Hall invites teams and individual architects, designer and artists to take part in the bidding. The participants are proposed to the ideas and concepts of decorating Svobody Square, Frantsisk Skorina Square and Skorina Avenue. The concept should bring together billboards, illumination, and floral decorations. The city hall has also decided to announce a separate bidding for the emblem of celebrations. The emblem will become the official logo of festivities and it will be placed on stages, poster pillars, official invitations, leaflets, and souvenirs. Winners of the biddings will be awarded with special prizes. According to the chronicles, Polotsk is one the oldest Belarusian city, and one of the oldest cities of the Kievan Rus. It was first mentioned in 862. The city is closely connected with such outstanding persons of the Belarusian history as Vseslav the Sorcerer, St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk, and Frantsisk Skorina. The city also features a series of unique monuments of medieval architecture such as St. Sophia Cathedral and Transfiguration Church.

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