Approaching Mir you can notice the contours of the castle at a distance. Its great towers, tall walls, three-storied palace keeping mysterious traces of the past look so majestic even now. According to a legend Mir Castle was built by some mysterious giants in pre-Adam times. The version of historians is more prosaic. Thus, according to their investigations the castle called later “the most fascinating medieval flower” was erected by the order of Juri Il’initch who was a mayor of the city of Brest and a court marshal of Great Principality of Lithuania. The builder was an unknown local master.
There arises a question when the castle was erected. The experts cannot agree completely on the date. Some of them are convinced that the building works took place in 1506, others think it was done in 1495-1500, the rest are inclined to mention the period of 1522-1526.
The investigations of Lithuanian chronicle prove the last version. The first mention of Mir Castle (1527) was related to the issue of the letter on ownership partition among the sons of Juri Il’initch. There also exists a written confirmation of a big loan borrowed by Il’initch senior just after 1522.
Until present there are disputes on the purpose Mir Castle was erected for. Abundance of various decorative details and gothic elements as well as the choice of the open and plane area for its construction tells us that the castle had not been planned as solely fortification building. Certainly it does not mean that the creators of Mir Castle did not think about the defense of their property. All the floors of the castle as well as its foot place had been equipped with loopholes of different sizes for using guns. What’s more the western and the southern walls transformed into a battle gallery arranged with loopholes for bow and arbalest shooting. Slanting loopholes let the tar be poured over heads of attacking enemies. It was also possible to throw stones or just to shoot through the loopholes.
However, puzzling was the fact that the western towers were situated too close each to other. Such a layout might cause a lot of troubles while observing environs or during fire gun attack. Moreover, multistoried towers and high fortress walls were constantly loosing their defensive mission because of the rapid development of fire-arms. In other words “the most fascinating medieval flower” presented a kind of play or an imitation of the castle rather than a castle in common sense of this word.
The pattern of decorations of the towers and the walls is rather modest. Its architectural design is composed of typical but different in size elements: niches, arches, etc. The language of medieval ornaments is generally difficult to understand. That is why we can just guess on destination of these or those details. For example, no one can explain appearance of a sheep head on the southern wall of the castle. Perhaps it was a wish of the landlord to have a magic talisman or just biblical image of a lamb. There are some suppositions on Juri Il’initch decision to build Mir Castle. They say it was his cherished desire to get a noble title or just to immortalize himself as an author of the great building.
There exist numerous legends about old Mir Castle and its inhabitants. The most famous personality is landowner from the family of the Radzivils called Kokhanek (from Polish word Kochanek - sweet-lover). His life was full of adventures. Once in summer he escaped from pirates in a nut shell, rode a horse-cart harnessed by bears and, what’s more, the bears ran on the salt ground! Kakhanek was famous for his numerous romantic love affairs. Rumors told once he fell in love with a ... siren.
The Radzivils possessed the castle till the end of the XVIII century. Later the property passed over counts and princes such as Gogenloe, Berlenbourg, and Vitgenstein. Beginning from 1891 the Svyatapolk-Mirski counts took possess of the castle (similarity in the family name and name of the castle is just a mere coincidence). New owners began to form a new palace-park ensemble. The two-storied building was the center of its composition. It was placed almost co-axially with the existing castle at the opposite side of the estate just near the former farm where the gardens were situated. The front part of the ensemble was arranged in classical traditions. Even now you can find outer side outbuilding and two maple avenues leading to a large raised circle surrounded by lime trees.
After fire in 1914 the castle was not restored and the last prince from the family lived in the old castle till 1939. During World War II there was a ghetto, later there came people who the war made homeless. Many refugees lived there after the war. The last inhabitant left Mir Castle somewhen in early 1960s.
On July 9, 2002 Mir Castle was included into the World Heritage UNESCO.
On April 1, 2011 - Mir Castle Complex received the status of an independent museum. Not so long ago the reconstruction of the Castle was finished. Now there is a hotel, restaurant, souvenir benches. The hotel is directly in the lock.