This is a sub-article to Białystok

Białystok is one of the largest cultural centers in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The attractions include performing arts groups, art museums, historical museums, walking tours of architectural / cultural aspects and a wide variety of parks and green spaces. Białystok in 2010 was on the short-list, but ultimately lost the competition, to become a finalist for European Capital of Culture

European Capital of Culture

The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....

 in 2016.

Performing Arts

The city has a number of performing arts facilities including:

• Białystok Puppet Theater , established in 1953, is one of the oldest Polish puppet theaters. The facility is located at Kalinowskiego 1 in Białystok. The repertoire includes performances for both children and puppet adaptations of world literature for adults. Because of the high artistic level of productions, the theater has been recognized as one of the best puppetry arts centers in Poland.

• Aleksandra Węgierki Drama Theatre. Housed in a building designed by Jaroslaw Girina , built in the years 1933-1938.

Puppet Theatre With Białostockiemu and Department of Puppetry Art Theatre Academy in Warsaw has been called Białystok Polish puppetry arts center. In addition to the BTL-u, there are also the Wegierko Drama Theatre as well as several private theaters (including the Suprasla Wierszalin Theatre and Theatre K3 from Bialystok). The city also has a philharmonic. City Marshal's Office along with the planned construction of the European Centre for Music and Art, which shall consist of are: Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, an extensive puppetry and cinema.

Museums

There are a number of museums in the city including:

• Historical Museum in Białystok is part of the Podlaskie Museum. The facility has a rich collection of archival materials and iconography illustrating the history of Białystok and Podlasie, and a number of middle-class cultural relics, especially in the field of craft utility. There are also the Numismatic Cabinet of the collection of 16 000 coins, medals and securities. The museum is in possession of the only collections in the country memorabilia connected with the Tatar settlement on the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian region.

• Army Museum in Białystok was established in September 1968 as a branch of the Podlaskie Museum to house the research and collections of many people connected with military history of north-eastern Poland.

• The Ludwik Zamenhof Centre
  The Ludwik Zamenhof Centre
  The Ludwik Zamenhof Centre – a city cultural institution established in Bialystok at 19 Warszawska St. upon the motion of the President of the City. It was founded to celebrate the organization of the 94th World Congress of Esperanto that was held from 25 July to 1 August 2009 in Bialystok. The...
  
  

Białystok, as the seat of the Voivodeship, is one of the largest cultural centers in the north-eastern Poland. It works in the Museum of the largest in the province of Podlaskie, with branches in Białystok (Historical Museum, the Museum of Sculpture Alfons Karny, Bialystok Village Museum). In Bialystok, there are also: Army Museum and the Museum of Natural History, University of Bialystok. There 's also one of the best Polish contemporary art gallery - Gallery Arsenal. The second gallery is a municipal gallery to them. Sleńdzińskich, Poland has the largest collection of art and memorabilia archive Polish family of artists from Vilnius. In addition, working here 19 private art galleries.

Białystok Cultural Center (Legionowa 5, 15-281 Białystok)

The Białystok Cultural Center was established in 1975. It organize over 200 events, festivals and local activities every year. One of the most popular event is Days of Bialystok which includes big cultural events like jazz concerts, dance & theater performances, and outdoor events. Another large festival is the Days of Modern Art festival - 2 weeks of movie, music, photographic, comic art, animation and theater events. From over 30 propositions about 25 are organizing by our center and the rest are mostly organized by Arsenal Gallery. Twice a month people interested in other culture/nations are participating in Globetrotter's World series - a meeting with lots of attractions: dance workshops, original food tasting, guest from all over the world including guest from different embassies. The biggest cultural event in autumn season is Autumn with Blues.

Śródmieście Culture House (Kilińskiego 13, 15-089 Białystok)

Śródmieście ("Downtown") Culture House was created by Resolution of the City of Bialystok dated. 4 February 1991. It a local cultural institution that operates as a center of art education and carries out tasks in the fields of education, cultural education, the dissemination of culture among children and adolescents and adults.

Youth Culture Club (15-201 Białystok Warszawska 79)

The Youth Culture Club in Bialystok is an extra-curricular education institution. It implements a program of teaching - educational as the statute, the work plan developed by the Teachers, the suggestions of the Parent Council and Youth Council, and according to the needs of the local community. It was established in 1983.
The focal point of the work with youth is the interpretation of art and replenishment activities, education, polytechnic and sports, which enables the full development of personality of a young minds.

Białystok Puppet Theatre, Kalinowskiego 1, 15-875 Białystok

Sleńdzińskich Gallery (municipal institution presenting Vilnius heritage of Sleńdziński family), Waryńskiego 24A, 15-461 Białystok

The Arsenał Gallerył (municipal gallery of modern art) A. Mickiewicza 2 15-232 Białystok

The Army Museum, Kilińskiego 7, 15-089

Libraries

In Białystok operates several libraries. The biggest of these is Książnica Podlaska and the Białystok University Library. The elderly and the disabled free use of the Library Foundation for Education and Creativity, which offer the service "phone book" dedicated to those who are not able to reach out personally to hire. Other cultural institutions include the Białostocki Cultural Center, Orthodox Cultural Center, the Center for Esperanto. Ludwik Zamenhof, the House of Culture "Downtown", Voivodeship Center of Cultural Animation and Youth Culture

Parks and green spaces

Approximately 32% of the city is occupied by parks, squares and forest preserves which creates a unique and healthy climate. The green spaces include:

• Branicki Palace
  Branicki Palace
  Branicki Palace may refer to:*Branicki Palace, Białystok*Branicki Palace, Warsaw...
  
    is a historical edifice and 9.7 ha (24 acre) park in Białystok. It was developed on the site of an earlier building in the first half of the 18th century by Jan Klemens Branicki
  Jan Klemens Branicki
  Count Jan Klemens Branicki was a Polish nobleman, magnate and Hetman, Field Crown Hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between 1735 and 1752, and Great Crown Hetman between 1752 and 1771....
  
  , a wealthy Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth hetman
  Hetman
  Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....
  
  , into a residence
  House
  A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
  
   suitable for a man whose ambition was to be elected king of Poland. The palace complex with gardens
  Garden à la française
  The French formal garden, also called jardin à la française, is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order over nature. It reached its apogee in the 17th century with the creation of the Gardens of Versailles, designed for Louis XIV by the landscape architect André Le...
  
  , pavillons
  Pavilion (structure)
  In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
  
  , sculptures
  Garden sculpture
  The predominant garden types in the ancient world were domestic gardens and sacred gardens. Sculpture of gods and kings were placed in temple compounds, along with sacred lakes and sacred groves. It is not known whether statues were placed in Greek domestic gardens but the Romans transported a...
  
  , outbuildings and other structures and the city with churches, city hall and monastery
  Monastery
  Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
  
  , all built almost at the same time according to French models was the reason why the city was known in the 18th century as Versailles
  Versailles
  Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
  
   of Podlaskie .

• Planty is a 14.94 ha (36.9 acre) park created between 1930–1938, under the auspices of the then Voivode Kościałkowskiego Mariana Zyndrama in the areas adjacent to Branicki Palace. The modernist composition of the park was designed by Stanislav Gralla.

Approximately 32% of the city is occupied by green areas. Parks and squares and 1,779 ha of forest are located within the city which creates a unique and healthy climate. Within Bialystok, there are two nature reserves with a total area of 105 ha, that are part of the Knyszyn Forest

Puszcza Knyszynska Landscape Park

Puszcza Knyszyńska Landscape Park is a protected area in north-eastern Poland, established in 1988, covering an area of ....

. Such a location of nature reserves in the immediate vicinity of the city is unique. Because of these advantages in 1993 as the first city of Bialystok in Poland, was admitted to the International Network of Healthy Cities project conducted by the World Health Organization.

Within the town there are three nature reserves; Zwierzyniecki Forest Nature Reserve, Reserve Antoniuk, Swamp Nature Reserve

Architecture

The various historically driven changes have had a very significant influence on the architectural space of the city. Most other Polish cities have suffered similarly, but the processes in Białystok, have had a particularly intense course. Numerous historic works of architecture no longer exist, while many others have been rebuilt to their original configuration. Very few historic buildings of the city have been preserved - the sights are merely an echo of the old historical shape of Białystok.

Monuments

• In memory of victims of the Polish-Bolshevik war - Picture
• "42nd Infantry Regiment" of Jan Henryk Dabrowski
  Jan Henryk Dabrowski
  -Biography:Dąbrowski was born to Jan Michal Dąbrowski and Sophie née von Lettow in Pierzchów, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth He grew up in Hoyerswerda, Electorate of Saxony, where his father served as a Colonel in the Saxon army...
  
   monument - Picture
• Armia Krajowa
  Armia Krajowa
  The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
  
   monument - Picture
• In memory of heroes from Białystok Land in WWII
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
   - Picture
• Jadwiga Dziekońska (soldier of Armia Krajowa) monument - Picture
• In memory of murdered Poles in Katyn
  Katyn massacre
  The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
  
   - Picture
• Marshal Józef Piłsudski monument - Picture
• Jerzy Popiełuszko monument - Picture
• Polish Army
  Polish Land Forces
  The Polish Land Forces are a branch of Poland's Armed Forces. They currently contain some 65,000 active personnel and form many components of EU and NATO deployments around the world.-History:...
  
   in western Europe
  Western Europe
  Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
  
   (during WWII) monument - Picture
• Solidarność monument - Picture
• In memory of Poles deported to Siberia
  Siberia
  Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
  
   - Picture
• In memory of murdered Jews in the Great Synagogue (WWII) - Picture
• In memory of victims of the Ghetto uprising in Białystok - Picture
• Defenders of Białystok monument (WWII) - Picture
• Ludwik Zamenhof
  L. L. Zamenhof
  Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof December 15, 1859 – April 14, 1917) was the inventor of Esperanto, the most successful constructed language designed for international communication.-Cultural background:...
  
  monument - Picture

Events

A number of recurring cultural events happen every month in Białystok. The list includes, but is not limited to:

• Presentation of nativity scenes (January)
• Carnival - A Voivodeship Review of Dancing Companies (January)
• Szorty - the independent film festival (February)
• National Festival of Belarussian Song (February)
• Białystok Music Spring (March)
• Documentary Film Festival (March)
• Golden Shoes Ballroom Dancing Tournament (March - April)
• KOPYŚĆ Festival of Sailor Songs (March - April)
• Easter Festival (Easter)
• The International Festival of Orthodox Church Music (May)
• Days of Contemporary Art (May - June)
• Juvenalia Students Festival (May - June)
• Summer Divertimento, Sunday Chamber Music (May, September)
• Jazz Deptak, jazz concerts (May, September)
• Days of Białystok (June)
• Jarmark na Jana - the craft fair (June)
• Cathedral Organ Concerts (July - August)
• Białystok Orthodox Music Days (September)
• The Podlaskie Trade Fairs of folk sculpture, double warp textiles and folk smithing (September)
• European Cinema Forum (September)
• Białystok Summer Film Festival (August)
• Russian Culture Days (October)
• Papal Days (October)
• Białystok Folk Songs (September - October)
• Festival of Ukrainian Culture - the Podlasie Autumn (October)
• All Saints Day with the Blues (November)
• Autumn with the Blues festival (December)
• KRESY - Poetry reciting contest for Poles living abroad (December)
• Quo vadis - festival of Christian art