Vitsebsk

Vitsebsk (Belarusian Віцебск (Vitsebsk), Russian Витебск (Vitebsk)) is a city with about 400,000 inhabitants in Belarus close to the border with Russia and Latvia. It is the capital of Vitsebsk voblast.

Vitsebsk developed from a harbour on the Daugava River (in Belarusan: Dzvina).

Vitsebsk is the birth place of:

• Marc Chagall, famous painter
• Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, physicist

In January of 1991 Vitsebsk celebrated the first Marc Chagall Festival. In June of 1992, a monument to Chagall was erected in his native Pokrovskaja street and a memorial inscription was done on the wall of his house.