A beautifully ornamented, Art Nouveau tenement from the beginning of the 20th century, belonged to the Jewish Cytron family of manufacturers who owned a textile factory in Supraśl and were the funders of a synagogue. In the 1970’s the Revolutionary Movement Museum was located here, later transformed into the Historical Museum. Today, the museum invites visitors to watch a multimedia show on a mock-up of 18th-century Bałystok. The permanent exhibition also includes exhibits from old Białystok tenements and a mock-up of Ritz Hotel – a place Białystok used to be known for.

The Centre was opened in 2009 on the occasion of 94. World Esperanto Congress taking place in Białystok. The centre’s purpose is to popularise knowledge of Ludwik Zamenhof and propagate the idea of being open towards other cultures. Visitors can view the “Białystok of young Zamenhof” exhibition as well as take part in numerous concerts, lectures, literary promotions or film projections. The first public Esperanto library in Poland is also located here.

In 1807, after the Treaties of Tilsit were signed, Białystok became a part of the Russian Empire. This building was erected several dozen years later for the Belostok Oblast Office headquarters. The oblast (an administrative region in Russia) was shortly after liquidated and the town was incorporated into the Grodno Governorate. The building was then repurposed for a middle school and a Real School from which Ludwik Zamenhof graduated. In 1919, the Sigismund Augustus State Middle School for Boys started operating here. Today, High School no. 6 is located here.

The palace was funded by Jan Klemens Branicki in the 1760’s. It could be dedicated for the Master of the Horse – one of the most important courtiers – or for Branicki’s wife, Izabela Poniatowska, who, tired of the courtly life, needed “maison de plaisance” (a private house for rest). The construction was finished under Izabela Branicka’s supervision. In the 20th century, popular restaurants “Renaissance” and “Savoy” were here. After the war, the Regional Museum was opened here, followed by the Revolutionary Movement Museum. Today, the Register Office is located here. In the 1990’s, baroque character was incorporated into the interiors.

The cathedral complex consists of two churches: the old parish church and the MinorBasilica. The “White” church is the oldest temple in Białystok – it was built in the years 1617-1625, funded by the Wiesiołowski family. The temple, embellished by subsequent owners – the Branicki family – became the family mausoleum. The “Red” church is a neo-Gothic annex from the years 1900-1907. At the end of the 19th century, the tsarist authorities allowed the presbytery of the old church to be demolished and expanded according to the design of Józef Pius Dziekoński.

In 2009 – on the 150th anniversary of Ludwik Zamenhof’s birth – Białystok hosted the 94th World Esperanto Congress, an annual event for Esperantists. The mural by Andrzej Muszyński was unveiled a year before the Congress. Ludwik Zamenhof stands on the central balcony, and just below him, Białystok Esperantists Jakub Szapiro and Abraham Zbar sit in the window. The mural is located at the end of Zamenhofa Street, which received its name thanks to Jakub Szapiro in 1919. The family home of the creator of Esperanto stood next to the block with the mural until the 1950s.

The creator of the international language Esperanto was born in Białystok and spent 14 years of his life here. In the 19th century, Białystok was a multicultural city on the outskirts of the Russian Empire, inhabited by Poles, Russians, Germans and Jews. Observing the mutual hostility of its inhabitants, Zamenhof decided that only acommon language could  prevent conflicts. Inspired by his hometown, he wrote the play “The Tower of Babel, or the Białystok Tragedy in Five Acts”. The monument by

Jan Klucz was created in 1973. At the base of the bust is the inscription “Esperanto proksimigas nacioj” (Esperanto brings nations closer together).

The first Orthodox parish in the area of the present city was established in the 16th century in the Dojlidy estate of the Chodkiewicz family. In the place of the present church, in the years 1727-1843, there was a wooden church of St. Nicholas, founded by Jan Klemens Branicki. In the mid-19th century, a decision was made to build a brick church. The polychromes made in the interior at that time have not survived to this day. New iconography was made in the 1970s. The church is the cathedral of the Białystok-Gdańsk diocese of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the seat of the bishop. It is referred to as a “sobór” – a church of special significance.

The monument in the shape of a destroyed dome refers to “Black Friday”, or June 27, 1941, when German battalions entering the city locked about 800 people in the Great Synagogue and then set fire to the building and the surrounding Jewish district of Szulhof. That day, almost 2,000 Jews died in the streets of the city. The monument also commemorates the  synagogue itself – the largest synagogue in Białystok, built between 1903 and 1913. The monument was unveiled in 1995, and its creation was possible thanks to the cooperation of the diaspora of Białystok Jews with the city authorities.

One of the three surviving synagogues in Białystok took its name from the Piaski district. It also functioned as a bet midrash, or school of Jewish law. Built in the last years of the 19th century, devastated during World War II, it was rebuilt and given over to Jewish organizations. Among others, the Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland had its headquarters here. The building burned down in the 1980s, and renovations stripped it of its synagogue features. It is now home to a construction company, and the Białystok Esperanto Association has its premises at the back of the building.

After the third partition of Poland, Białystok became part of the Kingdom of Prussia and was promoted to the capital of a new province called New East Prussia. A significant influx of Evangelicals contributed to the establishment of a cemetery in the late 18th century. The cemetery was closed a hundred years later, along with the establishment of a new necropolis outside the city limits on Wasilkowska Street. A marketplace was established right next to the cemetery, which after World War II also occupied the area of the necropolis itself. The memory of this place was erased, and it itself functioned as Sienny Market. In 2010, 400 graves were discovered here. In 2020, a monument in the shape of four concrete pillars was unveiled. The exhumed remains of Białystok Evangelicals were placed under the floor.

Before World War I, the building was the seat of the Talmud Torah, a Jewish religious school for the poorest. In the interwar period, it housed a primary Hebrew school run by the Tarbut cultural and educational association. Its goal was to promote secular Hebrew culture. The building was built in a style characteristic of the Grodno Governorate – red and yellow bricks were used for decorative purposes, leaving the facades unplastered. The school complex also included a much larger craft school, built in a similar style. It currently houses a hotel.

One of two buildings in the city that is an example of Art Nouveau and impresses with its architectural detail. The building was built in the years 1910-1912 thanks to the Jewish entrepreneur Chaim Nowik, owner of a cloth and hat factory located on Augustowska Street. Nowik’s heirs leased part of the tenement house to the army, which placed the District Drafting Office in the building. In September 1939, the Białystok Defense Headquarters was located here. After 1946, the army renovated the building and placed the Military Drafting Office here.

Jakub Szapiro (1897-1941) was a social activist and journalist, known in the Białystok community as an Esperanto enthusiast. He passed the language exam at the age of 14 under Ludwik Zamenhof’s supervision. On his initiative, the Białystok Esperanto Society was founded, and Zielona Street was renamed Zamenhofa Street. He also tried to have a monument resembling the Tower of Babel built. His apartment was an address known to Esperantists all over the world. He was killed in the Pietrasze forest, shot by the Germans.

In the mid-18th century, a brick cemetery chapel of St. Roch, funded by Jan Klemens Branicki, was erected on the hill. After World War I, a decision was made to establish a second Catholic parish. The parish priest was Father Abramowicz, who in 1927 decided to build a church according to the design of Oskar Sosnowski. The church was to be a monument of gratitude to Divine Providence for the regained independence and protection from the Bolsheviks. The church was built on a star plan symbolizing the invocation of the Litany of Loreto concerning the Morning Star. The church was consecrated in 1946. Białystok received an original building, which was one of the first examples of sacral modernist architecture in the world. The Minor Basilica was given the title of Monument of History.