TOP-23 best sights of Brest

Brest is a city with a great past, with­out which there would be no glo­ri­ous present. Pre­served archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ments, rich muse­ums, hous­es of promi­nent peo­ple, parks, alleys and squares — all these are the sights of Brest, wor­thy of the atten­tion of tourists.

Who and why should go to Brest

Those who are inter­est­ed in mil­i­tary his­to­ry should vis­it the Brest Fortress and local the­mat­ic muse­ums. In the city, which was the first to take the fas­cist blow, the events of the Great Patri­ot­ic War are well remem­bered.

For admir­ers of fine art and local his­to­ry there are art and ethno­graph­ic muse­ums. And unusu­al street art objects are the best place to get new impres­sions and impres­sive shots.

Ortho­dox church­es and Catholic church­es are wait­ing for those who are inspired by reli­gious paint­ing, music and archi­tec­ture.

Museums

Brest Fortress

This for­ti­fi­ca­tion appeared on the site of an ancient cas­tle back in 1833. It con­sists of bar­racks, case­mates and out­build­ings sur­round­ed by a 2‑meter mas­sive wall. In 1913, an addi­tion­al for­ti­fi­ca­tion of the citadel was car­ried out. Dur­ing the First World War, the fortress was con­sid­ered impreg­nable. On June 22, 1941, she was the first to take the firestorm of the fas­cist invaders.

Now on the ter­ri­to­ry of the fortress there are sev­er­al memo­ri­als, the Eter­nal Flame, the­mat­ic expo­si­tions and a well-groomed park.

Museum of the Defense of the Brest Fortress

The muse­um is housed in a bar­racks that has par­tial­ly sur­vived and then restored. More than 400 unique exhibits are stored in its funds. The main place is occu­pied by things relat­ed to the Great Patri­ot­ic War and the defense of the fortress: per­son­al belong­ings of sol­diers, doc­u­ments, pho­tographs, weapons, diaries.

Arti­facts from the his­to­ry of the Brest-Litovsk fortress and for­ti­fi­ca­tions pre­ced­ing it are also pre­sent­ed here. The entire exhi­bi­tion occu­pies 10 halls.

Museum “5th Fort”

One of the main attrac­tions of the Brest Fortress is a pen­ta­gon with an area of ​​approx­i­mate­ly 800 thou­sand square meters. m. Inside it is a caponier (a struc­ture for fir­ing in two direc­tions), from where an under­ground pas­sage was laid to the bar­racks with 11 case­mates.

In the ear­ly 2000s, the bar­racks was turned into a muse­um with an inter­est­ing expo­si­tion that tells about the sol­diers of the tsarist and Sovi­et armies who served here. Out­side there is an exhi­bi­tion of artillery pieces from the Sec­ond World War.

Railway Museum

One of the most vis­it­ed muse­ums in Brest occu­pies more than 1 km of tracks, on which there is a vari­ety of rail­way equip­ment. Rail­cars, wag­ons and loco­mo­tives are the main exhibits. It is also worth lin­ger­ing at the col­or­ful clock and the sta­tion bell, which once announced the arrival of trains.

Here, any­one can feel like a dri­ver of an old steam loco­mo­tive — go inside the cab­in, pull the horn and throw a cou­ple of real logs into the styl­ized fire­box.

Museum “Saved Artistic Values”

The muse­um with a telling name exhibits art objects con­fis­cat­ed by Belaru­sian bor­der guards in an attempt to ille­gal­ly export them abroad.

Smug­gling impress­es with the price, size and cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance of the exhibits. These are can­vas­es by Aiva­zovsky, Vrubel, Eis­mond, Leg­er, prod­ucts of the Faberge house, icons and ancient porce­lain vas­es from Chi­na, sev­er­al thou­sand years old, as well as antique fur­ni­ture and oth­er objects of dec­o­ra­tive and applied art.

History Museum

A small muse­um in a col­or­ful white build­ing under a clay red roof opened at the end of the 20th cen­tu­ry. It tells about the his­to­ry of the city in chrono­log­i­cal order: from ancient times to the present.

The expo­si­tion occu­pies 4 halls on two floors. It presents archae­o­log­i­cal finds, cloth­ing, house­hold items, jew­el­ry, doc­u­ments and pho­tographs.

Archaeological Museum Berestye

On the ter­ri­to­ry of the Brest Fortress there is anoth­er unusu­al muse­um. This is an exca­va­tion of a well-pre­served ancient set­tle­ment of the 13th cen­tu­ry. Tourists can see wood­en pave­ments, foun­da­tions, earth­en­ware, stoves, weapons, jew­el­ry and house­hold items of that time in their orig­i­nal form. Archae­o­log­i­cal finds are pro­tect­ed by a huge glass dome.

Sep­a­rate­ly, there is a wood­en frame. This is a remake, built accord­ing to ancient Slav­ic tech­nolo­gies. Inside it, you can com­plete­ly immerse your­self in the peas­ant life of bygone times.

Regional Museum of Local Lore

One of the largest muse­ums in the coun­try with many branch­es. More than 170 thou­sand items and 20 col­lec­tions are stored in its store­rooms. The main build­ing has two per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tions: “Native Nature”, which tells about the flo­ra and fau­na of Belarus, and “His­tor­i­cal” — with arti­facts and doc­u­ments from dif­fer­ent eras from ancient times.

Architectural monuments and monuments

Monument to the Millennium of Brest

In the very cen­ter of the city, at the inter­sec­tion of the tourist streets of Gogol and Sovet­skaya, there is a mon­u­ment to the Mil­len­ni­um of Brest. It was installed in 2009 10 years before the anniver­sary date with dona­tions from the towns­peo­ple. The har­mo­nious com­po­si­tion quick­ly became a local land­mark.

The mon­u­ment is a 5‑meter col­umn. At its top stands the guardian angel of Brest, and in his hands he holds a mas­sive cross. Below are icon­ic fig­ures — peo­ple who left a notice­able mark on the his­to­ry and devel­op­ment of the city.

Manor Nemtsevichi

The archi­tec­tur­al and park ensem­ble is locat­ed in the vil­lage of Skok­ie, about a 40-minute dri­ve from the city. The baroque build­ing was erect­ed in 1777 by order of the states­man Nemt­se­vich. Today it hous­es a muse­um. Tourists are invit­ed to see the authen­tic inte­ri­ors of the 18th cen­tu­ry, includ­ing cer­e­mo­ni­al halls and a sec­u­lar salon.

Part of the build­ing is reserved for the exhi­bi­tion. It exhibits paint­ings by local artists. The estate is sur­round­ed by a beau­ti­ful park with lawns, alleys and a pond — pho­to shoots are often arranged here.

Belaya Vezha

Approx­i­mate­ly 40 km from Brest there is a defen­sive watch­tow­er Belaya Vezha. Built at the end of the 13th cen­tu­ry, it wit­nessed many his­tor­i­cal events, with­stood the attacks of the cru­saders, Lithuan­ian princes and Pol­ish gen­try. The height of the build­ing is about 35 m — the pic­turesque sur­round­ings are clear­ly vis­i­ble from the upper obser­va­tion deck.

Religious sites

St. Nicholas Garrison Cathedral

The cur­rent tem­ple on the ter­ri­to­ry of the Brest Fortress was erect­ed in the mid­dle of the 19th cen­tu­ry. Low and squat, it was built so as not to stand out from the back­ground of the gar­ri­son build­ings. The mod­est size of the tem­ple is com­pen­sat­ed by rich archi­tec­ture.

The exte­ri­or is made in the Byzan­tine style — the three-aisled basil­i­ca is the cen­ter of the com­po­si­tion. Inside the cathe­dral are icons with relics of Nicholas the Won­der­work­er, Matrona of Moscow and oth­er saints.

Trinity Church in Chernavchitsy

In the sub­urbs of Brest, in the vil­lage of Cher­nav­chit­sy, there is the Trin­i­ty Church. This bright mon­u­ment of Belaru­sian archi­tec­ture, built in the 16th cen­tu­ry, is a mix­ture of two styles — Goth­ic and Renais­sance. The con­struc­tion was used not only for reli­gious pur­pos­es, but also for defen­sive pur­pos­es.

This is evi­denced by the bel­fry, sim­i­lar to a tow­er with an obser­va­tion deck, nar­row loop­hole win­dows and thick walls. The Catholic Church is active, and ser­vices are still sent in it.

Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

This mon­u­ment of archi­tec­ture in the style of late clas­si­cism with a tri­an­gu­lar ped­i­ment appeared in 1856. In Sovi­et times, it was closed, and then the build­ing was giv­en over to the expo­si­tion of the local his­to­ry muse­um. It was at this time that the facade of the build­ing was seri­ous­ly dam­aged — all dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments were dis­man­tled.

In the peri­od of mod­ern his­to­ry, the tem­ple was care­ful­ly restored accord­ing to old pho­tographs and descrip­tions, and an organ was installed. And in 2002, divine ser­vices resumed in it. The main shrine of the church is the mirac­u­lous icon of the Moth­er of God. Organ music con­certs are also reg­u­lar­ly held here.

Holy Resurrection Cathedral

Built in 1995, in hon­or of the 50th anniver­sary of the vic­to­ry in the Great Patri­ot­ic War, the Holy Res­ur­rec­tion Cathe­dral is the largest in Belarus. The size of the build­ing, designed in the canons of the Old Russ­ian style, is about 40 meters.

The church con­sists of two tem­ples: the upper one is the Res­ur­rec­tion of the Lord and the low­er one is Our Lady of Kazan. The main inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tion is mul­ti-col­ored stained-glass win­dows. Also, believ­ers come here to ven­er­ate the relics of St. John of Kormyan­sky and the icon of the Tikhvin Moth­er of God.

St. Nicholas brotherly church

The tem­ple, built in 1906, is ded­i­cat­ed to the mem­o­ry of the fall­en in the Rus­so-Japan­ese War. It was built with the mon­ey of ordi­nary peo­ple, and Tsar Nicholas II allo­cat­ed the miss­ing amount from the state trea­sury.

The struc­ture in a char­ac­ter­is­tic Byzan­tine style resem­bles a ship from a dis­tance. Its bright dec­o­ra­tion catch­es the eye. The inner walls and vaults are also gen­er­ous­ly paint­ed, and the three-tiered iconos­ta­sis is skill­ful­ly exe­cut­ed.

St. Simeon Cathedral

One of the most vis­it­ed cathe­drals in Brest has an unusu­al green col­or of the facade. The tem­ple was erect­ed in hon­or of St. Sime­on the Stylite, who is revered by this col­or in the Ortho­dox tra­di­tion. Inside there is an abun­dance of paint­ings with many small details. Saints are depict­ed on the vaults and columns, and grace­ful cycli­cal orna­ments are depict­ed on the arch­es.

Interesting places in Brest

Sovetskaya street

This pedes­tri­an street in the city cen­ter has been rebuilt more than once. Nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and polit­i­cal forces have repeat­ed­ly changed its appear­ance. Today it has become a vis­it­ing card of Brest. There are cafes, restau­rants, bustling life. Almost every build­ing is a mon­u­ment of archi­tec­ture. Numer­ous sculp­tur­al com­po­si­tions are excel­lent dec­o­ra­tions for orig­i­nal pho­tos.

Alley of forged lanterns

In 2013 on the street. Gogol, an unusu­al attrac­tion appeared — an alley of 30 forged lanterns. They occu­py the entire pedes­tri­an part of the street. The most extrav­a­gant of them are lanterns in the form of a clown, a loom, a horse and a ship. There is sim­ply no bet­ter place for a self­ie.

Brest Park of Culture and Leisure

The favorite place of rest for cit­i­zens and guests of Brest is the local park of cul­ture and recre­ation. It was laid at the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tu­ry, when sev­er­al hun­dred trees and shrubs were plant­ed, alleys with gaze­bos and bench­es were laid out.

Belaru­sians have care­ful­ly pre­served and increased their her­itage. The park is still neat and attrac­tive. There are attrac­tions, cafes, restau­rants and a sum­mer stage, cul­tur­al events are held here.

Winter Garden

The bizarrely shaped glazed green­house is the edu­ca­tion­al and method­olog­i­cal com­plex of the local uni­ver­si­ty. How­ev­er, every­one who wants to enjoy the mag­nif­i­cence of nature and the riot of its col­ors is allowed here for a fee.

Cit­ruses, exot­ic agave, yuc­ca, pome­gran­ates, spread­ing palms, sev­er­al types of orchids and oth­er plants of south­ern lat­i­tudes grow in abun­dance in the win­ter gar­den. Par­tic­u­lar­ly touch­ing are skill­ful­ly made fig­urines of ani­mals lurk­ing in wild thick­ets.

Bialowieza Forest

The most famous nature reserve of Belarus is locat­ed just 65 km from Brest. The ter­ri­to­ry of the park exceeds 150 thou­sand hectares of untouched forests, which are home to a vari­ety of fau­na, includ­ing rare species of ani­mals list­ed in the Red Book. For lovers of hik­ing routes, eco­log­i­cal trails of vary­ing com­plex­i­ty and length are laid here.

Vis­i­tors can observe roe deer, deer, bison in their nat­ur­al habi­tat. If you did­n’t man­age to meet the inhab­i­tants of Belovezh­skaya Pushcha dur­ing the walk, you can always see them close­ly in the spa­cious pad­docks at the entrance to the park.

Ostrich farm

Not far from Brest is the largest ostrich farm in Europe and the entire post-Sovi­et space. Here, not only exot­ic birds are bred to obtain eggs and meat, but they also pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty to get clos­er to the flight­less birds: feed, ride, and observe their behav­ior.

The guides will show the enclo­sures, talk about the diet and habits of ostrich­es. There is also a shop with farm del­i­ca­cies on site.