Where is brest fortress

It was kept as a memorial for several decades after World War II and eventually returned to the Orthodox Church in , which is when restoration work began. The church holds regular services nowadays and is the oldest place of worship in the city of Brest.

Nikalaivsky Nicholas Church, Brest Fortress. There are other places of interest within the grounds of the citadel. Kholmskie Gate, for example, played a key role in the defence of Brest and is still riddled with hundreds of shrapnel and bullet holes on the outside of the building. There are also a couple of museums within the grounds. The main one is the Brest Fortress Defence Museum, which is located in a restored part of the barracks and details the plight of the defenders.

Kholmskie Gate, Brest Fortress. We did wander around parts of the grounds away from Ceremonial Square, however, which was worth doing as we came across disused barracks and other such remnants. We took about two hours to look around the complex in total. To the best of our knowledge, we were the only foreign tourists there but, as the fortress is a place of national heritage, it was pretty busy with locals including families, military cadets and groups of school children.

The verdant grounds are also a popular spot for wedding photos, even in the rain! Brest is km south-west of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, and about km directly east of Warsaw in Poland. There are regular trains between Minsk and Brest, which take four hours, and getting to Warsaw is also straightforward. Although the train between Brest and Terespol only takes 20 minutes, it is advisable to buy your ticket the day before and also turn up at least an hour ahead of schedule in order to pass through customs and immigration.

There are regular trains from Terespol to Warsaw and the journey time is in the region of 1 hour, 45 minutes. There are also regular buses between Brest and Grodno Hrodna , a city close to the Lithuanian border that is also worth visiting.

Getting to the fortress from the centre of Brest is easy. Either take the 17 bus from outside the Hotel Intourist or walk there one-way in about twenty-five minutes. There is no entrance fee to enter the fortress complex but you do have to pay to enter the museums. The city of Brest itself, however, is nothing special in my opinion.

We stayed at the Hotel Molodyozhnaya in a double room with private bathroom. It only looks like a star from a distance. And yet as you look out ahead the silhouette of another star frames your view. As you then carry on your approach towards the centre of the complex and the main monument, which you can already see looming large in the distance, you pass some open-air displays of old WWII -era Soviet tanks. They must all have been recently repainted, as they looked as good as new.

It depicts a crawling soldier trying to get some water from the river with his helmet. This shiny silver needle stands over a m high and is supposed to represent the bayonet of a Red Army rifle. At its foot is the field of graves covered with marble slabs, some known names of the fallen are given in gold letters on the slabs and wreaths are placed at regular intervals along the front of each row.

To the left of the obelisk and field of graves is the obligatory eternal flame, and here it is still flickering away. But the main focus invariably has to be on the huge central monument. This semi-abstract, semi- socialist- realistic sculpture is truly stunning for its gargantuan size alone over 30 m high!

I beg to differ on this. It's not exactly elegant, sure, but still a very impressive prime example of Soviet-era memorial monumentalism. And I kinda like it for that. The giant soldier's gaze falls onto the ruins of one of the oldest parts of the former Fortress, apparently what originally was a Jesuit College. Walk round to the back of the giant head monument and you can see a number of bas-reliefs on the rear , depicting soldiers in battle, pouring over battle plans, approaching battle and so on.

By the way, despite its heavy-duty appearance this big blob is not solid concrete but a hollow structure of a steel-and-wood inner frame with plasterwork around it. Behind the main monument is the shiny refurbished St Nicholas Church. Badly damaged in the battles of the war it had long been a ruin too, but has in more recent times since the dissolution of the USSR been restored to a fully-functional Orthodox Church hence women entering it are obliged to cover their heads and shoulders and one must not wear shorts, mini skirts or anything else too revealing.

The southern flank of the Fortress is formed by a long row of red-brick barracks , some restored, some still in ruins , and interrupted by two gates. The first one is the Kholmsk Gate. It's whitewashed on the inner, courtyard-facing side, but raw red brick on the other, outer side.

This is riddled, absolutely pockmarked with bullet holes and scars from the shelling. It's hence one of the most iconic images of the old Fortress. The other gate, Terespol Gate , is further west, and though it's less dramatically scarred by war it is worth walking through it. On the other side you get a nice view of the River Bug. Note that at this point the river is not the border, so the land on the other side of the river is still Belarus , and in fact it was still part of the outer fortifications of the Fortress.

You can't get there from the Citadel, though there are bridges both further upstream and further downstream. I didn't go that far, though, so I can't say whether you are allowed to use them. Presumably rather not, as the western edge of this piece of land forms a land border to Poland. South of the Kholmsk Gate is a bridge that crosses one of the arms of the Mukhavets River just before it flows into the Bug. This bridge is open to the public and leads, amongst other things, to the archaeological dig site of Berestye see below.

Further south are yet more fortress ruins, a monastery in a restored brick building, and if you walk all the way to the southern end of the former fortress you'd come to the Belarus side of the border crossing checkpoint for road traffic.

Opposite the Terespol Gate, back inside the Fortress, is another set of memorial sculptures. This ensemble is actually quite new, having been unveiled as recently as To the north-western end of the main Fortress there are only a few more ruins of former ancillary buildings and yet more casemates.

Outside the inner Citadel to the north and east more ruins of the outer fortifications and ramparts can be seen, but these have not yet been especially commodified for visitors. Bicycles are a good way to explore the complex and can be hired near the entrance for BYN2 per hour. To get to the fortress from the centre take infrequent buses 17 or 41 from pl Lenina or from any bus stop along vul Hoholya. Enter the Brest Fortress complex through an iconic tunnel in the shape of a huge socialist star, where sombre music accompanies your passage.

Then, on the left, you'll see tanks , often with kids clambering over them. Keep walking straight, cross a small bridge, and you'll see the stone Thirst Statue on your left, a classic piece of socialist realism depicting a water-starved soldier crawling for a drink. Next to this is the Defence of Brest Hero-Fortress Museum , a more than comprehensive look at every minute detail of the fortress's long history and the siege for which it is known.

Visitors can see the bullet and shrapnel scarred ruins of the old fortress, the key locations of the battle, such as the Kholm and Terasapol Gates , the East Fort, and the monumental sculptures commemorating the defenders. Read more about our Russian Holidays. Book with Confidence Learn More.