- Type
- Fortress
- Built
- 1833 · 19th century
- Visiting
- probably – Wikidata lists it as a museum or gives tickets, opening hours or visitor numbers; check before you go
- Coordinates
- 52.0833°, 23.6528°
History
The fortress was built between 1833 and 1842 by the Russian authorities on the site of old Brest, whose buildings were demolished and the town moved further east. The citadel stood on an island where the Bug meets the Mukhavets, flanked by three fortified islands and later by a ring of outer forts. In March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed here, taking Soviet Russia out of the First World War. In September 1939 a Polish garrison under General Konstanty Plisowski held out against the Germans for several days. On 22 June 1941 the fortress lay on the front line of the German invasion of the USSR, and Soviet soldiers kept up resistance here for many days. A vast memorial complex opened inside it in 1971.
What to see
Visitors enter the memorial through a star-shaped opening cut into a concrete block and continue past ruined barracks, the shell-scarred Kholm Gate and the restored Garrison Church of St Nicholas. The site is dominated by the colossal Courage monument and an obelisk shaped like a bayonet. A museum of the defence occupies the surviving casemates.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q23868
Popularity: articles about this site in 45 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).