| Brest Брэст Брест |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
|
Brest
|
|||
| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Belarus | ||
| Voblast | Brest Voblast | ||
| Raion | Brest Raion | ||
| Founded | 1019 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Alexander Palishenkow | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 145 km2 (56 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 280.4 m (920 ft) | ||
| Population (2010) | |||
| • Total | 310,800 | ||
| • Density | 2,143/km2 (5,550.3/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | ||
| Postal code | 224000 | ||
| Area code(s) | +375 (0)162 | ||
| License plate | 1 | ||
| Website | www.brest.gov.by | ||
Brest (Belarusian: Брэ́ст; Russian: Бре́ст; see also alternative names), formerly also Brest-on-the-Bug ("Brześć nad Bugiem" in Polish) and Brest-Litovsk ("Brześć Litewski" in Polish), is a city (population 310,800 in 2010) in Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the city of Terespol, where the Bug River and Mukhavets rivers meet. It is the capital city of the Brest voblast.
Being situated on the main railway line connecting Berlin and Moscow, and an intercontinental highway (the European route E30), Brest became a principal border crossing since World War II in Soviet times. Today it links the European Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Because of the break-of-gauge at Brest, where the Russian broad gauge meets the European standard gauge, all passenger trains, coming from Poland, must have their bogies replaced here, to travel on across Belarus, and the freight must be transloaded from cars of one gauge to cars of another. Some of the land in the Brest rail yards remains contaminated as a result of the transshipment of radioactive materials here since Soviet days although cleanup operations have been taking place.
Contents |
There are several theories of the city name origin. The most common are as follows,
Once a center of Jewish scholarship, the city's name in Yiddish, is בריסק ("Brisk"), hence the term "Brisker" used to describe followers of the influential Soloveitchik family of rabbis.
The traditional Ukrainian name for the city is Берестя (transliterated Berestia).
The coat of arms features an arrow pointed upwards and a bow on a sky blue shield. It was adopted on January 26, 1991. Alternative coat of arms has a red shield, the first coat of arms of Brest was given by king Sigismund II Augustus in 1554.
| Climate data for Brest | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | −1 (31) |
0 (32) |
6 (42) |
12 (54) |
18 (65) |
21 (70) |
22 (72) |
22 (72) |
17 (63) |
12 (53) |
4 (40) |
1 (34) |
11.3 (52.3) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −5 (23) |
−5 (23) |
−1 (30) |
3 (38) |
9 (48) |
12 (53) |
13 (56) |
13 (55) |
9 (49) |
4 (40) |
1 (33) |
−3 (27) |
4.2 (39.6) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 33 (1.3) |
33 (1.3) |
28 (1.1) |
38 (1.5) |
51 (2) |
76 (3) |
81 (3.2) |
74 (2.9) |
51 (2) |
43 (1.7) |
41 (1.6) |
41 (1.6) |
589 (23.2) |
| Source: Weatherbase [2] | |||||||||||||
The city was founded by the Slavs. As a town, Brest – Berestye in Kievan Rus – was first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle in 1019 when the Kievan Rus took the stronghold from the Poles,and is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. It was hotly contested between the Polish rulers (kings, principal dukes and dukes of Masovia) and Kievan Rus princes,laid waste by the Mongols in 1241 (see: Mongol invasion of Europe), and was not rebuilt until 1275, later it became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, .
In 1390 Brest became the first city in the lands that now comprise Belarus to receive Magdeburg rights. Its suburbs were burned by the Teutonic Knights in 1379; and in 1500 the whole town met a similar fate at the hands of the Crimean Tatars. It was renamed Brześć Litewski(Brest-Litovsk) in the 16th century, after it became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569 (see: Union of Lublin). In 1409 it was a meeting place of King Władysław II Jagiełło, duke Vitautas and Tatar khan under the archbishop Mikołaj Trąba initiative within the preparation of the war with the Teutonic Knights. In 1410 the town mustered a cavalry company (banner) that participated in the victorious for the Polish-Lithuanian union battle of Grunwald. In 1419 it become a seat of the starost in the newly created Trakai Voivodeship. In 1566, following king Sigismund II Augustus decree, a new voivodeship was created - Brest Litovsk Voivodeship.
During the period of the union of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden under king Sigismund III Vasa (Polish–Swedish union), diets were held there; and in 1594 and 1596 it was the meeting-place of two remarkable councils of the Roman-Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church bishops of the region; the 1596 council establishing the Uniate Church (known also as the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church in Belarus and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine). In 1657, and again in 1706, the town and castle were captured by the Swedes during their invasions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; on January 13, 1660 the invading Muscovite Russian army under Ivan Andreyevich Khovansky took the Brest castle in a surprise early morning attack, the town having been captured earlier, and massacred the 1700 defenders and their families (according to captain Rosestein, Austrian observer); on July 23, 1792 a battle was fought between the regiments of Duchy of Lithuanian (part of Polish Army) defending the town and the invading Russian Imperial Army; on September 19, 1794 the area between Brest and Terespol was the scene of a victorious battle won by the invading Russian Imperial army under Suvorov over the Kościuszko Uprising army division under general Karol Sierakowski known in Russian sources as (Battle of Brest). Brest was annexed by Russia when the Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth was partitioned for the third time in 1795 (see: Partitions of Poland). During Russian rule in the 19th century a large fortress was built in and around the city, while the Polish Royal Castle and most of the Old Town were demolished to make room for the fortress.
The town was captured by the German army in 1915, during World War I. In March 1918, in the Brest-Litovsk fortress on the western outskirts of Brest at the confluence of the Bug River and Mukhavets Rivers, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, ending the war between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers and transferring the city and its surrounding region to the sphere of influence of the German Empire. This treaty was subsequently annulled by the treaties which ended the war and even more so by the events and the developments in Germany and Eastern Europe.
In 1918 the city was declared part of the short-lived Belarusian Democratic Republic. The newly reconstituted Poland took control of Brest in 1919 as part of her heritage as a matter of right. The city changed hands twice during the Polish-Soviet War and eventually stayed inside Polish borders, a development that was formally recognized by the Treaty of Riga in 1921. In the fortress, heavily damaged during World War I, Polish Army troops with the headquarters of the 9th Military District were stationed, and the city itself became a capital of Polesie Voivodeship, in accordance of the pre-1795 tradition. In 1930 Wincenty Witos and some other prominent Polish statesmen were detained here before their notorious trial in Warsaw.
During the Invasion of Poland in 1939 the city was defended by a small garrison of four infantry battalions under General Konstanty Plisowski against the XIX Panzer Corps of General Heinz Guderian. After four days of heavy fighting the Polish forces withdrew southwards on September 17 (more in articles: Battle of Brześć Litewski). The treacherous invasion by the Soviet Union occurred on the same day and as a result the Soviet Red Army occupied the city the end of September 1939 in accordance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact's Secret Protocol, and a joint Nazi-Soviet military parade took place. While Belarusians consider it a reunification of the Belarusian nation under one constituency (BSSR at that time), Poles consider it the date when the city was lost. During the Soviet occupation 1939-41 the Polish population was subject to arrests, executions and mass deportations to Siberia and Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan.
The city had a significant Jewish population: 30,000 out of 45,000 total population according to Russian 1897 census, which fell to 21,000 out of 50,000 according to the Polish 1931 census.[3][4]
On June 22, 1941 the fortress and the city were attacked by Nazi Germany at the beginning of the Soviet-Nazi war, Operation Barbarossa, but held out for six days. Abandoned by the Soviet army nearly all the defenders perished. Brest's Jewish community was decimated under Nazi rule in 1942.[4] The city was taken by the Red Army on July 28, 1944.
Following to the agreements of the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Brest's status as part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was officially recognized in spite of Polish protests. The Poles of Brest, after 1000 years of history, were encouraged to emigrate and during the 1940s and 1950s the majority left for Communist Poland.
A majestic Soviet-era war memorial was constructed on the site of the 1941 battle, to commemorate the known and unknown defenders of the Hero-Fortress. This war memorial is the largest tourist attraction of the city. An archaeological museum of the old city Berestye is located on the southern island of the Hero-Fortress. It has objects and huts dating from the 11th – 13th century, that were unearthed during excavations in the 1970s. Brest is proud of its shopping mall, Sovietskaya Street. It was dramatically reconstructed in 2007–2009 to revive the initial view of the old town. In July 2009 the Millennium Monument of Brest was unveiled.
Brest also has the first Belarusian outdoor railway museum.
Earlier in Brest there was a synagogue, which was regarded as the first one in Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
It is also the seat of an Armenian and of a Greek Catholic bishop; the former has jurisdiction over the Armenians throughout the whole country.
A Holocaust memorial commemorates over 34,000 Jews of the Brest ghetto who were killed in 1941–1942.
Brest City Park is 100 years old, but looks quite new after recent reconstruction. Brest is home to two Universities: A.S.Pushkin State University and Brest State Technical University. The local airport (code BQT), is operating flights to the capital city Minsk and to Moscow and Novgorod in Russia on a weekly basis.
Brest lies astride the Mukhavets River, that is known to Bresters as "the river". The river flows west through the city, dividing it into north and south, and meets the Bug River in the Brest Fortress. The river flows slowly and gently. You can hop into a tube that looks like a big rubber doughnut and take a relaxing float down this river. Today the river looks quite broad in Brest. The terrain is fairly flat around Brest. The river has an extremely broad floodplain, that is about 2–3 km across. Brest was subject to flooding in the past. One of the worst floods in recorded history occurred in 1974.
A part of the floodplain was reclaimed from the river during the last 3 decades. In the 1980s big cutter-suction dredgers were mining sand and clay from the riverbed, to raise the banks. After the dredging the river became deeper and the riverbanks higher. Today the river does not overflow its banks.
In the 2000s Brest developed new residential areas and sports attractions on the reclaimed land along the river and increased its vitality. The big sports venues on the northern riverside are an indoor track-and-field center, the Ice Palace (Ice Arena) and Belarus' first outdoor baseball stadium. On the opposite riverside is a large rowing course opened in 2007, home of the National Center for Olympic Training in Rowing. It meets international requirements and can host international competitions. It has accommodation and training facilities, favorable location, 3 km away from the border crossing along Warsaw Highway (the European route E30).
Belavezhskaya Pushcha National Park, 70 km north of Brest, is a biosphere reserve of world distinction and can be reached by car or bus. This medieval forest is home to rare European bison (wisent). There is a museum and a zoo, available for tourists in the forest, animals can be seen in enclosures all the year round. 2 hotels and some restaurants and bars are there. Excursions can also be taken by horse and cart into the interior of the forest. As a new tourist attraction, the forest features the residence of Grandfather Frost, known as Ded Moroz, the Eastern Slavic Santa Claus, that works all the year round.
Brest also hosts the first Belarusian outdoor railway museum. Brest City Park is old, but looks new after the recent reconstruction.
Kamyanets, Belarus, that lies on the way to the National park from Brest, features an outstanding landmark, the 13th-century tower of Kamyanets. The village of Kosova, where Tadeusz Kościuszko was born, is also in the Brest region and features a 19th-century palace and a nice Roman Catholic church. Brest can easily be reached from Warsaw (Poland) by taking the daily sleeper train to Brest Centralnaya (Brest Central) from the central train station in Warsaw, although visas must be sorted out for EU passport holders before travelling. There are a few hotels in Brest, including "Intourist" Hotel on Prospekt Masherava (Masherov Avenue).
A minor planet 3232 Brest, discovered by the Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh in 1974, is named after the city.[7]
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||