There are two more castles in the northern part of the Grodno region. One of them stands in the village of Golshany. The village received its name from the family of influential princes Golshansky, who owned these lands from the 13th to the 16th century. The Golshany Castle was built in the 17th century as the residence of Pavel Sapieha and was very similar to the Mir Castle. To this day, two corner towers, the northeastern and northwestern buildings of the palace and the ruins of the chapel have partially survived from the palace and castle complex. In addition, a Franciscan church and monastery of the 17th-18th centuries, shopping arcades of the 19th century and residential buildings of the 18th-19th centuries have been preserved in Golshany.
The second castle located in the northern part of the Grodno region is the Kreva Castle.. It was the first castle of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was built to protect against the attacks of the Teutonic Knights. The walls of the castle reached a height of 13 m and a shallow thickness of 3 m. Inside the fortress walls were the chambers of the princes, and under the castle itself there was a prison. The impregnable fortress was abandoned by the 19th century, and after the First World War turned into ruins. To this day, the fortress walls and ruins of the towers have been almost completely preserved.
In the southwestern part of Belarus, on the border with Poland, is one of the most famous Belarusian cities – Brest . It stands on the banks of the Mukhavets River, 349 km from Minsk. For the first time, the settlement of Berestye is mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years under the year 1019. It was a major trade and transport center. Brest became heroically famous during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. During the fighting, the Brest Fortress was destroyed, but nevertheless it delayed the Nazi attack on Russia for several months. In 1965, the Brest Fortress was awarded the title of “Fortress-Hero”.
According to Fashionissupreme, the main attraction of the Old Town is the memorial complex “Brest Fortress – Hero”. The Brest Fortress was built at the confluence of the Western Bug and Mukhavets rivers. It was surrounded by an earthen rampart up to 10 m high, behind which channels were dug and bridges were built. The total area of fortifications was 4 square meters. km, it could accommodate 12 thousand people. On its territory in the White Palace in 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it had already lost its defensive significance, but in 1941 it was one of the first to take the blow of the Nazi invaders. From 1969 to 1971, in memory of the soldiers who fell in the battle for the Brest Fortress, a memorial complex was created on the territory of the fortress. To date, the complex includes the ruins of the White Palace, from which the Ceremonial Square begins, leading to the memorial plates of mass graves. In Brest there are Orthodox churches that were included in the list of historical and cultural values of the country. These include the St. Simeon Cathedral of the late 19th century with a majestic three-tiered iconostasis, the St. Nicholas Cathedral of 1856-1879, the Nikolaev Brotherhood Church of 1904-1906, the Exaltation of the Cross Church of 1856 and the Holy Resurrection Cathedral. In addition, be sure to visit the Regional Museum of Local Lore, the “History of the City” museums, the archaeological museum and the “Berestye” museum.
Not far from Brest is the city of Kobrin. Its history is inextricably linked with the name of the great Russian commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov. As a token of gratitude for the suppression of the uprising of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Catherine II presented Suvorov with the keys to the city along with the Kobrin Key estate. Now Suvorov in the city is reminded of a monument to Suvorov, the house-museum of A.V. Suvorov and the Kobrin Military History Museum.
39 km northeast of Brest is the village of Kamenets. Here, on the left bank of the Lesnaya River, a monument of defensive architecture of the late 13th century has been preserved – the tower “Belaya Vezha”, by the name of which Belovezhskaya Pushcha was most likely named. The thickness of the walls of the 30-meter tower reaches 2.5 m, the outer diameter is 13.5 m. Since 1960, it has housed a branch of the Brest Regional Museum of Local Lore.
