Brest, on the territory of 164.5 thousand hectares, the National Park “Belovezhskaya Pushcha” is located, which protects the largest and most ancient forest in Europe – Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The park captures the territories of the Brest and Grodno regions on the border with Poland. For the first time these places are mentioned in the Ipatiev Chronicle in 983. In the Middle Ages, Belovezhskaya Pushcha served as a place for royal hunting. This protected area received the status of a national park in 1991. The area of the forest massif Belovezhskaya Pushcha is 87.4 thousand hectares. Its uniqueness lies in its age, which is about a thousand years old. Some of the trees in the park are over 600 years old. There are about 55 species of large mammals, more than 200 species of birds in the park, 40 of which are listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus, and about 120 species of trees. In Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the population of bison (European bison), exterminated during hunting in the 20s of the 20th century, was restored. 24 species of fish live in the reservoirs of the park, the most numerous are pike, roach, tench, ruff and perch. The administrative center of the park is located in the village of Kamenyuki, 60 km from Brest. In the center of Belovezhskaya Pushcha is the world-famous village of Viskuli, where in 1991 the “Belovezhskaya” agreement on the secession of independent republics from the USSR was signed in the residence of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The residence was built in the middle of the 20th century as a resting place for state and party leaders and as a great place for hunting. The residence today can be visited by any tourist. The Museum of Nature is open in the park, which presents exhibits of most of the animals living in the forest and plants growing in the forest, as well as open enclosures with various species of animals in their natural habitat. The National Park “Belovezhskaya Pushcha” offers walking, horse and car routes lasting up to several days. Waterfowl hunting and sport fishing are organized on Lake Vygonovskoye. Since 1991, hunting tourism has been carried out in Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
According to Top-mba-universities, Belarus.near Belovezhskaya Pushcha is the city of Volchin – the birthplace of the last king of the Commonwealth, Stanislav August Poniatowski. In the city there is the Trinity Church of the 18th century, where in 1938 the ashes of Stanislav Augustus were transferred.
Not far from Belovezhskaya Pushcha is also the city of Pruzhany. Among vacationers, the estate “Pruzhanska” is very popular, offering the so-called “rural vacation”. In the estate there are wooden houses built in the national style. In Pruzhany themselves, historical sights have been preserved – the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral of 1880 and the Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary of the 20th century.
In the Pruzhany region, near the village of Ruzhany, there is a biological reserve of republican significance “Ruzhanskaya Pushcha”. The reserve was created to preserve a unique natural complex, including oak forests, hornbeam and linden groves, where there are plants listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus, many mushrooms and a wide variety of animals are found. Roach, pike, perch, bream, ide and crayfish live in large quantities in the Zelvyanka River flowing through the reserve. It is important to know that hunting and fishing are prohibited on the territory of the reserve itself, hunting and fishing tours are only arranged from here. In the village of Ruzhany, tourists can see the palace complex of the 16th- 18th centuries, which belonged to the Sapieha family. The first mention of Ruzhany dates back to 1552. At first, the Tyszkiewicz family owned Ruzhany, but the Sapiehas acquired it in 1598. A castle was erected here, which was badly damaged as a result of the war with the Swedes and internecine clashes. It was later rebuilt into a palace complex. The palace was built in the style of late baroque and classicism.
There is also a hydrological reserve of republican importance Dikoe in the Pruzhany region. Most of it belongs to the territory of the National Park “Belovezhskaya Pushcha”. The reserve protects the swamp systems of the region and, first of all, the Dikoye lowland swamp. Wild – one of the largest swamps in Europe with an area of approximately 22 thousand hectares. The age of the swamp massif is slightly more than six thousand years. 14 species of plants listed in the Red Book of Belarus grow here, and 99 species of birds live here.
151 km northeast of Brest, the city of Kosovo is interesting. The history of the city dates back to the end of the 15th century. From the second half of the 18th century, Kossovo was ruled by the family of industrial magnates Puslovsky. From those times in Kossovo, the ruins of the castle of Count Vandalin Puslovsky, built in 1838, which was built in the neo-Gothic style, have been preserved. The ruins of the Kossovo Castle are also known as the Knight’s Dream. The palace had more than 130 rooms. Balls were held in the white hall, they played cards in the black one, they played music in the pink one. A glass floor was made in the foyer of the palace, under which exotic fish swam, and a tamed lion walked along the palace corridors. The palace was surrounded by a terraced park with two ponds, fountains and sculptures. The palace was plundered during the First World War and finally destroyed during the Great Patriotic War.
Tadeusz Kosciuszko, leader of the national liberation uprising of 1794, was born near Kossovo. A memorial sign was erected in his small homeland in 1999, and in 2004 the family home of Kosciuszko was restored, where the memorial museum was located. Pinsk , one of the oldest cities in Belarus and one of the largest cities in the Belarusian Polesye, is located 184 km east of Minsk on the Pina River. For the first time Pinsk is mentioned in the Ipatiev Chronicle under 1097. The city had a favorable geographical position on the way “from the Varangians to the Greeks” and was the center of the Turov-Pinsk principality. In Pinsk the historical building has been perfectly preserved. On the central square of the city you can see a memorial tablet, under which lie the ruins of the Pinsk castle. An interesting collegium of the Jesuit monastery of the early 17th century, which since 1996 has housed the Museum of Belarusian Polissya. In total, the museum has up to 60 thousand exhibits. Among the architectural sights of Pinsk, one can also single out the former ensemble of the Franciscan monastery of the 17th-18th centuries (now the Cathedral Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary) with one of the oldest organs in the country, the Varvara Church of 1786 (the former Bernardine church), the Church of Charles Baromey of the 18th century and the Butrimovich Palace of 1794 of the year. In Pinsk, tourists are offered unforgettable excursions on a boat on the Pina River.
245 km from Brest on the southeastern outskirts of the Brest region is the city of David-Haradok. It is believed that the city appeared in the 12th century. In the 16th century, it had powerful wooden fortifications, from which the remains of an ancient settlement, a moat and a rampart have survived to this day. In David-Gorodok, St. George’s Church of the second half of the 17th century has been preserved. This is a wonderful example of the wooden architecture of Polissya. Inside the church there is a four-tiered iconostasis of the 18th century. In the vicinity of the city, wooden buildings of the 18th century have been preserved in numerous villages: in Kazan-Gorodok there is the Nicholas Church of 1816 with a wooden sculpture, carvings of the early 19th century and a two-tiered gilded iconostasis, in the village of Sinkevichi there is a wooden St. of the year.
