The Brest Fortress is the dominant reason to come — one of the Soviet Union's most resonant war memorials, set on the site where the Red Army made one of its most desperate stands against the German invasion in 1941. Beyond the fortress, the Brest Railway Museum holds dozens of Soviet-era locomotives, and the unusual Museum of Confiscated Art displays icons, paintings, and objects seized from border smugglers. Sovetskaya Street is the social heart of the city and home to the famous nightly lamplighter ceremony.
The short trip north to Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park makes a stay of two days worthwhile — one of Europe's last primeval forests, home to wild European bison.