Sovietskaya Street

 It is about 1.7 km long, running north to south. between Ordzonikidze Street and the river, crossing Mitskevich Street, Pushkin Street, Mayakovsky Street, Gogol Street, Budyonny Street, Dzerzhynsky Street and Masherov Avenue

the view before the Millennium reconstruction

The previous names:

Russian period

the southern half - Millionnaya(Million) Street,

the northern half - Politseyskaya (Police) Street

 

(left) the part of the street that was called Politseyskaya before WW1

 

 

Polish period

ulica Dabrowskiego (Dabrowski Street)

 

Soviet period

Sovietskaya street

The main attractions in the street

The street was laid out in the mid-19th century. In the 1970s it was closed to traffic and is now a pedestrian shopping area like those in many European cities.

 Sometimes it is called Arbat of Brest in Russian, as Arbat in Moscow was the first urban shopping area in the former USSR.

Sovietskaya Street is truly the heart of the city, the main tourist attraction. It is a tree-lined pedestrian promenade, which runs through the center of the downtown shopping district.

Lined with shops, restaurants, outdoor cafes, the mall is the pleasant place to sit and people-watch.

The pavement is made of red and gray flagstones.

The street underwent a considerable reconstruction in 2008-2009. That is a part of preparations of the city for the coming millennium of Brest. Hence some pictures are titled like "before the Millennium reconstruction" and "after the Millennium reconstruction"

Brest Millennium Monument was opened on July 25, 2009

The stretch of the Mall between Pushkin Street and Mayakovsky Street is now dedicated to the history of the city that was first mentioned in the chronicles in 1019

Old trees were uprooted in 2008. Young trees appeared in the street after the Millennium reconstruction.

Among species, quite new for Brest, you will see Laburnum that is native to temperate and subtropical Eurasia. Laburnums bear yellow flowers, similar in structure to those of the pea, in late spring. Common laburnum, or golden chain, is a small tree.

The laburnum trees withstood frosts this winter and first flowers appeared in the street in May 2010.

summer 2009

the views of the stretch before the Millennium reconstruction

During Autumn Fair in 2005

The house of the cinema, former girls' gymnasium (high school), looks quite new today after the recent refurbishment, like many old structures around.

the last work

a new winter garden is located at the northeastern corner of  Sovietskaya and Mitskevich Str. next to the old building of Pushkin State University.

It was designed by Brest architects. That will be a good facility for those who study biology. It will also attract tourists who would like to dive into the green paradise of tropical vegetation.

 The construction is completed in 2010.

The Russian church of early 20th century at the corner of Mitskevich Street

The memorial by the church commemorates the Russian sailors

Passers-by can take refuge from snow or sun under a blue sky-umbrella dotted with stars, topped with the figure of an angel

the hub of the street is the intersection of Sovietskaya Street and Pushkin Street.

The houses left and right were originally two stories high. An additional storey was added to each of them after the war.

the view in winter

the view 100 years ago.

the monument "Old Town" in the shape of old houses with cats sitting on the roofs is situated near the intersection of Sovietskaya Street and Pushkin Street.  It is not tall (2.8 m) and anyone can touch and stroke the lovely cats of the monument.

It was designed by a teacher of a Brest school Ruslan Usmanov, made of  silumin (a high-strength aluminium alloy with silicon content of 12%), unveiled on December 31, 2008. As a matter of fact, it was erected to reshape the old ventilation shaft.

 The redbrick house of the former Town Hall is still seen at the corner of Sovietskaya St.

It was originally two storeys high. Now it is surrounded by taller buildings. To rise the height of the building an additional storey was added after the war.

at the corner of the former Town Hall

After the Millennium reconstruction a clock tower, a tiny brother of Big Ben, appeared at the Mall of Brest. It is not as tall as its Big Brother in London, yet it shows  the exact time and plays nice tunes each hour.

Two more pavilions with semitransparent domes appeared after the Millennium reconstruction here. Small figures of a bugler and a guardian surmount them. In the medieval Brest a bugler used to play a bugle at noon or in case of alarm

the bugler over the pavilion by the cinema (left)

At the corner of Mayakovsky Street  a nice relief appeared in 2007, dedicated to a historic event, when Brest was granted a charter of urban rights, that made it a free city in Medieval days.

A big panorama provides the view of the Old Brest dating from the 17th century.

Artists at work (2007)

the guardian over the pavilion near the big panorama (left)

Several 2-storied houses remind of the former view of the shopping street

A design of the reconstruction of the houses proposed by Brest architects

In the interwar period,  a bank set up by the Jewish community was in the house, today it's a cafe

Even quite new structures look old here. (2003)

 

Once there was  the main synagogue in the street, it was constructed in the mid -19th century after the city was relocated 2 km eastward to construct the Brest fortress

 

In the 1970s a huge glass-walled barrel of Belarus cinema covered the facade of the former synagogue.
 

Belarus Cinema

before the renovation

 

 
after the renovation

Belarus Cinema  is at the northeastern corner of Budyonny Street and Sovietskaya Street

Today it is a concert stage and a cinema equipped with Dolby Surround,

it hosts regularly national movie festivals.

October 2008

the work is going on

Looking from the cinema

a street bard named Sasha Maidan came to Brest  from Russia in 2009 to spend a summer here.

He is playing in front of the construction site opposite the cinema.

The construction site opposite the cinema in December 2009. Now one can see the outline of the future edifice in an old style.

The view in October 2010

 

 

2003

The big fountain by the Belarus cinema is an ideal place on a hot summer day

the views around the fountain by the cinema (2008)

The views opposite the cinema

Matrix Night Club  at the south-western corner of Sovietskaya Street and Budyonny Street

in the 1980s before the Matrix was built, an outdoor cafe in the shape of a wooden castle was at the south-western corner of Sovietskaya Street and Budyonny Street

summer 2009,

the pavement is being replaced

This trade center (left) is ideal for a shopping spree!

The view before the Millennium reconstruction.

 

 

 
 

Old low-rise houses at the corner of Dzerzhynsky Street look quite attractive after they were renovated in 2003.

 

 

 

 

Dzerzhynsky Street   crosses the street at a sharp angle here.

The street is illuminated by oil lamps between Dzerzhynsky Street and Masherov Avenue to make it attractive for tourists

That is the edict of the city mayor regarding the oil lamps

Each evening a lamplighter lights the oil lamps

This clock informs about the time the lamps will be lit tonight

This part of the street after the reconstruction in 2009

The oil lamps and the pavement create the atmosphere of the Old Brest-Litovsk.

Some pictures below give an idea about the place before the reconstruction

The eastern side close to Masherov Avenue before the Millennium reconstruction

an old drug store on the western side

the drug store after the reconstruction

A new structure in an old style was built in 2007 at the corner of Masherov Avenue , yet it looks as if it were built before WW1.

More in the project

"Old and New Brest"

more pictures of the street at www.brest-sv.com

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