Berestye Archaeological Museum
Covered excavation of a 13th-century Slavic town, with timber houses preserved in situ inside a pavilion.
Excavations on the Volyn fortification of the Brest Fortress between 1968 and 1981 uncovered the remains of Berestye, the town first mentioned in chronicles for the year 1019 from which Brest takes its name. Waterlogged soil preserved the lower courses of some two hundred and twenty timber buildings of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, along with streets of split logs, fences and workshop debris. Twenty-eight of the houses, several standing up to twelve logs high, were left where they were found.
A pavilion designed by Vyacheslav Kramarenko was raised over a section of the dig and opened to the public in 1982, making this the only museum in Europe where a medieval East Slavic town quarter can be seen in place. The exposed street lies several metres below the entrance level and is viewed from a gallery. Surrounding rooms display around forty thousand recovered objects, among them a boxwood comb carrying Cyrillic letters, tools, leather shoes, jewellery, glass bracelets and agricultural implements.
Highlights
- Twenty-eight timber houses of the 11th-13th centuries preserved in place
- Log-paved streets and fences of the medieval quarter
- Boxwood comb inscribed with Cyrillic letters
- Purpose-built 1982 pavilion enclosing the excavation
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