In the High Middle Ages, the city often passed between Poland, the principalities of Kievan Rus', and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In 1939, the city was captured by Nazi Germany during the invasion of Poland and then transferred to the Soviet Union per the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty.

[4] Traditionally, Belarusian speakers called the city Берасце (Bieraście), similar to the Ukrainian name Берестя (Berestia).

Once a center of Jewish scholarship, the city has the Yiddish name בריסק (Brisk), hence the term "Brisker" used to describe followers of the influential Soloveitchik family of rabbis.

After World War I, and the rebirth of Poland in 1918, the government of the Second Polish Republic renamed the city as Brześć nad Bugiem ("Brest on the Bug") on 20 March 1923.

[6] After World War II, the city became part of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic with the name simplified as Brest.

Brest's coat of arms, adopted on 26 January 1991, features an arrow pointed upwards and a bow (both silver) on a sky-blue shield.

Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, first granted Brest a coat of arms in 1554.

It was captured by Yaroslav the Wise, according to various sources, either in 1042[8] or 1044,[9] then by 1076 recaptured by King Bolesław II the Bold of Poland,[9] but then lost again by his successor Władysław I Herman.

[8] In 1178, it was captured by Casimir II the Just of Poland, and made the seat of his fraternal nephew Leszek, Duke of Masovia, who, however, soon lost it to the Principality of Minsk.

In 1182, Casimir II the Just captured the city once again, and built a castle there,[8][9] and then granted it as a fief to his sororal nephew Roman the Great the following year.

From 1199 it was ruled by the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia,[10] remaining under Polish suzerainty until 1205, when Roman the Great rebelled against Poland, but was killed in action in the Battle of Zawichost.

[17] In 1390, Brześć became the second city in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (after the capital Vilnius), and the first in the lands that now are Belarus, to receive Magdeburg rights.

[1] In 1409 it was a meeting place of King Władysław II Jagiełło, Grand Duke Vytautas the Great and Khan Jalal al-Din Khan ibn Tokhtamysh under the Polish Deputy Chancellor Mikołaj Trąba's initiative, to prepare for war with the Teutonic Knights, which resulted in the Tatars aiding Poland and Lithuania in the Battle of Grunwald the following year.

[9][20] In 1425, the city hosted a congress attended by Władysław II, Vytautas, dukes of Masovia and Polish and Lithuanian nobles.

[9][19] In 1446, a meeting of Casimir IV, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Polish senators regarding the political affiliation of Volhynia took place in the city, and in 1454 Casimir IV met with Lithuanian nobility to convince them to participate in the Polish–Teutonic War on the side of Poland.

On 19 September 1794, the area between Brest and Terespol was the site of another battle won by the Russian invaders led by Alexander Suvorov over a Polish-Lithuanian division under General Karol Sierakowski.

In March 1918, in the Brest Fortress at the confluence of the Bug and Mukhavets rivers on the city' western outskirts, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, ending the war between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers and transferring the city and its surrounding region to the sphere of influence of the German Empire.

[27] On 9 February 1919, Polish troops entered the city, and it returned to Poland, which regained independence three months earlier.

The city was developed significantly and a number of representative public buildings were erected in Neoclassical and Modernist styles, especially at Ulica Unii Lubelskiej (Union of Lublin Street, now Lenin Street), including the Bank of Poland, Tax Chamber, Regional Chamber of the State Control, Healthcare Fund and Voivodeship Office.

[33] Other notable projects include the officials' housing estate, stylistically inspired by historic manor houses of Polish nobility and the garden city movement, and the Warburg Residential Colony, dedicated to poor Jews who had lost their homes in World War I, founded by Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers.

[43] The prison had poor conditions, causing the spread of lice and bed bugs, and brutal interrogations, even resulting in two confirmed cases of suicide.

The remaining municipal Jewish population (about 20,000) was sequestered in the Brześć Ghetto established by the German authorities in December 1941 and later murdered in October 1942.

[49] In early 2019, a mass grave containing the remains of 1,214 people were found in the Brest Ghetto area during a construction project.

If not for a dam and neglected weirs west of Brest, north-western European shipping would be connected with the Black Sea also.

Brest has a humid continental climate but slightly leans towards oceanic due to the irregular winter temperatures that mostly hover around the freezing point.

A majestic Soviet-era war memorial was constructed on the site of the 1941 battle to commemorate the known and unknown defenders of the Brest Fortress.

Some of the land in the Brest rail yards remains contaminated due to the transhipment of radioactive materials here since Soviet days.

The sports venues are located on the northern riverside on the hydraulic fill, consisting of an indoor track-and-field centre, the Brest Ice Rink,[58] and Belarus' first outdoor baseball stadium.

Moreover, it has accommodation and training facilities, favourable location, 3 kilometres (2 miles) away from the border crossing along Warsaw Highway (the European route E30).