Brest. Cathedral of Simeon Stylites.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the city of Brest-Litovsk had the only Orthodox church of the Simeonovsky Monastery. Built of wood, it suffered from fires several times. On November 8, 1815, the monastery was once again engulfed in flames, which, in addition to various outbuildings, also destroyed the Church of St. Simeon the Stylite. The fire of 1819 finally destroyed the monastery, which led to its closure in 1824. After these tragic events, for two decades, services were held in the house refectory of the Annunciation Church, founded on the third floor of the building of the former Basilian monastery. However, due to the construction of the fortress in the 1830-1840s, the monastery buildings were demolished, and the city was moved three kilometers to the east.

The construction of the stone church began only in 1862. It was erected according to the design of the Brest city architect V. Polikarpov. The construction work was carried out by various craftsmen. The brickwork was done by masons from the Chernigov province, and the carpentry, roofing, plastering and painting works were done by craftsmen from the city of Brest. The iconostasis was also made by a local carver. The icons painted by the artist Titov, the liturgical utensils and the bell weighing 100 poods were delivered from Moscow. The cast-iron gratings for the solea, choir and porches were cast at the Evans plant in Warsaw. On November 7, 1865, the relics of the holy martyr Afanasy were transferred from the fortress to the new church in a religious procession, and the next day it was consecrated.

The cathedral is an architectural monument of the Russian-Byzantine style . The building has a centric composition. Square in plan, cuboid in volume, the temple is placed on a high paneled base, faced with pink granite. It has a semicircular apse and a narrow narthex. The octagonal drum in the center and 4 corner towers with hipped roofs dominate. The tops are crowned with onion-shaped domes on faceted necks. The openings of the central light drum are decorated with kokoshniks. This decorative motif is also used in the design of the main and side entrances, high arched window openings. Along the perimeter, the building is encircled by a cornice with a thrust, above which there is a paneled parapet with different-sized triangular pediments. The interior space is divided by columns into 3 naves with cross and cylindrical vaults, decorated together with the walls with polychrome ornamental painting. The interior is dominated by a high light drum with a high tent. The altar volume is separated by a wide arched opening and a wooden iconostasis. The choir gallery is connected to the central nave by a wide arched opening. The famous composer, artist, writer Napoleon Orda, who visited Brest-Litovsk in 1869, made the first known sketch of the cathedral, from which its original appearance is known.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the cathedral underwent a large-scale restoration, 10 new bells were purchased, the domes were replaced with gilded ones with six-pointed crosses, and the roof was painted. In 2007, the cathedral was included in the list of historical and cultural values of the Republic of Belarus. A Sunday school and an Orthodox library were organized at the temple, and a sisterhood in honor of Afanasy of Brest, the martyrs Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov and their mother Sophia operates.

The church contains particles of the relics of the following: the venerable martyr Athanasius of Brest, Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Saint Sergius of Radonezh, Saint Euphrosyne of Polotsk, and Saint Innocent of Radonezh.