Winter Garden (Zimniy sad) of Brest State A. S. Pushkin University

Brest State University, named after Alexander Pushkin, had owned a teaching greenhouse since 1965, where more than two hundred species were grown. Over the decades its technical condition and size no longer allowed proper classes. The idea of a true winter garden came from the staff of the university's inter-faculty centre for ecology and nature studies, and above all from its head, the ecologist Olga Veremchuk, who initiated and organised the project.

Regional and municipal nature-protection funds had already supported the centre's work; the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Brest city administration backed the scheme. In 2008 a presidential decree granted the university five billion Belarusian roubles from the reserve fund for the social needs of young people, and the Ministry of Education ordered construction for 2009–2010. The design is credited to architect Tatsiana Maroz and structural engineer Aliaksandr Kachurouski, and the work was carried out by Construction Trust No. 8.

The 'Zimniy sad' (winter garden) exhibition was inaugurated on 1 December 2010. Plants from the old greenhouse formed its nucleus, supplemented by species from the collections of the Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and by gifts from Brest residents. The official site now counts more than 1,800 specimens of 614 species in 90 families; the Belarusian Wikipedia gives more than 500 species in 95 families. Together with the Garden of Continuous Flowering on Kosmonavtov Boulevard, the winter garden forms the university's department of botanical exhibitions.

Presented as a project without equivalent in Belarus, the building is at once an orangery and a lecture room. Its domed silhouette combines glazing with an original pattern, a metal frame and brick walls; OpenStreetMap records it as a conservatory. At the centre of the façade, a stained-glass window shows a multicoloured flower set in a circle, which has become a familiar image of the city. According to the Belarusian Wikipedia, the structure covers 595 m² and rises to 11.4 metres.

Inside, the space is divided into three zones with distinct climates and soils. The tropical zone greets visitors at the entrance; the subtropics follow, then the desert zone, which sets sandy, stony and rocky habitats side by side and displays its plants among natural stone and sand. The winter garden also works as a teaching complex for the university: the orangery doubles as an auditorium for students, and school excursions are a regular feature. Two animal components, an ichthyological one (aquariums) and an ornithological one (birds), complete the plant displays.

More than 1,800 plants are arranged by biogeographical origin and systematic group. The tropical zone presents over 180 species of the humid forest: figs, ferns, anthuriums, a cacao tree, bananas, papaya, orchids and palms. The subtropics bring together 75 species, among them pomegranate, citrus (lemon, mandarin and orange trees), cypress, bougainvillea, bay laurel, araucaria, oleander, azalea and Chinese hibiscus. The desert zone lines up more than 140 species of cacti and succulents, including euphorbias and aloes, set between stones and sand.

The winter garden is not only a plant conservatory: aquarium fish swim there, and nine species of exotic birds from the parrot, galliform and pigeon orders live in it, red macaws and budgerigars among them. These animal components, ichthyological and ornithological, are listed among the official sections of the exhibition.

The winter garden stands on Mickiewicz Street in the historic centre of Brest, under two kilometres from the heart of the city. The indoor climate makes it a destination in any season and a natural refuge on a winter day; allow a short hour to walk the three zones from the tropical entrance to the stone desert, pausing at the aquariums and aviaries. Guided tours are booked through the university's department of botanical exhibitions. The same department runs the Garden of Continuous Flowering on Kosmonavtov Boulevard, open from April to early November, so the two exhibitions complement each other in the warmer months.