Kobrin is a city of regional subordination, the center of Kobrin district of Brest region of Belarus. Located on the river Mukhavets, 52 km from Brest. The railway station on the Brest-Gomel line, a road junction to Minsk, Brest, Pinsk, Kovel, and Malorita.

Kobrin is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The first written mention of him as a city, found in the Ipatiev Chronicle under 1287 year. At that time it was already a city. We do not know the exact date of the city's appearance, it is also unknown when life first appeared on this place. We only know that at first it was a fishing village. According to legend, he founded a descendant of the Kiev prince Izyaslav, who hunted in the local forests and came across a very beautiful island. This river was washed by the Mukhovets River and two branches of the Kobrinka River. There were a lot of fish in them, and the surrounding forests were full of all kinds of game. Unfortunately, we do not know where the name of the city came from, as we do not know what was said before: a city or a river. There is only the assumption of scientists that perhaps some powerful person once lived here and called him Cobra or Odr, after whose name was later named the city, and then the river, or vice versa, there is another assumption. VI Dal in the "Explanatory dictionary ..." mentions the verb "kobrit" - bury, hide, conceal something. It is possible that at this place there was something hidden (or hiding, people hid), so later the place was called Kobrin.

Years passed, the fishing village grew. Houses were built and more and more plowed the surrounding fields. Forest retreated, and a place convenient for life all the children attracted the eyes of various conquerors. To protect themselves, the island was built fortification. How it was at the time - we do not know.

At the end of the 10th century our territory was part of the Old Russian state. Here the Vladimir-Volyn principality was formed. Volyn land in the subsequent time more than once passed from hand to hand.

The thirteenth century will bring heavy trials for Russia. In the 1940s, the Mongol-Tatar invasion would hit upon it, reaching Kiev, Galich and Vladimir-Volynsky. Again, as well as a half thousand years ago, people will seek refuge for Pripyat, in these forests and marshy lands. As a result, the number of people here will increase, the number of settlements of farmers will increase and the city's importance as a commercial and industrial center will increase. One should also take into account the advantageous geographical position of Kobrin on the well-known in ancient times waterway from the Baltic to the Black Sea: Vistula-Bug-Mukhovets-Pina-Pripyat-Dnepr.

Prince Vladimir Vasilkovich, who owned Kobrin in the second half of the 13th century, is known as the builder of defensive structures in the north of the Volyn land. From this side, the expansion of the Lithuanian state, which sought to take advantage of the weakening of Russia, caused by feudal fragmentation and the Mongol-Tatar yoke, intensified in those years. In Kobrin, most likely, it was at this time was built the first castle. But it was not possible to protect these territories from seizure. They were rejected by the Lithuanian prince Gedemine (1305-1341 gg.), And during the first half of the XIV century the power of his heirs spread to most of the West Russian lands.

The competitor in the struggle for the Galicia-Volyn principality was the Polish King Kazimierz the Great (1310-1370), who captured the cities of Lviv, Halych, Vladimir-Volynsky, Berestye in 1349, pushing Lyubart Gedeminovich out of the valley. To help Lubart, the older brothers Keystut and Olgerd rushed. As a result of two wars, Kazimierz the Great was forced to leave most of his acquisitions, including Kobrin.

By the end of the fourteenth century the descendants of Olgerd had firmly established themselves in Kobrin. One of them, Roman Fedorovich, since 1387, officially became the prince of Kobrin.

The princes of Kobrin have immortalized their names by the construction of churches and castles, only occasionally appearing in major events. For example, Semen Romanovich Kobrinsky (died in 1460) participated in the war of the Orthodox feudal lords against the Polish king, undertaken to expand political rights. Defeated in one of the battles, he was forced to sit in his Kobrin castle afterwards, waiting for better times.

The subsequent rulers of the city - the widow Princess Ulyana, her son Ivan Semenovich and his wife Fyodor - became famous for their donations in favor of the Orthodox Church. With them was built the Kobra monastery of St. Savior (Orthodox). In the same Spassky monastery, Ivan Semenovich, the deceased about 1490, the last male representative of the princes of Kobrinsky, was buried. His sister Anna Semenovna in 1501 became the wife of the royal marshal Vaclav Kostevich, having moved from Orthodoxy to Catholicism. Then for the first time a church appeared in Kobrin and Anna Semyonovna directed her donations to the Catholic treasury. Thus, she disposed of revenues from her estates, where the orthodox peasant farmers worked in the sweat of her face.

Anna Semenovna died in 1518. Kobrin inheritance passed to her husband Vaclav Kostevich in lifelong possession.