Grodno region
Grodno region
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Grodno region

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Grodno region

Grodno Region, also known as Grodno Oblast or Hrodna Voblasts, is a region of Belarus. Its administrative centre and its namesake, Grodno, is the largest city in the whole region. As of 2024, it has a population of 992,556.

Located in western Belarus, it lies on the Neman River. The region borders the Minsk region to the east, the Brest region to the south, Poland (Podlaskie Voivodeship) to the west and the Vitebsk region and Lithuania (Alytus and Vilnius counties) to the north.

This region comprised the westernmost "borderlands" of the early East Slavs (possibly the tribal union Dregoviches) on the lands of the Balts in the 6th–9th centuries CE. The city of Grodno is first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle under the year 1127 as Goroden. It was located at the crossing of numerous trading routes, possibly originating as far as the late 10th century. It also became the capital of a poorly attested but separate principality. In the 12th–14th centuries, it formed part of the area sometimes known as Black Ruthenia, which was fully incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century. The Baltic Yotvingians who inhabited the Grodno region became increasingly Lithuanized, especially during the formation of the State of Lithuania in the 13th century. As a result, Grodno and its surroundings were included in Ethnographic Lithuania for long thereafter. (e.g. in the 19th century the Lithuanian-inhabited areas were still nearby the present-day suburbs of Grodno city).

In 1413, the area became administratively divided between the newly established Trakai Voivodeship and the Vilnius Voivodeship. In 1507, the southern part of the current oblast became part of the newly formed Nowogródek Voivodeship. Historical cities of notable importance were Grodno (seat of Grodno County and one of the main royal residences of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), Nowogródek (provincial capital since 1507), county seats of Vawkavysk, Slonim, Lida, and Mir, (a private town of the Radziwiłł family). These cities were granted the Magdeburg Law charters in 1441, 1511, 1503, 1532, 1590, and 1579 respectively.

The strong economic development of the area continued during the reign of King Casimir's son — Duke Alexander Jagiellon of Lithuania (r. 1492–1506) — who founded the first solid bridge over the Neman River, as well as the monasteries of the Order of Saint Augustine and of the Polish Order of Friars Minor. Later, Bona Sforza, Queen-Consort of Poland and Grand Duchess-Consort of Lithuania (r. 1518–1548), established her royal residence in Grodno. According to medieval surveys, Grodno had 35 streets and 700 houses in 1558.

The golden age of Grodno came with the reign of Stephen Báthory, King of Poland (r. 1576–1586). During his reign, Grodno became a royal headquarters and began to host sessions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Senate and Parliament (Sejm). In 1580, on the king's order, the castle of Grodno was rebuilt in Renaissance architectural style by Scoto di Parma.

At the beginning of the 17th century, Grodno, one of the most developed and important cities in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, was traditionally recognized as the third capital of the commonwealth. Deterioration of the province's status began with the Livonian War between 1558 and 1583, which pitted the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Swedish Empire in a lengthy and exhausting military conflict against the Tsardom of Russia. Between 1765 and 1780, the province regained some of its previous status when Antoni Tyzenhaus, the Treasurer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and administrator of Polish royal estates, governed the capital and the province. Tyzenhaus fostered around 50 new commercial endeavors in the region with the building of manufactures, mills and workshops.

As part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and due to subsequent Partitions of Poland, the whole of the Grodno region was annexed by the Russian Empire by the end of 1795. The city of Grodno then became a seat for the Grodno Governorate.

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