Barysaw

Barysaw stands on the Berezina River in central Belarus, seventy-four kilometres north-east of Minsk. The Laurentian Codex records its foundation in 1102 by Rogvolod Vseslavich, prince of Polotsk, whose baptismal name was Boris. The settlement was burned and rebuilt south of its earlier position during the following two centuries. From the late thirteenth century until 1795 it belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, after the Union of Lublin, to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The river made Barysaw strategically important. In 1500 Alexander Jagiellon stayed in its castle during war with Muscovy. King Sigismund II Augustus granted Magdeburg town rights in 1563. The Second Partition brought the town into the Russian Empire in 1793. During Napoleon’s retreat in 1812, French troops feigned a crossing at Barysaw while building two wooden bridges north of the city at Studianka and escaping there.