Byerazino

Byerazino stands on the Berezina River east of Minsk. First recorded in 1501, the settlement belonged in the sixteenth century to the powerful Lithuanian Sapieha family. The river gave the town its name and placed it on a route through the wooded lands of central White Ruthenia. In 1641 Kazimierz Leon Sapieha founded a wooden Catholic church here.

The Russo-Polish War brought fighting to Byerazino: Russian and Cossack forces captured it in 1655, and it was subsequently recovered. During the Great Northern War, Charles XII crossed the Berezina here in 1708. The second partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth brought Russian rule in 1793, ending centuries of Lithuanian and Commonwealth government over the town. The town's river crossing continued to draw armies during Napoleon's invasion in 1812.