Goniądz

Goniądz stands on the Biebrza in a country once covered by dense forest. Recorded in 1358, it lay in a borderland contested by Mazovia, the Teutonic Order and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Vytautas founded a church here in 1430, and successive noble owners enlarged the small castle. The town received a charter based on Chełmno law in 1547. In 1569 Goniądz was transferred to the Polish Crown, ending a long period in which its district had been governed under differing Lithuanian and Polish laws.