Hajnówka

Hajnówka grew on the western edge of the Białowieża Forest, a great woodland reserved for the hunts of Polish kings and Lithuanian grand dukes. King Władysław Jagiełło hunted here in the fifteenth century. Forest guards watched over the royal preserve, and the settlement's name is associated with Krzysztof Haynaw, a guard recorded in service in 1670. Villages and forest workers' homes gradually appeared along the edge of the woodland.