Kobryn

Kobryn lies on the Mukhavets River in western Polesia. First mentioned in 1287, it became the seat of a small principality whose ruling family descended from the Lithuanian grand duke Algirdas. An Orthodox monastery stood here from the fourteenth century, while the princes also founded a Catholic church in 1500.

After the princely line ended, Queen Bona Sforza held Kobryn, visited it several times and encouraged its development. The town received Magdeburg rights in 1589, and Jewish families settled there in increasing numbers. In the eighteenth century the Royal Canal was cut between the Mukhavets and the Pina, creating a waterway connecting the basins of the Bug and Dnieper. Opened by King Stanisław August Poniatowski, it joined routes leading towards the Baltic and Black seas.