Koidanova

Koidanova stands in the hilly country south-west of Minsk. The name is recorded in the fifteenth century, when Grand Duke Casimir granted the settlement to his brother Michael. Through inheritance and marriage it passed to the Gasztołd family, and its history was later closely connected with the Radziwiłł magnates. Its churches included a Calvinist temple and a Uniate church.

Crimean Tatars burned Koidanova in 1502 and again in 1503. During the Russo-Polish War, Cossack troops plundered and burned the town in 1655. After the Commonwealth's second partition it came under Russian rule in 1793; in 1800 it remained an estate of Dominik Radziwiłł. French troops occupied it in 1812 and used it for food stores, before fighting in November opened the way to Minsk for Russian forces.