Lahoysk

Lahoysk is an old town in the wooded hills north-east of Minsk. First mentioned in 1078, it became the centre of a small principality in the twelfth century before passing into the orbit of Polotsk and, later, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Its rulers and owners included Jogaila, Skirgaila and Vytautas, as well as the Czartoryski and Tyszkiewicz families.

In 1505 Crimean Tatars captured, plundered and burned Lahoysk. Swedish forces occupied it during the Great Northern War, when its castle was destroyed. A Basilian monastery was built in 1765, before the second partition of the Commonwealth brought the town under Russian rule in 1793. The Tyszkiewicz family subsequently built a palace here between 1814 and 1819, continuing their long association with the town and its surrounding estate.