Mielnik

Mielnik stands on the Bug in Podlasie, where a fortified royal centre watched routes between Lithuania and Poland. Its prominence under the Jagiellons brought rulers to the castle: Alexander waited here for news of his election to the Polish crown in 1501, and the town received Magdeburg rights that year.

At Mielnik Alexander also accepted a proposed union of Poland and Lithuania and a privilege concerning the powers of the king and senate. Neither arrangement took effect as envisaged: the Lithuanian assembly did not approve the union, and the privilege was not confirmed after his coronation. In 1569 Mielnik and Podlasie passed to the Polish Crown. The mid-seventeenth-century wars and military marches brought an end to the town’s Jagiellonian flourishing.