Novogrudok

Novogrudok rises among the hills of Black Ruthenia, its castle commanding a town with old ties to both the Ruthenian and Lithuanian lands. An early centre of trade and craftsmanship, it became one of the residences of Mindaugas, the thirteenth-century king of Lithuania; his son Vaišvilkas also ruled here. Stone walls and towers later protected the castle, while churches, synagogues and a mosque reflected the town's varied communities. Vytautas settled Tatars in and around Novogrudok at the turn of the fifteenth century, adding to the diversity of its inhabitants.

In 1415 Orthodox bishops gathered at Novogrudok and elected Gregory Tsamblak metropolitan for Lithuania. Jogaila married Sophia of Halshany in the town's Transfiguration Church in 1422, a marriage from which the later Jagiellonian kings descended. Novogrudok became the seat of a voivodeship in 1507 and received Magdeburg rights in 1511. From 1581 it hosted sessions of the Lithuanian Tribunal, making it a centre of justice as well as provincial government.

The town suffered during the wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Russian forces captured it in 1655, and during the Great Northern War troops burned the town and blew up its castle. In 1795 the Third Partition placed Novogrudok under Russian rule. Its ruined towers still overlooked the town where generations of rulers, bishops and judges had gathered.