Slonim

Slonim stands where the Isa joins the Shchara, a river that runs north towards the Neman. A wooden stronghold on the Shchara was recorded in the Middle Ages, and a town grew at the meeting of routes through the Lithuanian lands. It received town rights in 1532 and later became a regional centre of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The statesman Lew Sapieha, starost of Slonim, secured the renewal of its privileges and a coat of arms incorporating his family's emblem. From 1631 to 1685 the town hosted the Lithuanian diet. In the eighteenth century Michał Kazimierz Ogiński encouraged its recovery after war, sponsoring a canal connecting the Shchara with the Dnieper basin. He also established an opera theatre, schools of music and ballet, and a printing house, bringing an ambitious court culture to the provincial town.