Sokołów

Sokołów grew on a road through Podlasie, where Grand Duke Vytautas granted it town rights in 1424. The Kiszka family acquired the estate in the sixteenth century, and Sokołów became an important centre of the Polish Brethren during the Reformation. It passed to the Radziwiłłs in 1592 and prospered until the Swedish invasion. Swedish troops damaged the town in 1655, and the forces of George Rákóczi burned it in 1657. Under the Ogiński family in the eighteenth century, French craftsmen helped develop the production of textiles and sashes.