Vawkavysk

Vawkavysk is an old town of Black Ruthenia, where fortified hills guarded a settlement near the Vawkawyya River. Its position between the Lithuanian lands and Galicia–Volhynia made it a place of repeated contest in the thirteenth century. Later it formed part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and its castle sheltered rulers and envoys on journeys through the region.

The Teutonic Knights attacked and burned the town in 1409 and 1410; a contingent from Vawkavysk then fought at Grunwald. King Alexander granted it Magdeburg rights in 1503, and it became the seat of a county in the Novogrudok voivodeship. From 1566 assemblies of Lithuanian nobles met here, drawing delegates and senators to the town. Its arms, a wolf's head on a blue field, gave the community an emblem for its civic identity.