Włodawa

Włodawa stands on the Bug at the mouth of the Włodawka, where a crossing connected the lands of Poland and Lithuania. First mentioned in 1242, it prospered under the Sanguszko family, who acquired it in 1475 and built a castle. The town received municipal rights in 1534, and Jewish merchants and craftsmen contributed to its commerce.

Under the Calvinist Leszczyński family, Włodawa became a Protestant centre with a church and school; a synod met here in 1634. The Cossack-Tatar army devastated the town in 1648, and the Swedes struck again in 1657. Włodawa recovered as a fair town, selling horses and cattle brought from Volhynia. Its merchants sent oxen onward to cities as distant as Kraków and Vienna. In 1795 the third partition of Poland placed it under Austrian rule.