Located on the border of the Polish and Lithuanian lands, it was an important strategic and trading place in the northwest of Kiev Russia. Such favorable geographical position promoted fast economic growth of the city and its transformation into the trading, crafts, and cultural center.
In the late 1270s Grodno became a part of the Grand Principality of Lithuania. The XIIIth and XIVth centuries passed in the incessant struggle against crusaders. In 1410 the Grodno gonfalon met the Teutonic order in the Grunewald battle. Grodno (alongside with Vilna) becomes the second capital of the Grand Principality of Lithuania under Vitaut. In the XVIth century the residence of Stephan Batory – the King of Poland and the Grand Prince of Lithuania – was there for ten years (1576 - 1586).
In the XVIth – XVIIIth centuries formed the unique complete ensemble of the city building pattern which even today sets Grodno out of other cities of Belarus. The number of monuments of history, architecture, and town-planning that have remained intact in the city on the Nieman river allows to speak of it as the museum-city with a special inherent charm. One can keenly feel here the presence of the past and the historical pulse of the city...
Grodno has more than 300 thousand residents. National societies of the Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Tatars, Germans, Jews and Ukrainians operate here. Therefore, every other year the International Festivals of National Cultures are held in Grodno.
