Novogrudok

Location: Situated in Grodno region.

Novogrudok (Grodno region) is a town where the Belarusian statehood was born. Time stopped there and the town preserves trembling breath of the past epochs that fascinates everyone who gets there.

It came out historically that by the 13th century Novogrudok (first mentioned in chronicles in 1044) became one of the most developed cities of the Upper Neman lands. At the same time it became the first capital of the Great Principality of Lithuania – a powerful outpost of the Middle Aged Belarusian state. By the legend Mindovg (1195 - 1263) who was a founder and the first great prince of the Great Principality of Lithuania was crowned and buried here.

The symbol of the town is its palace – the center of the ancient Novogrudok and firstly the appanage princes and later the great princes of Lithuania residence. Novogrudok castle was a powerful defense construction, it managed to stand up to crusaders and Tartar-Mongols sieges, but during the Northern war against Russia (1700-1721) the city was completely ruined and only giant ruins testify their past greatness. When only looking at them your imagination draws threatening fortifications, towers and the palace. Once a year the ruins of the castle enliven and become a center of knights tournaments and fancy-dress theater performances.

Novogrudok was not only a political but also a spiritual center of the region. Farny Cathedral of the Transfiguration, founded in 1395, is a memorial of baroque with its characteristic ascetic image and absence of external decorations. In 1422 the king of Poland Yagailo was married to the princess Sophia Golshanskaya in Farny Cathedral, and in 1799 the cathedral was a place where a famous poet Adam Mitskevich was christened. In the town there is a memorial to this famous person and the Adam Mitskevich museum.

You should visit Saint-Boris and Gleb church (1519), its construction was financed by hetman (governor) Kostantin Ostrozhskii; Saint-Nikolaevskij cathedral (1780), originally it was a catholic church after Saint Antonio, constructed by the monks from the Order of St. Francisco invited by Gedymin; and do not miss the catholic church after Saint Michael Archangel 1624).