[1] The modern city of Grodno, founded in 1127, originated as a small fortress and trading outpost on the border of the Baltic tribal union of the Yotvingians.

The city was a key trade, commerce, and cultural center in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and one of its royal residences, and de facto capital in the 1580s.

[6] The modern city of Grodno originated as a small fortress and a fortified trading outpost maintained by the Rurikid princes on the border with the lands of the Baltic tribal union of the Yotvingians.

During the Lithuanian Civil War of 1389–1392, the city was captured by Władysław II Jagiełło in 1390, and then by Vytautas in 1391, with Vytautas-allied Konrad von Wallenrode committing a massacre of 15 Polish prisoners-of-war.

[13] After the Ostrów Agreement of 1392, Vytautas expelled the Teutonic Knights, who in revenge captured the city, burned the castle and took 3,000 prisoners.

In the 1580s, Grodno was the de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, when King Stephen Báthory of Poland moved his main residence and military headquarters there.

[16] Stephen Báthory rebuilt the Old Grodno Castle into an important royal residence and built the Renaissance Batorówka Palace.

Kings Casimir IV Jagiellon and Stephen Báthory died there, and the latter was initially buried at the local Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It was in the New Castle on 25 November that year that the last Polish king and Lithuanian grand duke Stanisław August Poniatowski abdicated.

[21] The dean of Grodno, Józef Majewski, was deported to Tobolsk in Siberia for attempting to organise a procession to Różanystok, a regional Catholic pilgrimage destination.

[24] After the outbreak of World War I, Grodno was occupied by Germany (3 September 1915)[26] and ceded by Bolshevist Russia under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918.

[28][29] For example, a Belarusian unit named 1st Belarusian Regiment, commanded by Alaksandar Ružancoŭ, was formed mainly from Grodno's inhabitants in 1919 as a part of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and participated in Lithuania's side during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence, thus large amount of its members were awarded with the highest state award of Lithuania – Order of the Cross of Vytis.

[30][31] After the outbreak of the Polish–Bolshevik War, the German commanders of the Ober Ost feared that the city might fall to Soviet Russia, so according to the 1919 Treaty of Białystok on 27 April 1919 they passed authority to Poland,[28][32] which just regained independence several months earlier.

The Poles disbanded the Lithuania's 1st Belarusian Regiment (which refused to carry out Polish orders) in Grodno and publicly humiliated, looted and repressed soldiers of this unit, including officers, as well as Lithuanian and Belarusian symbols and flags in the city were torn down and publicly ridiculed, and were replaced with Polish equivalents.

[37] During the Polish Defensive War of September to October 1939 the garrison of Grodno was mostly used for the formation of numerous military units fighting against the invading Wehrmacht.

[27][40] According to a 26 September 1940 meeting protocol of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia, Panteleimon Ponomarenko, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia, narrated during the meeting that previously he discussed with the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin the issue of the territorial transfers between the Byelorussian SSR and the Lithuanian SSR and Stalin said to him that if he will not transfer territories where there are many Lithuanians he will be punished.

[42] In the course of Operation Barbarossa in World War II, the majority of Jews were herded by the Nazis into the Grodno Ghetto and subsequently killed in extermination camps.

[citation needed] The Grodno Old Town was severely damaged during World War II and post-war authorities lacked will to preserve its heritage.

In 2008, the Belarusian Voluntary Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments declared violations of the Law on the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage: the destruction of the cultural layer in the historic Old Market Square, demolition of 28 Constructivist architecture buildings in Mickevich, Gorky and 17 September streets in order to replace them with a modern hotel complex and the main traffic flow is directed in dangerous proximity to the New and Old Castles, while the plans to rebuild the Grodno Town Hall and the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Vytautas' Church) are not being implemented.

[52] Some specialists disputed the restoration project, they found significant mistakes in documentation that appeared because the constructor could not read historical inventory descriptions written in Polish and German.

[57][58] Nevertheless, the British, American, Lithuanian, Canadian authorities and Belarusian opposition representatives urged not to travel to Belarus because of the safety concerns due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws (resulting in arrests and detention) and Russo-Ukrainian War.

After Grodno was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1795 it was made part of the Pale of Settlement within which Jewish residency was allowed, and beyond which it was prohibited.

[citation needed] In the period of independent Poland, a yeshiva had operated in the city (Shaar ha-Tora) under the management of Rabbi Shimon Shkop.

The head of the Judenrat was appointed Dr. Braur (or Brawer), the school's headmaster, who served in this duty until his execution in February 1943 during a roundup for a deportation to Treblinka.

The Wettin monarchs of Poland were dissatisfied with the old residence and commissioned Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann to design the New Grodno Castle, whose once sumptuous Baroque interiors were destroyed during World War II.

It is the only surviving monument of ancient Black Ruthenian architecture, distinguished from other Orthodox churches by prolific use of polychrome faceted stones of blue, green or red tint which could be arranged to form crosses or other figures on the wall.

[74] The church was built before 1183 and survived intact until 1853, when the south wall collapsed, due to its perilous location on the high bank of the Neman.

Due to wars that rocked Poland-Lithuania at that time, the cathedral was consecrated only 27 years later, in the presence of Peter the Great and Augustus the Strong.

Other sights in Grodno include the Orthodox cathedral, a polychrome Russian Revival extravaganza from 1904; the botanical garden, the first in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, founded in 1774; a curiously curved building on the central square (1780s); a 254-metre-high TV tower (1984); and Stanisławów, a summer residence of the last Polish king.

[83] In 2001 the Grodno regional executive committee established the Alexander Dubko award, named for the governor of Grodnenshchina, for the best creative achievements in the sphere of culture.