Naliboki forest

Rich fauna include deer, wild boars, elks, beavers, bears, bison, wood grouses, heath cocks, snipes etc.

In the middle of the 13th century, the forest defended the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the south from the attacks of the Golden Horde and its vassal, the principality of Halych-Volhynia, thus helping the newly formed state to survive.

As a result of the Union of Krewo (1385) and subsequent Christianization of Lithuania in 1387, local pagans were converted to Catholicism, and the area stayed predominantly Catholic until today.

In the second half of the 16th century, most of the Naliboki Forest had been concentrated in the hands of the powerful Radziwill family, serving partly as their hunting grounds, but also as a rich source of timber and grade iron ore from a local pre-industrial foundry, produced mostly for export.

Its pioneer, Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich (Polish: Wincenty Dunin-Marcinkiewicz) for most of his life owned a small village of Lucynka, where he permanently resided as of the early 1860s, and where most of his literary works were written.

During World War II, the Naliboki Forest hosted many thousands of those who escaped from Nazi terror and formed partisan troops – Soviet, Jewish and Polish as well as criminals without any political ideals.

Operation Hermann was targeted especially against the Catholic resistance, and in particular, Franciscan friars Józef Achilles Puchała and Karol Herman Stępień, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1999, were tortured to death by the Nazis.