History of Białystok

This is a sub-article to Białystok

The history of Białystok spans for over five centuries, during which time the fate of the city has passed between various political and economic forces.

From surviving documentation is it known that around 1437, a representative of the family Raczków, Jakub Tabutowicz with the coat of arms of Łabędź, received from Michael Žygimantaitis son of Sigismund Kęstutaitis, Duke of Lithuania, a wilderness area located along the river Biała that marked the beginning of Białystok as a settlement. Białystok administratively was part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, after 1569 also part of the Lesser Poland Province of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.

During the years 1617–1626, the first brick church and a beautiful castle, on a rectangular plan with two floors, in the Gothic-Renaissance style, was built by Job Bretfus. Extension of the castle continued by Krzysztof Wiesiołowski, since 1635 Grand Marshal of Lithuania and the owner of several administrative and royal and married Aleksandra Marianna Sobieska. In 1637 he died childless, thus Bialystok came under the management of his widow. After her death in 1645 the Wiesiołowskis estate, including Białystok, passed to the Commonwealth, to maintain Tykocin Castle. In the years 1645–1659 Bialystok was managed by governors of Tykocin. of a number of countries or occupying powers;, among them New East Prussia province, Belostok Province of the Grodno Governorate, Bialystok-Grodno District, Białystok Voivodeship, Belastok Voblast, Bezirk Białystok, Białystok Voivodeship (1945–1975) After the 1975 administrative reorganization of the People's Republic of Poland, the city was the capital of the smaller Białystok Voivodeship which lasted until 1998, Białystok Voivodeship (1975–1998) and Podlaskie Voivodeship.