"Bialystok - town, based on Duke Gediminas legend" Top 5 Page for this destination Bialystok by Raimix

Bialystok Travel Guide: 67 reviews and 188 photos

Bialystok - town, based on Duke Gediminas legend - Bialystok

I visited Bialystok on a trip to North – East Poland. It was two days trip made by Youth Tourism Centre workers, I got one reserved place :)

Bialystok is located in North – Eastern part of Poland, not so far from Byelorussian and Lithuanian borders. Bialystok name came from words “white slope” or “clean stream” Actually legends tells, that Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (around 1320) stopped here to relax after journey and saw very clear river. Duke decided here to create a settlement and name it after the river. Actually the name of river nowadays is Biala.

Place is known from 1437, Grand duke of Lithuania Casimir IV Jagiellonian gave lands to Raczko Tabutowitz, later it passed to family of Wiesiolowski (1547) and finally to Branicki. In the 18th century thanks to Branicki family city got another appearance, with famous Baroque palace and park and privilege of city.

Bialystok and its region were frequently moving from one country reliance to the other one. After partition of Poland – Lithuania union, region belonged to Prussia, after a few years Russia rule was taken over by Russia. Actually from 1914 till 1945 Bialystok belonged to German occupational region, Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland. Place was known of cultural, religious, multinational mixture of Polish, Jews, Lithuanians, Byelorussians, Germans, Russians, Tartars. From 1941 till 1944 Nazis created ghetto here and killed huge number of Jews. Now most of about 300 000 population are Polish.

Pros and Cons

Pros:Cozy, silent and beautiful central part.
Cons:One day for visiting is enough, not much of old things left.
In a nutshell:Nice short runaway from Lithuania :)

Last visit to Bialystok: Oct 2009
Intro Updated Feb 3, 2010
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Reviews (10)

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Written Jan 28, 2010

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Comments (3)

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yumyum Apr 24, 2010 at 12:27 PM

I didn't know that the creator of Esperanto was someone from Poland!
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sihi Apr 19, 2010 at 4:29 AM

Very nice page of this city. I know it is good shoping destination.
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HORSCHECK Feb 6, 2010 at 1:26 PM

Raimis, gorgeous Bialystok page with brilliant photos and helpful information. I didn't know that another Centre of Europe is in Suchowola, not far from Bialystok.