Among a series of articles devoted to the land of Novogrudok, the text describes Novogrudok as such - recalling the history of the town, including the reign of Prince Vytautas, the wedding of Vladislav Yahaila, and the town's flourishing under the rule of Polish kings. The text is also accompanied by a photograph of the Novogrudok starosty building, which is located in a former Radziwiłł tenement house (Source: "Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany' Warsaw 1925, no. 10-11-12, pp. 31-32, after: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text

Novogrudok

Who does not know this name? Who does not think of the Lithuanian town, so small now, but once so famous and powerful, when you hear it? Novogrudok is dear to the Polish heart, but how few of our compatriots visit this town, which should be a place of pilgrimage! However, if they wish to visit it, they should look at it as an art lover looks at a precious old painting, heedless of its dilapidated appearance and flimsy frames - not at the town's poverty and neglect, but at its history, at the high and clouded moments which have passed through it, as through the whole country...

Novogrudok, founded by Ruthenian princes in the 12th or 13th century, was attacked by the Tartar invasion of Baty, after which this landlocked region (the Tartars quickly retreated back) was seized by the Lithuanians under Erdziwiłł, who built a castle here. The Teutonic Knights and Tartars attacked the castle, but it defended itself and never gave up. The town flourished under the rule of Mindaugas and then Vytautas. Mindaugas is crowned king of Lithuania in the castle of Novgorod by a messenger of Pope Innocent IV. The ceremony takes place with great pomp in the presence of bishops, masters and dignitaries of the Livonian Order.

However, the idyll does not last long. The Teutonic Knights do not stop their scheming and attacks. Again, the castle bravely stands its ground and does not give in. In 1415, Duke Vytautas convenes a council of all the bishops of the Greek rite in the country at the Novgorod castle in order to elect a Lithuanian-Ruthenian metropolitan and avoid dependence on Moscow. - The same prince erects a church, later known as the Fara, at the foot of the castle. In this same Fara, King Jogaila married, in 1422, the princess of Holshany Sonka, said to be of marvellous beauty, later to become the mother of the Jagiellonians. It was also here that Mickiewicz was baptised in 1799.

Novogrudok enjoyed its greatest prosperity under the protection of the Polish kings, who granted it various privileges and rights that took into account national and religious differences, and set up the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Tribunal, which was attended by brother nobles with perpetual court cases and followed by merchants, often from Italy, Turkey and the East.

The Reformation, which is flooding into Poland, echoes loudly in Novogrudok as well. Public disputes take place here. King Stanislav August visited the town.

The year 1812 sees Napoleon's troops descend on Novogrudok like flocks of colourful birds, welcoming them with open arms and warm hearts. For how could it not welcome its beloved heroes! Prince Jozef Poniatowski, General Dabrowski and others... The wheel of history has turned....

Again the Ruthenians have ruled for over a hundred years, trying to destroy, though unsuccessfully, Polishness. In vain in 1831 and 1863 it suffocates the uprisings - the spirit lives on. In 1915, the German invasion floods the country and Novogrudok, and in 1918 and 1920, the eastern invasion again. And again the permanent rule of Poland.

The wounds of war heal gradually. Novogrudok was raised to the status of a provincial town a few hundred years ago, and welcomed the highest Polish dignitaries: Jozef Pilsudski, Chief of State, in 1922, and later, in May 1924, Stanislaw Wojciechowski, President of the Republic of Poland.

The aged Wladyslaw Mickiewicz visits Nowogródek and is received enthusiastically by the public at the home of his great Father in May 1922. Nowadays, Novogrudok is reached by rail to the Novoyelna station, from where the 23-kilometre distance to the town can be covered by rail or by car.

The road to Novogrudok initially passes through flat, sandy fields near Novoyelna - it continues through the town, becoming increasingly undulating, particularly beautiful near Koszelevo - then climbs a series of hills in front of Novogrudok, which appears from the highest hill, like a view from an old engraving. Up close, it's an ordinary little town, and yet, there's something here that takes your heart, just like that plain text in the yellowed metric book:

"...dis 15. febru. P. A. R. D. Antonius Pollet cen. favor. baptismi infant. natus Adamus Bernard...".

And those old churches and monasteries! In vain the invaders destroyed so much, in vain they tried to erase the traces of a glorious past. It calls with a great voice to everyone who wants to see and feel it....

One is reminded of an excerpt from the diaries of a Novogrudok inhabitant from the middle of the last century:

"The wind has blown in Lithuania from Novogrudok; it is like a tiny island in the ocean, barely visible from afar, but so striking in its surface that, when a ship passes by it, there rises an involuntary call of travellers to stop by it..." ("A Novel of My Time", 1858).

Let as many of these calls rise in Poland as possible, let our brothers visit this beautiful corner of the country, let them breathe in its invigorating air and feel that Mickiewiczian sentiment, which hovers over the beautiful land of Novogrudok.