Białystok - Pałac Branickich

Around 1437 a member of the Raczków family received a wilderness area along the river Biała from Michael Žygimantaitis, pretender to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the last male descendant of Sigismund Kęstutaitis.

From 1665 it belonged to the Branicki family, who developed it into a residential town. At the instigation of Stefan Branicki, Białystok received its town charter in 1692.

In the first half of the 18th century, Jan Klemens Branicki transformed the palace built by his father into a magnificent residence, which was frequently visited by Polish kings, in 1748, one of the oldest theaters in Poland, the "Komedialnia", was founded here. In 1770, under the auspices of Jan Klemens Branicki´s wife Izabella Poniatowska, a midwifery school was founded, based on which the Institute of Obstetrics was established in 1805.

Białystok came under Prussian rule in 1796 and in 1807 after the Peace of Tilsit fell to Russia. This circumstance and the establishment of a customs border between Congress Poland and Russia in 1831 ensured a boom for the city, as companies from Poland moved their headquarters to the now Russian Białystok to continue producing for the Russian army. The opening of the Warsaw-Petersburg railway, which ran through Białystok, turned the city into an industrial center. In 1900, 63% of the inhabitants were Jews, so the city also developed as a significant Jewish center.

During WWI a German air raid took place in April 1915, which resulted in 13 dead. Heavy damage was caused by Russian troops when they retreated from the advancing Germans in August 1915. Białystok remained under German control until February 1919.

At the beginning of WWII, the city was taken by German troops but, according to the secret agreement in the German-Soviet non-aggression pact, it was handed over to the troops of the Soviet Union. In the course of the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Białystok was again occupied by the Wehrmacht. In June 1941, the German police burned down the Great Synagogue of Białystok, into which they had previously herded hundreds of Jews. The new rulers established the Białystok ghetto here. Most of the approximately 43-60 thousand Jewish inhabitants at that time were taken to the extermination camps Treblinka and Auschwitz and murdered there.
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The Palace of Jan Klemens Branicki, sometimes named the "Versailles de la Pologne".