Hrodna Voblast or
Grodno Oblast (
Belarusian ??????????? ????????,
Hrodzienskaya voblasts;
Russian ??????????? ??????? Grodnenskaya Oblast) is a
voblast (
province) in northwestern
Belarus.
The capital - Hrodna is the biggest city of the province. It lies on the Neman River. Hrodna's existence is attested to from 1127. Two castles dating from the 14th - 18th centuries are located here on the steep right bank of the Nemen. Many consider this city one of the most beautiful in Belarus one of its masterpieces survived through the centuries, Orthodox St Barys & St Hleb (Kalozhskaya) Church dating back to the 12th century, is the second oldest in Belarus.
This region was the westernmost "border" of the Early East Slavs (tribal union Dregovichs?) on the lands of the Balts in the 6th-9th centuries. In the 13th-14th centuries it was a center of the area sometimes known as Black Ruthenia, that with neighbor the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became a basis for Baltic-Slavic state - Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). Being a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, amounting to the GDL's Trakai Voivodship, it was annexed by Russian Empire in 1795 during the partitions of Poland. The city of Hrodna then became a seat for Grodno Governorate. During the World War I the area was occupied by Germany. During the German occupation the Belarusian National Republic declared its independence from the Soviet Russia in March 1918 in Minsk, Hrodna was the site of the last stand of the BNR's Council (Rada). They were then forced to emigrate before Soviet troops captured the region in 1919. Since 1921 under the Peace Treaty of Riga the territory belonged to Second Polish Republic, in 1939 it became a part of the USSR and since its fall in 1991 - one of 6 provinces of independent Belarus.
The Mir Castle Complex, a 16th century historical landmark as well as part of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha nature reserve, both UNESCO World Heritage sites are located in this region.
