page_title: Rajgród
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rajgród / History
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Pomnik króla Polski Kazimierza III Wielkiego w Rajgrodzie
context_page_description: Rajgród is a town in Grajewo County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland, with 1,609 inhabitants, within the historic region of Podlachia.
context_section_description: Rajgród has a long and rich history, with evidence of human habitation dating back to around 9000 BC. In the Middle Ages, the Yotvingians founded a settlement here on a hill. Known as Raj, it would become the tribe's main town. According to the chronicler Wigand of Marburg, in 1360 King Casimir III the Great of Poland ordered the castellan of Wizna to build a defensive castle nearby. The fate of the castle has not been established, but it was probably destroyed by the Teutonic Knights.
  The first written mention of the town of Rajgród dates from 1429, when a man named Mikołaj of Rajgród sold real estate to his brother Jan. At some time in the early 1440s, a gord (fortified wooden settlement) was established here and Rajgród emerged as a local centre of the timber trade. After the Treaty of Melno, the gord was transferred from Polish Mazovia to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In c. 1505 King Alexander I gave Rajgród to a nobleman named Michał Gliński, and in 1509 King Sigismund III of Poland handed the area of Rajgród and Goniądz to Mikołaj Radziwiłł.
  In 1568, Rajgród was granted a town charter, and a year later, following the Union of Lublin, it was returned, together with the region of Podlasie, to the Kingdom of Poland. In 1570, Rajgród became a royal town and the seat of a starosta (a senior royal administrative official). The first starosta was Marcin Dulski. In c. 1602, a large manor house was constructed for the local administration. In 1679, King John III Sobieski confirmed Rajgród's privileges and charter, and in 1764, a new church was built.
caption: King Casimir III the Great monument in the town center
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