page_title: History of Białystok
section_title: Branicki Estate (1661–1802)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Białystok / Early Modern era / Branicki Estate (1661–1802)
caption_attribution_description: Medical University of Białystok
context_page_description: The city of Białystok has existed for over five centuries, during which time the fate of the city has passed between various political and economic forces.
  From surviving documentation we know that around 1437, a representative of the family Raczków, Jakub Tabutowicz with the coat of arms of Łabędź, received from Michael Žygimantaitis son of Sigismund Kęstutaitis, Duke of Lithuania, a wilderness area located along the river Biała that marked the beginning of Białystok as a settlement. Białystok administratively was part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, after 1569 also part of the Lesser Poland Province of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.
  During the years 1617–1626, the first brick church and a beautiful castle, on a rectangular plan with two floors, in the Gothic-Renaissance style, was built by Job Bretfus. Extension of the castle continued by Krzysztof Wiesiołowski, since 1635 Grand Marshal of Lithuania and the owner of several administrative and royal and married Aleksandra Marianna Sobieska. In 1637 he died childless, thus Bialystok came under the management of his widow.
context_section_description: In 1661 it was given to Stefan Czarniecki as a reward for his service in the victory over the Swedes. Four years later, as a dowry of his daughter Aleksandra who married Jan Klemens Branicki, thus passing into the hands of the Branicki family.
  In 1692 Stefan Mikołaj Branicki, the son of Jan Klemens Branicki, obtained the rights to the city of Białystok from King John III Sobieski and built Branicki Palace in the city on the foundations of former defensive castle of Wiesiołowskis' family. The project's author is a prominent architect: Tylman of Gameren. In the second half of the 18th century the ownership of the city was inherited by Field Crown Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki. It was he who transformed the previously existing palace built by his father into the magnificent residence of a great noble, which was frequently visited by Polish kings and poets. Numerous artists and scientists came to Białystok to take advantage of Branicki's patronage. In 1745 Branicki established Poland's first military college, School of Civil and Military Engineering and in 1748, one of the oldest theaters in Poland, the Komedialnia. New schools were established, including a ballet school in connection with the foundation of the theater. On 19 November 1748 marries Izabella Poniatowska as his third wife Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki. Białystok received its city charter on 1 February 1749 from King Augustus III of Poland.
  Then the townspeople of Białystok through the commissar of goods Józef Wojnarowski from the Podlasie region turned to Jan Klemens Branicki, that he would obtain another royal privilege. This initiative met with understanding of the Grand Crown Hetman and it was announced in a consecutive document from 19 November 1760.  the area of Bialystok was not uniform in organizational terms. Undoubtedly, the left-bank (southwest of the Biała River) part of the building was part of the city. Meanwhile, the right bank area consisting of the settlement of Bojary, Zamkowa street., Kleidorf, Nowe Miasto (the southern area of Warszawska street, not to confuse with the modern Nowe Miasto district) and Przedmieście Wasilkowski had an unspecified status. Also, a huge number of Jews and soldiers resulted in their autonomous position. In that period, only the so-called The Old Town was covered by the urban structure, the rest was treated as suburbs, villages that used municipal law. For example, A normative act on the limitation of prostitution in the city from 1752 was addressed to the hosts living "both in the city and in Bojary". However, in 1789 the Białystok local government addressed Izabela Branicka with a proposal to join the villages of Kleindorf and Nowolipie, in exchange for which he declared to participate in the market paving process. The proposal was rejected as a result of two years later, a lustration of the city of Bialystok carried out by the city judge of Brahman Władysław Markowski. He noted that Bojary, Nowe Miasto, Nowolipie and the palace are excluded from the city area, which entails changes in the level of tax (mainly leather tax). It was by no means a small area - in the light of a very detailed census prepared in 1793, there were 87 farms built in the right bank of Białystok. These separations were liquidated during the Prussian partition, when the authorities of the Camera of War and Domain unified the urban structure and tried to include even the palace area into the urban area. This is confirmed by the annex to the contract of lease of the city of Bialystok concluded between the Camera of the War and Domen and Izabela Branicka in 1802. According to the borders document, the entire palace and garden arrangement was excluded from urban structures, while all suburbs were already included in the city.
  In 1753 the center of the city burns down. In 1756 Jan Klemens Branicki is divorced from his third wife. On 13 July 1769 – Battle of Białystok part of the War of the Bar Confederation. On 9 October 1771 Jan Klemens Branicki died. In 1789, the epidemic of smallpox, 22 children died. Following the third partition of the Polish-Li
caption: Branicki Palace
exif: {}