Grodno Region
Grodno Region, also known as Grodno Oblast or Hrodna Voblasts (; ; ), is one of the regions of Belarus. It is located in the western part of the country. Its administrative center, Grodno, is also the largest city in the region. It lies on the Neman River. The region borders Minsk Region to the east, Brest Region to the south, Poland (Podlaskie Voivodeship) to the west and Vitebsk Region and Lithuania (Alytus and Vilnius counties) to the north. Grodno's existence is attested to from 1127. Two castles dating from the 14th to 18th centuries are located here on the steep right bank of the Nemen. One of the city's surviving masterpieces is the 12th century Orthodox Church of St Boris & St Gleb (Kalozhskaya Church), which is the second oldest in Belarus. History This region was the westernmost "borderlands" of the Early East Slavs (tribal union Dregoviches?) on the lands of the Balts in the 6th-9th centuries. In the 12th-14th centuries it was part of the area sometimes known as Black Ruthenia, that was fully incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) by the rulers of Lithuania in the 13th century. In 1413, the area around Grodno, part