Shchuchyn
Shchuchyn (, ; , ; ; ) is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Shchuchyn District. As of 2023, it has a population of 15,653. History The first known official written mention of Shchuchyn is recorded in 1436, but its foundation as a settlement dates back to 1537, when 'Shchuchyn was mentioned in the Book of Acts of the Lithuanian Metrica (the Book of Lithuanian vital records), kept in the Governmental archive in Lithuania. Ownership of Shchuchyn passed from one noble family to another: The Radziwiłł family, then the Drutskiya-Liubetskis, the Scipions, and others ruled Shchuchyn in turn. In the 15th–18th centuries, Shchuchyn became a member of the Lida council of the Vilnius office of voivode. In the first half of the 17th century, Shchuchyn was governed by the outsider marshal of the Lithuanian principality, Scipio de Campo. Shchuchyn was an average-sized privately owned village in terms of population. A Catholic Monasterial Order was established 1726 in Shchuchyn by the resolution of the Sejm. The Board of Shchuchyn was considered to be one of the biggest in Belarus. Shchuchyn was subject to ruin and ravage more than once in its history. The biggest