Coordinates 53°40'N, 23°50'EArchaeological excavations indicate that the first Slavic settlements on a high bank of the river Neman appeared back in the X century. The first census in the cities mentioned in the jurisdiction of the Diocese Turowski (1005 y.). The modern city of Hrodna originated as a small fortress and a fortified trading outpost maintained by the Rurikid princes on the border with the lands of the Baltic tribal union Yotvingians. Its name derives from the Old East Slavic verb gorodit', i.e., to enclose, to fence (see "grad" for details).
Mentioned in the Primary Chronicle under 1127 as Goroden' and located at a crossing of numerous trading routes, this Slavic settlement, possibly originating as far as the late 10th century, became the capital of a poorly attested but separate principality, ruled by Yaroslav the Wise's grandson and his descendants.
Along with Navahradak, Hrodna was regarded as the main city on the far west of Black Ruthenia, Black Russia, a border region that was neighbouring the original Duchy of Lithuania. It was often attacked by various invaders, especially the Teutonic Knights. In the 1250s the Hrodna area was overrun by the pagan Lithuanians, who later formed the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on these territories. After prussian uprising many Prussians moved to city. The famous Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas was the prince of Hrodna from 1376 to 1392, and he stayed there during his preparations for the Battle of Grunwald (1410). Since 1413, Hrodna had been the administrative center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship.
