Grodno

Grodno, a town of Russia, on the right bank of the Nienem, 148 miles by rail NE. of Warsaw. It has a medical academy and manufactures in cloth and tobacco. The new palace, erected by Augustus III. of Poland, is a handsome edifice. At first a Russian town, Grodno fell to Lithuania in 1241. Here Stephen Bathori died in 1586; here in 1793 the Polish diet ratified the second partition of Poland; and here, too, Stanislaus Augustus, the last king of Poland, abdicated (1795). Pop. (1895) 50,500. In the neighbourhood are the mineral springs of Drusskenik.—The province of Grodno (area, 14,931 sq. m.; population, 1,556,442) is an extensive plain, largely covered with pine forests, and in parts swampy. But it is crossed by the ridge that forms the watershed between the Baltic and Black Sea basins. Its largest rivers are the Bng, Narew, and Nienem. Rye, wheat, oats, potatoes, and tobacco are grown on the fertile soil. The province is a seat of the woollen industry. Trade (in timber, grain, flax, hemp, wool, &c.) is exclusively in the hands of Jews.