Gomel in the Great Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Gomel

gomel fortress in 16th century

in 1335, gomel region joined great duchy of lithuania algirdas. 1335 1406 under ownership of prince patricia narymuntovich , sons, 1406 1419 city ruled great duke s deputies, 1419 1435 belonged prince svitrigaila, 1446 1452 prince vasiliy yaroslavich, 1452 1483 mozhaysk prince ivan andreyevich, , 1483 1505 son semyon, transferred grand duchy of moscow.

during second muscovite-lithuanian war of 1500–1503 lithuania tried regain gomel , other lands transferred moscow, suffered defeat , lost one-third of territory. in 1535, lithuanian , polish forces under jerzy radziwiłł, jan tarnowski , andrzej niemirowicz re-captured city after surrender of moscow s deputy, d. shchepin-obolensky. in same year, great duke of lithuania sigismund kęstutaitis founded gomel starostwo. according peace agreement of 1537, gomel volost remained lithuanian possession. in 1535–1565 gomel centre of starostwo, , 1565 onwards gomel in rechytsa powiat of minsk voivodeship.

coat of arms of gomel, 1560

in 1560, city s first coat of arms introduced. in 1569, gomel became part of polish-lithuanian commonwealth. moment on, city became arena of numerous attacks , battles between cossaks, russia , polish-lithuania commonwealth. in 1572, gomel starostwo given b. sapega. @ beginning of 1570s, gomel captured forces of ivan terrible, in 1576 re-captured j. radziwiłł. in 1581, gomel again attacked russian troops, , in 1595–1596 in hands of severyn nalyvaiko s cossaks.

after beginning of struggle against orthodox christianity in lithuania, orthodox nikolayevskiy cathedral closed on order of greek catholic eparch josaphat kuntsevych in 1621. in 1633 city besieged cossaks of bulgakov , yermolin, in 1648 captured golovatskiy s cossack detachment, , in 1649 martyn nebaba s detachment. after that, gomel got through several sieges in 1651 in 1654 captured ivan zolotarenko s detachment. , sons held city until 1667 , began serve under alexis of russia, however, after truce of andrusovo gomel @ last returned polish-lithuanian commonwealth, first belonged m. k. radziwiłł , – till annexation russian empire – czartoryski family. during great northern war russian forces under aleksandr danilovich menshikov stood in gomel. in 1670, gomel got magdeburg rights. towards middle of 17th century, city fell crisis due struggles mentioned above. suffered significant damage, population decreased severely, , many crafts disappeared.