Battle of ViennaThe Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna on 1683 after the city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarchy) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, both under the command of King John III Sobieski, against the Ottomans and their vassal and tributary states. The battle marked the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans.
GrodnoGrodno (Гродно; Grodno; Gardinas) or Hrodna (Гродна, ˈɣrɔdna) is a city in western Belarus. The city is located on the Neman River, from Minsk, about from the border with Poland, and from the border with Lithuania. As of 2023, the city has a population of 358,717 inhabitants. Grodno serves as the administrative center of Grodno Region and Grodno District, though it is administratively separated from the district. The modern city of Grodno, founded in 1127, originated as a small fortress and trading outpost on the border of the Baltic tribal union of the Yotvingians.
SerfdomSerfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century. Unlike slaves, serfs could not be bought, sold, or traded individually though they could, depending on the area, be sold together with land.
Polish złotyThe złoty (alternatively zloty; ˈzwɔtɨ; abbreviation: zł; code: PLN) is the official currency and legal tender of Poland. It is subdivided into 100 grosz (gr). It is the most traded currency in Central and Eastern Europe and ranks 21st most-traded in the foreign exchange market. The word złoty is a masculine form of the Polish adjective 'golden', which closely relates with its name to the guilder whereas the grosz subunit was based on the groschen, cognate to the English word groat.
Fee tailIn English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust, established by deed or settlement, that restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents that property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alienated by the tenant-in-possession, and instead causes it to pass automatically, by operation of law, to an heir determined by the settlement deed. The term fee tail is from Medieval Latin feodum talliatum, which means "cut(-short) fee".
Amber RoadThe Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade. As an important commodity, sometimes dubbed "the gold of the north", amber was transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea, Syria and Egypt over a period of thousands of years.
Polish languagePolish (Polish: język polski, ˈjɛw̃zɨk ˈpɔlskji, polszczyzna pɔlˈʂt͡ʂɨzna or simply polski, ˈpɔlskji) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In addition to being the official language of Poland, it is also used by the Polish diaspora. There are over 50 million Polish speakers around the world. It ranks as the sixth most-spoken among languages of the European Union.
Lithuanian languageLithuanian (lietuvių kalba ljɪɛˈtʊvjuː kɐɫˈbɐ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are approximately 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 1,000,000 speakers elsewhere. Around half a million inhabitants of Lithuania of non-Lithuanian background speak Lithuanian daily as a second language.
DruskininkaiDruskininkai (ˈdrʊsjkjɪnjɪŋkɐɪ; Druskieniki; Друскенiкi; דרוזגעניק) is a spa town on the Nemunas River in southern Lithuania, close to the borders of Belarus and Poland. The city of Druskininkai has a population of 12,055 and dates back as a spa resort to the 19th century. The town is located at the Ratnyčia River estuary to the Nemunas River and is surrounded by a natural forest reserve. The town is situated in a picturesque landscape with rivers, lakes, hills and forests.
Belarusian languageBelarusian (беларуская мова, bjɛlaˈruskaja ˈmɔva) is an East Slavic language. It is one of the two official languages in Belarus, alongside Russian. Additionally, it is spoken in some parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries. Before Belarus gained independence in 1991, the language was known in English as Byelorussian or Belorussian, or alternatively as White Russian. Following independence, it became known as Belarusian, or alternatively as Belarusan.