Novogrudok or Navahrudak (Навагрудак; Новогрудок; Naugardukas; Nowogródek; נאַוואַראַדאָק) is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus, and the administrative center of Novogrudok District.
In the Middle Ages, the city was ruled by King Mindaugas' son Vaišvilkas.
The only mention of a possible Lithuanian early capital of Mindaugas in the contemporaneous sources is Voruta, whose most likely location has been identified as the Šeimyniškėliai mound or hillfort.
According to the Lithuanian historian Artūras Dubonis, the claim that Mindaugas' capital was in Novogrudok is false, as they began with the unreliable 16th-century Bychowiec Chronicle, whose claims were repeated a century later by Maciej Stryjkowski. During and after Mindaugas' rule, Novogrudok was part of the Kingdom of Lithuania, and later the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was later part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 14th century, it was an episcopal see of the Metropolitanate of Lithuania.
From 1795 to 1915, the Russian Empire ruled over the lands, with brief periods of intercession, e.g. Napoleon's Grande Armée in 1812 and the Uprisings of 1831 and 1863. After 1915, Novogrudok was occupied by the Imperial German Army for three years in World War I, by the Second Polish Republic until the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. Thereafter, the Soviet Union annexed the area to the Byelorussian SSR. From 1941 to 1944, Novogrudok was occupied by the German Army, thereafter returning to the Soviet Union until 1991.
The name comes from the Old East Slavic words "New town". It was a large settlement in the remote Western lands of the Krivichs, which came under the control of the Ancient Rus' state at the end of the 10th century. The ancient name of Novgorodok (Nov'gorodok, Nov'gorodok', though leaning both parts: to Novagorodka, in Novegorodtsy, "between Novym'gorodkom'", from "Novagorodka" in "Novegorodche"). In some sources, it is called Maly Novgorod.
Archaeological excavations made by Gurevich F. D.