Radziłów

Radziłów
Village
Church of St. Anne
Radziłów
Coordinates: 53°24′39″N 22°24′36″E / 53.41083°N 22.41000°E / 53.41083; 22.41000
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Podlaskie
County	Grajewo
Gmina	Radziłów
Population	1,267

Radziłów [raˈd͡ʑiwuf] is a village (formerly a town) in Grajewo County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina, an administrative district called Gmina Radziłów. It lies approximately 27 kilometres (17 mi) south of Grajewo and 61 km (38 mi) north-west of the regional capital Białystok. In 2007 the village had a population of 1,267.

The history of Radziłów is closely connected with the history of Masovia Province from before the Partitions of Poland. The first settlers arrived in the Middle Ages and began clearing the impenetrable forest. Masovian Dukes, who owned the area, issued the rights to enter the forest and harvest it. Among the first settlers were bee-keepers, fishermen, hunters and loggers, who sold honey, wax, fish and lumber to neighboring towns, Wizna and Goniądz. The lumber was also transported via Biebrza and Ełk river waterways to Gdańsk.

The founding of the city took a long time. Radziłów was formally established by Prince Konrad III, with Kazimierz III, Bolesław V and Janusz II, who gave it the city rights on May 9, 1466. The town began to flourish in the 16th century. Located at a trading route between Wizna and Wąsosz, it became a commercial center for bakers, shoemakers, tailors, butchers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, cooper-makers and potters. The main square in Radziłów at the time (180 m × 120 m in size) was bigger than in Warsaw (70 m × 94 m) and in Płock (140 m × 70 m) and held two weekly markets, on Monday and on Sunday (from 17th century on) as well as a fair on Wednesday added by king Władysław IV in 1641. The majority of inhabitants lived off farming.