Kobrin in the period BC by the ninth century

According to archeological sources, within the borders of Kobrin region there are more than 20 settlements, near which ancient sites are located. The first people appeared in these places about 14 thousand years ago, at the end of the Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic). Modern western Belarus and Poland in 12-10 thousand BC. inhabited by tribes of the Svider culture. During the Mesolithic, people organized their camps near water sources, on the hills. They built houses from wood and skins. As a rule, one maternal tribal community lived in the house. In the Kobrin region, only one site of the time of the Svider culture was found - 5 km northeast of the village. Divin, near the lake. Luban. In the 4th-3rd millennium BC. Kobrin district was inhabited by tribes of Neman culture. The Neolithic settlement consisted of several houses in which up to 10 people could live. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. almost the entire territory of modern Belarus was inhabited by alien tribes of similar archaeological cultures. In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. the so-called Trzciniec archaeological culture (ancestors of the Slavs) was formed. There are quite a lot of traces of people living in the Bronze Age in the Kobrin region: October, Kustovichi, Lipovo, etc. The era of "iron" in Polissya began in the 7th century. BC. The beginning of the Iron Age in western Polissya is associated with the medieval East Pomeranian culture.

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It is not exactly established which tribes inhabited Kobrin after the 2nd century. n. e. Many tribes moved through this territory, incl. Goths, Gepids, etc. The totality of their historical features (IV-II centuries BC) was called the Velbar archaeological culture.

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With the use of iron tools, as a result of expanding economic activity, the disintegration of primitive relations and the formation of large patriarchal families began.

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The first settlements of the Slavs in the western woodland are known from the 6th-7th centuries. Perhaps the descendants of the Goths, Celts or Yotvingians lived here. Disputes about this continue, the Yotvingians are mentioned as a people who, in the 2nd century. lived east of the Vistula. By the way, in the local toponymy there are names that are not typical for the Slavs. So far, archaeologists have found several burial mounds in the basin of the river. Lesnaya, testifying to the presence in ancient times of the Yotvingian tribes. The appearance of the Slavs is associated with the resettlement of the Duleb tribes, who reached the Kobrin region.

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In the X-XIII centuries. in the places of settlements, which previously consisted of several dozen houses, the first cities appeared - Berestye, Pinsk and Kobrin. Although the first mention of the emergence of Kobrin dates back to the 13th century, it is known that it appeared much earlier. Archaeologists have excavated near the bridge over the river. Mukhavets, where evidence of an earlier settlement in these places (mid-11th century) was found in the lower layers. This is proved by the Berestye archaeological complex and other excavations. In 1999, in the lower layers of the pit, laid on the Kobrin castle not far from the old bridge across the river. Mukhavets, archaeologist O. Iov found fragments of ceramic dishes produced before the middle of the 11th century.

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Kobrin in the IX-XX centuries

In the IX-XII centuries. Kobrin lands were settled by Slavs. At the end of the tenth century the territories inhabited by Volyns and Buzhans became part of the Old Russian state with its capital in Kiev. So the Vladimir-Volyn principality was established. According to legend, in 983, after a successful campaign against the Yotvingians, Prince Vladimir built a fortress at the mouth of the Mukhavets, under which the city of Berestye grew. Upstream, in one day's journey, there was a settlement, on the site of which Kobrin arose. But this name has not yet appeared in the annals of that time. Volyn land repeatedly passed from hand to hand of the rulers (one of the owners of the land was the Rurikovich). In the 12th century, it was fragmented, and Beresteyskaya was among the lands. But at the end of the XII century. Prince Roman Mstislavovich again united all the lands into the Galicia-Volyn principality. Assessing the favorable defensive location of the area, he ordered to establish a castle on the island, in the Kobriki delta. This was the beginning of a city still unknown to chroniclers. Later, the grandson of Prince Roman, Vladimir Vasilkovich, will document the foundation of the city of Kobrin in 1287 in the Ipatiev Chronicle. At this time, Kobrin was already a city. The exact date of the foundation of the city is unknown.

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According to legend, Kobrin originates from a fishing settlement that stood at the confluence of the Kobrinka River into the Mukhavets River. It was on the way from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea: Vistula-Bug-Mukhavets-Pina-Pripyat-Dnepr.

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In 1315, the lands up to the Bug were annexed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (VKP), and Kobrin from 1387 to 1519. was the center of a specific principality. On the site of the ancient Dedinets and Posad from the 14th to the 18th centuries. there were castles.

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According to the agreement of 1366, Kobrin belonged to the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd. Later, Kobrin passes into the possession of the son of Prince Fedor Ratnensky. After 1404, Roman, one of the three sons of Fyodor, received Vitovt's letter of ownership of Kobrin. Roman became the founder of the dynasty of princes Kobrin. After the death of Semyon Romanovich, the Kobrin principality belonged to his widow Ulyana, then until 1512 - to his son Ivan Semenovich and his wife Fedora.

The princely time of Kobrin ended in 1518 with the death of Princess Anna Semyonovna Kobrinskaya. But for some reason, the Kobrin principality - Cobrinol Ducatus - continued to exist on the European maps of that time for at least two centuries.

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According to the privilege of King Sigismund I the Old dated June 7, 1519, the Kobrin principality receives the status of a starost and actually becomes a royal estate.

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In 1532, after the death of King Sigismund the Old, according to his other privilege, the eldership passed into the ownership of his wife, Queen and Grand Duchess Bona Sforza, daughter of the Duke of Milan. At it the Kobrin economy legally took shape. On her initiative, in 1540, on the territory of Kobrin region, the canal of Queen Bona was laid - the first reclamation object known in Belarus. Initially, Kobrin became the center of the Kobrin powiat of the Podlasie Voivodeship, then in 1566 of the Beresteisky Voivodeship. In the 2nd half of the XVI century. Kobrin becomes royal property with 800 hectares of arable land.

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In 1563, the royal auditor Dmitry Sapega arrived in Kobrin. Under his leadership, a description of the entire economy in the so-called. revisions. They first appeared a list of street names, house numbers with the names of their owners and occupation. The city of Kobrin occupied a fairly large area. It was located on 2 rivers - Kobrinka and Mukhavets, and was divided into 2 parts, in one and the other there were three streets. All the parade grounds were counted up to 337. Actually, under the city estates there were up to 240 acres; under field gardens and fields more than 3000 acres. The city brought income up to 125 kopecks.

Having become the property of Queen Anna Jagiellonian, in 1589 Kobrin received self-government on the basis of Magdeburg law. Kobrin was granted a coat of arms and a seal. On December 10, 1589, the city for the first time received its own coat of arms - in a silver field, the image of St. Anne and the Mother of God with the baby Jesus in her arms.

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In the middle of the XVII century. in Kobrin there were about 1.7 thousand inhabitants, there were about 500 houses. Near the castle, a trading square was formed, surrounded by residential areas, and the Orthodox Spassky Monastery was built. The street system had a radial character, the main street directions stretched to the market square (the area of modern Svoboda Square), on which the town hall and shopping arcades were located. Such a planning structure was typical of medieval settlements. After the 3rd partition of the Commonwealth in 1795, Kobrin became part of the Russian Empire. In 1795, the estate and estate in Kobrin were donated by Empress Catherine II as a sign of high merit to Field Marshal A.V. Suvorov “in perpetual hereditary possession”.

On the plan of Kobrin XVIII century. you can find the typical names of the streets Malaya, Malaya from the Market, Svinskaya, River, etc. Some streets got their names from the churches located on them: Nikolskaya, Prechistinskaya. At that time Kobrin had 377 yards with houses. The local administration occupied the Lower Kobrin Castle.

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At the beginning of the XIX century. about 2 thousand inhabitants lived here. Kobrinchans were engaged in the manufacture of clothes and shoes, bakery, carpentry and joinery, pottery. In the same years, Kobrin began to stand out as a major junction of highways. After 1830, a gradual rise in the economy of Kobrin began. The first general plan of the city was developed in 1796. According to the general plan of 1846, the building was carried out mainly with wooden houses, in the center they put 2-storey residential buildings with shops and workshops on the lower residential floors. In the middle of the XIX century. The area of the former castle and the city center were crossed by a new Moscow-Warsaw highway, the construction of which entailed the demolition of many old buildings and a change in the artistic appearance of the settlement. Kobrin becomes more active trade center. Since 1882, traffic was opened on the section of the Polesskaya railway Pinsk-Zhabinka. An iron station appeared in Kobrin. In 1897, there were 30 enterprises with 175 workers, 2 hospitals operated in the city, wind and horse mills, and 195 shops were built.

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At the beginning of the XX century. Gostiny Dvor and shopping arcades were erected in the city, and the city center was formed.

At the intersection of Lenin and Pushkin streets, a square has developed - an administrative, public and cultural center. Multi-storey buildings were built on Sovetskaya, Pushkin, Pionerskaya and other streets. In the southern part of the city, on the territory of the former airfield, there are individual estate-type buildings. 3 industrial regions were formed. Recreation area ─ Park them. A.V. Suvorov (founded in 1768) and the floodplain of the river. Mukhavets. According to the general plan of 1980 (adjusted in 2006), the city center is being gradually improved, buildings of a bakery, courts, etc. have been built. station (1846), residential building of the Spassky Monastery (16th century, rebuilt in the 17th-18th centuries), manor house (until 1794, destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, restored in 1948), Kobrin Nicholas Church, church (1843), cathedral Alexander Nevsky (1861), Peter and Paul Church (1911), Victory Monument 1812 (1912).

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Literature

1. Kalinin, M. Yu. Natural resources and environmental protection of the Kobrin region: Popular science edition. M.Yu. Kalinin -  Minsk: LLC Belsens, 2009. - 145 p.