Biała Podlaska

First recorded in the medieval period, Biała Podlaska is a former residential city of the once influential magnate Radziwiłł family, whose landmarks include a Palace and Park ensemble and Renaissance and Baroque churches. It is the location of one of the oldest high schools in Poland, whose student was the most prolific Polish 19th-century writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, the birthplace of virtuoso violinist George Bridgetower, and a former aircraft manufacturing centre. It was a place of Nazi German-perpetrated atrocities against Jews, Poles and Italians during the German occupation of Poland in World War II with over 4,000 victims. In 1975–1998, it was the capital of the Biała Podlaska Voivodeship.