Vowpa

At various times it was either a royal town of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or a private town of the Holszański and Sapieha families,^[4] administratively located in the Wołkowysk County in the Nowogródek Voivodeship. It was often visited by King Stephen Bathory during his stays in nearby Grodno.^[4] In 1643, Kazimierz Leon Sapieha received King Władysław IV Vasa in the town.^[4]

The Wołpa Synagogue is located in the town, and is reputed to be the "most beautiful" of the wooden synagogues of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth,^[1] a "masterwork" of wooden architecture.^[5]

In the interwar period, Wołpa, as it was known in Polish, was administratively located in the Grodno County in the Białystok Voivodeship of Poland. In the 1921 census, 59.9% people declared Polish nationality, 38.9% declared Jewish nationality and 1.2% declared Belarusian nationality.^[6]

During World War II, the town was first occupied by the Soviet Union until 1941, then by Nazi Germany until 1944, and re-occupied by the Soviet Union afterwards.^{[citation needed]}