Bykhaw

Bykhaw or Bykhov (Быхаў, ; Быхов; Bychów; ביחאָוו; Bychavas) is a town in Mogilev Region, Belarus. It is located 44 km south of Mogilev, and serves as the administrative center of Bykhaw District. In 2009, its population was 17,031. As of 2024, it has a population of 16,349.

History


The settlement was first mentioned in the 14th century. It was a private town of the Chodkiewicz and Sapieha families, located within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1619, Jan Karol Chodkiewicz erected the Catholic church of the Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary, rebuilt by the Sapiehas in 1765. The synagogue was built in the 1640s. The town was an important fortress known for hard battles. It withstood several sieges until its capture by the Russians in 1659, who then committed a massacre of its Jewish residents. It was recaptured by Stefan Czarniecki in 1660. The town was annexed by Russia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772. In the late 19th century the town hosted two annual fairs. Residents traded in grain, hemp, flax, honey, wax and wood.

During World War II, Bychaw was occupied by the German Army from 5 July 1941 until 28 June 1944 and placed under the administration of the Generalbezirk Weißruthenien of Reichskommissariat Ostland. The Jews of Bykhov were killed in two mass shootings in September and November 1941. According to the German and Soviet archives, there were 4,600 Jews from Bykhaw who were shot in Voronino.

There is an abandoned military airfield, Bykhov airfield inside a military town called Bykhov-1, which is now a microdistrict of Bykhaw.