Sidra, Sokółka County

Sidra is a village in Sokółka County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Sidra. It lies approximately 18 km north of Sokółka and 52 km north of the regional capital Białystok.

A Jewish population of 455 existed in the village in 1921. The wooden synagogue built at the turn of the 17th & 18th centuries was burned down by the Germans in 1942.

The bastion castle in Sidra was built around 1566, funded by the great Lithuanian chancellor Eustachy Wołłowicz, on the site of the wooden fortified manor house of the Radziwiłł and Gasztołd families. The castle, surrounded by auxiliary buildings and a wooden defensive perimeter, was destroyed during the Swedish War.

In the mid-17th century, the residence was rebuilt into a palace by the Potocki family. A two-bay brick building with dimensions of 14 × 31.2 meters was then built, with a tower added to the north and a polygonal avant-corps at the western wall. The next reconstructions took place in the 18th and 19th centuries, carried out by the Szczuk and Potocki families. The residence was finally destroyed in the 19th century and today only fragments of the foundations, the basement and the ruins of the bastion, now covered with sheet metal, remain. Archaeological research was carried out in 1970–71. The relics of the building are located on the so-called castle hill. located in the south-eastern part of the town, between Szkolna and Kościelna streets.[ ]