Szczuczyn

Szczuczyn (; ) is a town in Grajewo County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. As of 2004, it has a population of 3,602.

==History== thumb|left|Town center with the monument of Stanisław Antoni Szczuka The town is located in the north-eastern outskirts of Mazovia, which has been part of Poland since the establishment of the state in the Middle Ages. In 1437, the Szczuka noble family of the Grabie coat of arms purchased the land, on which they founded the village, which was initially named Szczuki-Litwa. Thanks to the efforts of Stanisław Antoni Szczuka, Szczuczyn was granted town rights around 1690 by Polish King John III Sobieski. Szczuka brought the Piarists to the town and a Baroque Piarist church and monastery complex was built, which remains the greatest landmark of the town. Szczuka also built a Piarist college, for which the Polish King established a scholarship fund. Szczuczyn was a private town, administratively located in the Masovian Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown. Stanisław Antoni Szczuka, who died in Warsaw in 1710, was buried in the local Piarist church. In the 18th century the town passed to the powerful Potocki family. Factors that largely contributed to the development of the town were the presence of the school and the location on a trade route connecting Białystok and Königsberg. Among the teachers of the Piarist college were , who then founded the oldest Polish school for deaf people in Warsaw, and Polish philosopher Bronisław Trentowski.