Middle Ages

The name of Tykocin was first mentioned in the 11th century. Through the 14th century, it was a castellany in the Duchy of Masovia on the border with pagan Lithuania. Tykocin received its city rights from prince Janusz I of Warsaw in 1425, but several months later, the settlement was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (within the Polish-Lithuanian Union) by the Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło. Shortly later, in around 1433, Duke Sigismund Kęstutaitis gave the town along with other surrounding villages to Jonas Gostautas, and it became the most important seat of the Lithuanian Gostautai noble family.

Early modern era

In the 1542, upon the death of Gostautai family's last member, the town was acquired by Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke Sigismund II Augustus^[4] who had the medieval stronghold remodelled into a Renaissance castle. Sigismund II placed an arsenal, a library, a treasury and the Crown Archives in the castle.^[5] Tykocin was the largest lowland fortress in Poland,^[5] and the arsenal was one of the largest in Poland.^[4] Tykocin subsequently became a royal town of the Kingdom of Poland, located within the Podlaskie Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province. In 1572, Polish Renaissance writer Łukasz Górnicki was appointed starost of Tykocin by Sigismund II Augustus.^[6] Following the king’s death in nearby Knyszyn, a local apothecary embalmed his body, which remained in Tykocin for over a year.^[5]

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Tykocin was granted new privileges by kings Stephen Báthory and Władysław IV Vasa.^[7] Krzysztof Wiesiołowski, starost of Tykocin, founded a hospital and shelter for injured and disabled knights, one of the oldest of its kind in Europe.^[6] Later on, the town was awarded to Hetman Stefan Czarniecki for his military service during the Swedish invasion of Poland^[7] in 1661.^[6] Afterwards, through the marriage of Czarniecki's daughters, it passed to the Branicki (Gryf coat-of-arms) family. From 1513 until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Tykocin was a county (powiat) seat.

It was Tykocin, where in 1705, King Augustus II the Strong established the Order of the White Eagle, the highest and oldest Polish order.^[7][8]

Most of Tykocin's landmarks was built in this era, including the Holy Trinity Church, monasteries of the Congregation of the Mission and the Bernardines, the former 17th-century military hospital, the synagogue and the statue of hetman Stefan Czarniecki.^[7]

Late modern era

Following the Partitions of Poland Tykocin was annexed by Prussia^[4] and Izabella Poniatowska-Branicka sold the town to the Prussian government in 1795. In 1807, it was briefly regained by Poles as part of the Duchy of Warsaw in accordance to the Treaty of Tilsit.^[4] In 1815, it became part of the Congress Kingdom of Poland,^[4] later on forcibly annexed by Imperial Russia. In the 19th century, the town lost its status as a major economic, cultural and religious centre in the region, particularly following the January Uprising.^[9]

During the November Uprising, on 21 May 1831, Polish insurgents won a battle against the Russians at Tykocin.^[10] After the massacres of Polish protesters committed by the Russians in Warsaw in 1861, Polish demonstrations and clashes with Russian soldiers took place in Tykocin.^[11] Shortly after the outbreak of the January Uprising, Tykocin was the site of a battle between Polish insurgents and Russian troops on 24–25 January 1863.^[11] During the uprising, Tykocin was attacked by a Cossack unit led by Captain Dmitriyev, who forced the populace to sign a request to the tsarist administration to make him the town's military superior.^[12] In this way, he obtained office, and then committed macabre murders of the inhabitants.^[13] Dmitryev's cruelty even caused the Russians themselves to report him to the tsarist authorities, but he was only fined.^[13]

During World War I, Tykocin was occupied by Germany from August 1915 to November 1918.^[9] Locals engaged in Polish national liberation activities as part of the Polish Military Organisation.^[9] On 11 November 1918, the day Poland regained its independence, the local commander of the Polish Military Organisation hoisted the Polish flag on the town hall.^[9] During the interwar period, the population of Tykocin had reached an estimated 4,000 inhabitants.

World War II

During the invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, Tykocin was first occupied by Germany.^[14] The Germans captured Polish and Jewish men and locked them in a church for three days without food or water, whilst looting Jewish property.^[14] After 28 September 1939, the town was occupied by the Soviet Union, which imposed Soviet citizenship on the inhabitants.^[14] The Polish intelligentsia, civil servants and activists were particularly subjected to Soviet repressions.^[14] Several dozen local Poles and Jews, as well as Jews fleeing from German-occupied territories, were deported deep into the Soviet Union.^[14]

From 1941 to 1944, it was occupied by Germany.^[4] The Jewish population of Tykocin, estimated at 2,000 people, was eradicated by Nazi Germans during the Holocaust. On 25–26 August 1941, the Jewish residents of Tykocin were assembled at the market square for "relocation", and then marched and trucked by the Nazis into the nearby Łopuchowo forest,^[15][16] where they were executed in waves into pits by SS Einsatzkommando Zichenau-Schroettersburg under SS-Obersturmführer Hermann Schaper.^[17] The Germans then looted and ransacked Jewish property, destroying the Jewish material heritage.^[18]

On 27 May 1944, the Germans deported some 400 Polish inhabitants, men, women and teenagers, to concentration camps, in revenge for the assassination of the local German police chief by Polish partisans.^[19] During the round-up and deportation, there were attempts to escape; some were successful, whilst others were killed or recaptured.^[20]

Recent times

In 1950, Tykocin lost its town rights due to population loss in World War II, only to regain it in 1993. From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the former Białystok Voivodeship.