View of Grodno

At the top in the middle - a cartouche crowned with a closed royal crown. On the shield of the coat of arms: White Eagle (Crown), Pogon (Grand Duchy of Lithuania), Archangel Michael (Ruthenia), Bear (Duchy of Samogitia), Latin Cross (Inflanty), central coat of arms of the Kingdom of Sweden. View of the whole from the southwest, more important buildings described in Latin - Arx (Castle), Domus Regia (Royal Court), also churches with an indication of the rite (Polonorum or Russorum), Stabula Regia (Royal Stables). The pacification Sejm in Warsaw (4 January - 8 April 1673) decided that every third ordinary Sejm would take place in Grodno. This was to emphasize the fact that the Commonwealth consists of the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The city of Grodno thus gained the unofficial status of the third capital of the Commonwealth. Due to wars and the crisis of Polish parliamentarianism, only 11 Sejm sittings were held in Grodno, the first in the years: 1678/1679, 1688, 1693. Then there was a break associated with the election of Augustus II the Strong, the Great Northern War and internal clashes in the state. The next Sejm sittings in Grodno, already in the Saxon times, took place in the years: 1718, 1726, 1729, 1730, 1744, 1752. Stanisław August Poniatowski avoided convening Sejm sittings in Grodno; during his reign only two sittings took place in Grodno: in 1784 and the Grodno Sejm of 1793, which confirmed the Second Partition of Poland and turned out to be the last Sejm of the First Commonwealth.