<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Sanok" class="extiw" title="w:en:Sanok">Sanok</a> (in full the 'Royal Free City of Sanok' – <i>Królewskie Wolne Miasto Sanok</i>) is a town in south-eastern Poland.
<p>In 981 the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Grad_(Slavic_settlement)" class="extiw" title="w:en:Grad (Slavic settlement)">Gord</a></i>, then inhabited by the Slavic tribe of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Lendians" class="extiw" title="w:en:Lendians">Lendians</a>, was made a part of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Red_Ruthenia" class="extiw" title="w:en:Red Ruthenia">Czerwień</a>. This is when the area was first mentioned as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Vladimir_I_of_Kiev" class="extiw" title="w:en:Vladimir I of Kiev">Vladimir I</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Kievan_Rus%27" class="extiw" title="w:en:Kievan Rus'">Kiev</a> took it over on the way into Poland. In 1018 the area returned to Poland, then in 1031 it went back to Rus' before it was recovered in 1340 by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Casimir_III_the_Great" class="extiw" title="w:en:Casimir III the Great">Casimir III ‘The Great’</a>. The <i>Gord</i> of Sanok, mentioned for the first time in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Hypatian_Codex" class="extiw" title="w:en:Hypatian Codex">Hypatian Codex</a> in 1150, was given <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Magdeburg_rights" class="extiw" title="w:en:Magdeburg rights">Magdeburg law</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Boleslaw-Yuri_II_of_Galicia" class="extiw" title="w:en:Boleslaw-Yuri II of Galicia">Boleslaw-Yuri II of Galicia</a> in 1339.  Over the following centuries the ‘rulers’ of the Sanok area changed many times before it came under the government of Poland of today. 
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In 1888 the ‘Gymnastic Society’ "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Sokol" class="extiw" title="w:en:Sokol">Falcon</a>" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pl:Towarzystwo_Gimnastyczne_%E2%80%9ESok%C3%B3%C5%82%E2%80%9D_w_Sanoku" class="extiw" title="w:pl:Towarzystwo Gimnastyczne „Sokół” w Sanoku"><i>Sokół (pl)</i></a>) was founded in Sanok as a branch of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Sok%C3%B3%C5%82" class="extiw" title="w:en:Sokół">Sokół</a></i> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Lviv" class="extiw" title="w:en:Lviv">Lwów</a> and in 1899 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pl:Gmach_Towarzystwa_Gimnastycznego_%E2%80%9ESok%C3%B3%C5%82%E2%80%9D_w_Sanoku" class="extiw" title="w:pl:Gmach Towarzystwa Gimnastycznego „Sokół” w Sanoku"><i>Sokół Building (pl)</i></a> was constructed on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Adam_Mickiewicz" class="extiw" title="w:en:Adam Mickiewicz">Adam Mickiewicz</a> Street with the prominent statue of a falconer ‘breaking the shackles of slavery’ in the façade. <br><span style="color:blue;"><i>The <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scotch_Mist/Poland" class="mw-redirect" title="User:Scotch Mist/Poland">Scotch Mist Gallery</a> contains many photographs of historic buildings, monuments and memorials of Poland.</i></span>
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scotch_Mist" title="User:Scotch Mist">Scotch Mist</a>
CC BY-SA 4.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>