Wisnieski History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Wisnieski was first found in the area that now makes up the autonomous nation-state of Poland.

The House of Wisniowiecki, descended from the Lithuanian princes, originally used the Pogon Litewska coat of arms, around 1500, when Prince Ostrogski, the Grand Hetman of Lithuania, having returned from the long-term Muscovite captivity, changed his horseman's coat of arms to the one described above, after which other princes related to his house, following this path, did the same. Korybut, brother of Wladyslaw Jagiello, Duke of Siewierz, after relinquishing that duchy to Vytautas, Duke of Lithuania, in 1393, received Braclaw, Winnica, and Kremenets in Ruthenia, where he also founded castles in Wisniowiec and Zbarazh. Of his five sons, three—Ivan, Skinder, and Jedrzej—were killed in the Battle of Worska against the Tatars in 1399; the fourth, Sigismund, invited to the Czech throne by King Jagiello's agreement, renounced the crown after the peace treaty, and, returning to Lithuania, was killed in a dispute between the brother princes as a supporter of Svidrygiello near Vilnius in 1435. Vasyl founded a monastery in Zbarazh. Bazylianów R. 1480. Michal, a warlord, defended Ruthenia from the Tatars with his own men; with Konstanty Ostrogski, the Lithuanian hetman, and his four sons, he also defeated the enemy at Wisniowiec R. 1512.