LOMZA  , a

town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the Narew, 103 M. by rail N.E. from Warsaw . Pop . (1872), 13,86o, (190o) 22,428 . Lomza is an old town, one of its churches having been erected before r000 . In the 16th century it carried on a brisk trade with Lithuania and Prussia . It was well fortified and had two citadels, but nevertheless often suffered from the invasions of the Germans and Tatars, and in the 17th century it was twice plundered by the Cossacks of the Ukraine . In 1795 it fell under the dominion of Prussia, and after the peace of Tilsit (1807) it came under Russian rule .