In 1705 the first wooden church was built. In 1713, local Jews received
permission from King August II to build a synagogue and Jewish craftsmen were
first permitted to practice their crafts without having to be members of the
craft guilds. In 1791 Stanisław August Poniatowski recognized that Kalvarija
had the right to call itself a town and confirmed the municipality's coat of
arms. Kalvarija developed rapidly when the new St. Petersburg–Warsaw road was
constructed at the beginning of the 19th century. 1840 saw the construction of
a new Catholic church, which still stands today. By the outbreak of World War I,
