History of Marijampole

contemporary starost of Prienai, Franciszka Szczukowa née Butler, financed a new church and a monastery for the Congregation of Marian Fathers. Following the foundation of the monastery, a new town was built in the area. It was named Maryampol, after the Blessed Virgin Mary (Marya-), with the suffix -pol denoting a town.

On February 23, 1792 king Stanislaus Augustus of Poland granted the "town let of Mariampol" with Magdeburg Law and a privilege of market organisation. Following the Partitions of Poland the town was briefly a part of Prussia. However, after the Napoleonic Wars it was restored to Kingdom of Poland. In 19th century the town continued to grow, mostly thanks to a large number of Jewish and German settlers. In 1817 the town became a seat of a separate powiat within the administrative system of the kingdom. In 1827 the town had 1759 inhabitants. By 1861 the number grew to 3718, 3015 of them being Jewish.

Following the January Uprising and the Russian suppression of the former Commonwealth lands, the powiat of Maryampol was seriously diminished. Around that time also the monastery gained prominence as it was the only monastery owned by the Marians that was not closed down by the tsarist authorities. As the surroundings of the town were primarily inhabited by Lithuanians, the town became a centre of Lithuanian national revival. The proximity of Prussian border made smuggling of books in Lithuanian language, banned in Imperial Russia, easier. Among the most notable Lithuanian scholars and writers active in Mariampol at that time were Kazys Grinius, Jonas Jablonskis, Vincas Kudirka and Antanas Venclova.

Following World War I the town became part of Lithuania and was renamed to its current name of