Merkinė

Merkinė stands where the Merkys meets the Nemunas, at a crossing of roads and waterways in southern Lithuania. Its castle was an important point in the grand duchy's defence along the Nemunas against the Teutonic Order. After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the settlement below the castle expanded, gaining a marketplace, inns and workshops.

Merkinė prospered as a centre of crafts and trade in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Sigismund Augustus granted it Magdeburg rights and a unicorn coat of arms in 1569, together with market and fair privileges. War with Muscovy brought devastation in the 1650s; the town was burned and many inhabitants killed. It recovered gradually, though it never regained its former prominence. Self-government was restored in 1791 after a temporary loss of privileges.