Panemunė

Panemunė takes its name from the Nemunas, on whose southern bank the settlement of Žemoji Panemunė grew. A village and manor were recorded here in the late sixteenth century, perhaps on the site of an earlier Teutonic castle. The river that had once formed a frontier in the wars with the Order remained the defining feature of the settlement. Its first church was built in 1732, and a parish school followed in the early nineteenth century. In 1829 a severe flood damaged the riverside town.