Punia

Punia stands on the right bank of the Nemunas, on a route toward Trakai. First mentioned in 1382, it became a local centre in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Its first church was built in 1425, probably under Vytautas the Great, and in 1503 the town received Magdeburg rights. Punia prospered in the seventeenth century, when its potters and smiths were well known. Swedish warfare in the early eighteenth century brought heavy damage, but the town recovered and built a town hall in 1785.