Šilalė

Šilalė lies on the Lokysta in Samogitia, western Lithuania. It appears in written sources from the early sixteenth century, and its estate was held by the Orvydas family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Weekly markets were permitted in 1522, and a church was built in 1533. Lutheran Reformation preaching began there in 1535; the settlement was mentioned as a town in 1586 and received a market privilege in 1660.

The Piłsudski family held the estate from 1712. A fire damaged the church, which was rebuilt in 1769, and a Lutheran church was established in 1806. A major fire in 1829 destroyed part of the estate buildings, a synagogue and many houses and businesses, illustrating the losses suffered by the small market town.