Suwałki

Suwałki grew on the Czarna Hańcza in the forest country once inhabited by Yotvingians. The Camaldolese monks of Wigry founded the village after receiving the surrounding lands in 1667. They brought settlers, many from Masovia, and developed the forests for timber, tar and iron. Suwałki stood on a route linking Grodno and Merkinė with Königsberg.

Augustus II granted market privileges in 1710, and the monks established a town with 300 planned building plots for settlers in 1715; the king confirmed its rights in 1720. Its planned lots and tax exemptions encouraged settlement. After Prussia annexed the district in 1795, the monastery's property was confiscated and Suwałki became an administrative and garrison centre. It passed to the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807 and to Congress Poland after Napoleon's defeat.