Veisiejai

Veisiejai occupies a peninsula among the lakes of southern Lithuania. Lake Ančia surrounds much of the settlement and divides it into two parts, while nearby lakes give the district its distinctive landscape. First recorded in 1501 as a possession of the Glinski family, Veisiejai later belonged to the Massalskis and Ogińskis. Duke Yuri Olelkovich obtained a market privilege in 1525 and built its first church the following year. Jewish settlers arrived in the early eighteenth century, and their first synagogue was built in 1748.