A bit of history

The first signs of human living in this territory seek 10 000 years before our era (the sunset of Paleolit). They can be found in Valinciai, Ozkiniai, Vaiponia and Slynakiemis. In the early Middle Ages these lands constituted a part of Jotvingiai. The tracks of Jotvingians are seen from the type of open settlements and mounds. The most interesting is the mound of Egline - 9 km. to the north of Punsk.
At the beginning of the 13 th century Jotvingians were conquered by Cross bearers but untill the 15 th century the new hosts of Lithuanian origin, derived from Merkine and Punia inhabited the territory. They gave the name to the lake - Punia and the settlement acquired this name as well. The forester Stanislovas Zalivskis has built the church in 1597 and the parish was established there. On Sundays and on festivals the markets were being held in Punsk. In 1597 the office of the Great Knight of Lithuania published the document of Zygimantas the 3 rd in which, by the way, it was declared that „not only Lithuanian but also a person who knows Lithuanian can become a priest of the parish".
There are no exact news when Punsk received the rights of the town, it is only quessed that it happened between 1597-1606 because in 1606 the documents already notice about the town-dwellers and since 1612 the town is called Punsk.
There is no any information about the development of the locality of this place. From different historical fragments we find out that in 1700 Punsk had a hospital and a school. As the settlement was a long distance from great economical centres and remote from important roads it didn’t develop into a bigger town. In 1795 there lived 583 and in 1827 - 748 people, for this reason in 1852 Punsk has lost the rights of the town. In 1781 the population of Punsk parish was 8849 and after a hundred years there were already 12 000 inhabitants. When the outskirts of Polish speaking people were split off and separate parish were established in Smalenai and Beceilai, in 1910 Punsk parish had only 74 villages with 7044 inhabitants in it.
The estate of Seivai has played an important role in the history of this country. From the 15 th century till 1795 this territory belonged to the Great Kingdom of Lithuania, there were monitors of Seivai and Vizainiai.
After the World war I Lithuanians living in Punsk district declared the wish to belong to the restored Independent Lithuanian State. The messenger from this country in 1917 at the conference in Vilnius was the priest - dekan Motiejus Simonaitis, who is buried in the cemetery of Punsk. The first chief of the district was Petras Pacenka.
From 1920 Punsk and it’s. region belongs to the state of Poland. Before the second World war Lithuanian amateur activites and the departments of Kazimieras society had their sections. During the interwar period there was the cooperation of Lithuanians „Talka" but the main part of trade and business were in jewish hands who were the majority of inhabitants of the town. The storms of the second World war dispelled jews of Punsk; only the cemetery of them proves about their existance. Punskas region was populated by Germans as well and their cemeteries have remained in Punskas and in Paliunai village too.