Marijampolė - Synagogue

The area was originally inhabited by the Jatwingers. In the 16th century, Lithuanians began to settle here. The settlement may be founded in 1667. At that time, the village was called Pašesupis.

In 1701, the area belonged to the Prienai estate, after which the Kvietiškis estate was separated from it. Its owners gave the settlement the status of a town. In 1736 the new name of the settlement, Starapol, was mentioned in writing for the first time.

Later, the Marians established a monastery in the town and built a church in 1750. After them, the town was called Marijampolė.

It belonged to Prussia from 1795 to 1807, then to the Duchy of Warsaw until 1815 and from then to the Russian Empire.

After Lithuania's independence in 1919, a railway line was built through the town. This led to the development of industry and the growth of the town.

In 1940 Marijampolė was occupied by the Soviet Union. In 1940-1941, the Soviet authorities deported several hundred inhabitants of Marijampolė. In 1941, the city was captured by German troops. Due to the war, the town was heavily damaged and almost emptied. On 31 July 1944, the Soviet army entered the town again. In the late post-war years, the town was rebuilt and repopulated with residents from other parts of Lithuania.

The synagogue, built after the town fire of 1894, was used by the Jewish community until the 1930s. After the war, the Soviets established a warehouse and a grocery here. The damaged building got reconstructed in the 1980s.