Suwałki

Suwałki is a town in northeastern Poland with 69,210 inhabitants . The Czarna Hańcza river flows through the town. It is the capital of Suwałki County and one of the most important centers of commerce in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Until 1999 the town was the capital of Suwałki Voivodeship. Suwałki is located about 30km from the southwestern Lithuanian border. The town gives its name to the Polish protected area known as Suwałki Landscape Park. Suwałki is the largest city and the capital of the historical Suwałki Region.HistoryThe area of Suwałki had been populated by local Yotvingian and Prussian tribes since the early Middle Ages. However, with the arrival of the Teutonic Order to Yotvingia, their lands were conquered and remained largely depopulated in the following centuries.17th CenturyThe village was founded by Camaldolese monks, who in 1667 were granted the area surrounding the future town by the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the King of Poland John II Casimir. Soon afterward the monastic order built its headquarters in Wigry, where a monastery and a church were built.