Every design for Suwałki

Suwałki grew up on land granted to the Camaldolese monks of Wigry, who brought in settlers from Masovia to work the forests; the village grew quickly, received town rights early in the eighteenth century, and its coat of arms still shows Saint Roch and Saint Romuald. Even the name describes the ground it stands on: from Lithuanian, it means a place near a small river or a marsh.

Its position defines it. The town lies in Poland's far north-east, close to the borders with Lithuania, Belarus and the Kaliningrad region, on the Via Baltica that links Warsaw with Kaunas, Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki. The Czarna Hańcza runs through it, and Wigry National Park and the Suwałki Landscape Park lie close by. Spared major destruction in both world wars, Suwałki kept its historic centre, with the Kościół pw. Świętego Aleksandra and the Muzeum Okręgowe among its landmarks, and it remains the capital of the Suwałki Region.

If you call this corner of the country home, take it with you – lakes, border roads and all.