Author: Raminta Mačytė

The house on the corner of P. Butlerienė and Laisvės streets was built in interwar Lithuania. A merchant of beer and other alcoholic beverages settled there. Advertisements adorning the façade of the building – bottles, according to the locals, determined the fate of this house. After the second world war, a "šnapsinė" settled here, and the grandma who lived in the house traded in a homemade one. This advertisement is the only one that has survived in Marijampolė since the beginning of the 20th century.

A beautiful legend is told that while celebrating Purim (Spring Festival), the Jewish community of Marijampolė collected food for the poor. Everyone contributed as much as they could, only one rich Jew refused to donate to the needy. Then the committee for collecting donations, after consulting the rabbi, decided to place a pint of donated food at the door of the rich man during the Feast of Purim and not take it until the rich man in question had donated a large amount of money to the poor. Since then, this citizen of Marijampolė never forgot the poorer townspeople.

According to the legend, Countess Francis Ščiukaitė-Butlerienė, the founder of Marijampolė city, loved and cared for cats very much. It is possible that this is not only a beautiful legend, since the patron saint Francis Romietė was the patron saint of the Countess, and as you know, the Eternal City is famous not only for its excellent buildings and its impressive history, but also for the abundance of cats. During the redevelopment of the old town of the city, the cats of Countess Francis Ščiukaitė-Butlerienė playing with water appeared there. The patio quickly became everyone's favorite place, and the locals noticed that when you come up with a desire and pat all three cats, it really comes true. However, cats of Suvalkija character do not fill the financial wishes... Although the try is definitely worth it. If you sit in the cat's backyard with a cup of coffee, you might get and see live old town cats who come here hoping to be given a delicious treat.

The postal tract began to be built in 1828 , the third year of Tsar Nicholas I's rule. It was completed in 1836. At that time, it was a modern path, important for economic development and political activity. For the affairs of the tract, postal stations, houses of station supervisors, road firewalls, bitter ones were built. In Jonas Basanavičius Square, this historic road is marked by chandeliers installed in the square's way. Artist Ray Bartkus, founder of the Art Symposium Malonny painted a piece in which Canadian poet, singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen is waiting for a bus to Vilkaviškis. Bob Dylan and Leonardo are depicted on the wall. Cohen's roots are in Suvalkija region, so this work is a link to the land of their ancestors.

Jonas Jablonskis introduced many new things in our language, without which we cannot do today. Now we probably would not have words such as future, past, compatriot, peasant, scientist, fellow, board, court, imagination, influence, impression, progress, oxygen, etc. However, Jonas Jablonskis ruthlessly chased newcomers who were misguided from the writings, such as the future (future), the art (content), science (school), the handball (textbook), the writer (writer), the image (imagination) and others. And how did the word pupil appear thanks to the father of the Lithuanian literary language? A well-known story of how, while still a student, Jonas Jablonskis returned to his homeland for a vacation and saw a peasant in the field, and a young bull going by the side. When asked why the young man was "lazy", the peasant replied that he was still a schoolboy and was learning to work by going next to an older one. In this way, the "školnikas" and other non-Lithuanian names of children in education were changed by the pupil and remained to this day.

Because Marijampolė's evangelical Lutheran parish was small, there was a lack of money for its maintenance. In 1824, the church council decided to turn to Tsar Alexander I and ask for state aid for the maintenance of the priest and the parish. The following story is told about the service of that request. The tsar traveled through the uninhabited areas of the present Marijampolė. So to draw the tsar's attention, the church councillor Trapas whitewashed the horse and rode it. Suddenly, he and the horse fell into the cella, which was abundant there. The Tsar did take notice of this and, having accepted the request that had already been shaken, stated that he would certainly be satisfied. Tsar gave a one-time allowance of PLN 10,000 and PLN 1,300 each year.