[3] Being the historical centre of the Dzūkija region, it is connected to several major roads, linking it with the cities of Vilnius; Kaunas; Lazdijai, which is on the border with Poland; and Grodno, Belarus.

[5] Its name in other languages includes the Polish Olita,[a][6] the German Aliten, the RussianOlita,[b] the Belarusian Alita,[c] and the Yiddish Alite.

[d] The first historical record of Alytus dates back to 1377,[7] when it was mentioned in the Chronicles of Wigand of Marburg under the name of Aliten.

On 15 June 1581 Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Stefan Batory granted the town the city rights based on the Magdeburg Law.

Although the state was tied with a personal union with Russia, both parts of the town remained completely separate until the January Uprising of 1863.

However, despite the fortification effort by the Russians, during World War I the Central Powers managed to capture the town intact, without any major skirmish.

The 1965 Soviet-era book Masinės žudynės Lietuvoje, 1941–1944 lists two major mass graves in Alytus: Vidzgiris forest, then at the southeastern suburbs on the left bank of the river, estimated 60,000 people, most likely Jews from the eastern Soviet Union, and the Alytus forest, then at the eastern suburbs, estimated 35,000 people, most probably Soviet prisoners of war.

[12][13][14] In 2015, a HVDC back-to-back station for the realization of a power interconnection between Poland and Lithuania (LitPol) was inaugurated west of Alytus.

[15] Alytus hosted the Art Strike Biennial between 18 and 24 August 2009 in response to Vilnius becoming European Capital of Culture for 2009.

Participants offer a wide variety of tomatoes and discuss the various factors which help produce a rich crop of the fruit.