[1] It is the capital of the Kupiškis district municipality, mainly known for its sculptures and fourth biggest water reservoir in Lithuania.
There are six parts of the town, which are named: Archeological finds provide evidence that even in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC people dwelt in the surroundings of Kupiškis.
The findings around the Aukštupėnai mound show that in the 8th century a wooden defence castle stood there and it functioned as defensive.
[6] Kupiškis began to form around the market square and for many years the town structure of 6-9 streets remained unchanged.
[7] The railway line from Daugavpils to Šiauliai to Liepāja was built in 1873 and stimulated the growth of the town despite suffering from wars and occupations.
[1] In 2019 the town's central square named after Laurynas Gucevičius was reconstructed and a musical fountain was installed which elevates the water to up to 8 meters.
In the summer of 1941, all of the Jewish men, women, and children in the town were herded into a makeshift ghetto and tormented for about two days, and starved of food and were denied even water, and were then marched in groups to a cemetery reserved for atheists, where they were shot and buried in unmarked pits.
In the aftermath of the war, Christian midwives from the Jewish Hospital in Panevezys compiled a list of more than 800 names of the murdered Jews.
He had then engaged the services of a small band of deserting soldiers who were part of the Soviet Red Army's 618th artillery unit, who had previously been deployed to Kupiskis in 1940.
These Lithuanian former soldiers of the Red Army, were led by Lieutenant Antanas Gudelis, who later became the commander of a unit of executioners under Loew's personal direction.
Rabbi Michael Mayersohn of Orange County, CA, whose paternal grandparents had lived in Kupiskis, led the historic worship service.