[2] After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) the village was a part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Knights,[3] and thus was located within the Polish–Lithuanian union, later elevated into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In the late 19th century, the village had an almost exclusively Lithuanian population of 662, which was mostly employed in agriculture, cattle and horse breeding, butter production and fishing.

[4] When the Treaty of Versailles came in effect in January 1920, Memelland (Klaipėda Region) and the city, located north of the Niemen River were detached from East Prussia and placed under a League of Nations protectorate.

Landkreis Pogegen was dissolved on 1 October 1939 in order to re-unite the area with the larger cities south of Niemen river, and structures similar to pre-1920 were established.

The coat of arms of the town and the municipality depicts a bird with a key, which symbolises the border nature of the area (now with Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia).