[6] The coat of arms of Panevėžys, as well as other Lithuanian counties, has been changed, modified and banned several times over the past 200 years.

[6] The use of city coats of arms resumed in the post-war years only in 1966, when the Republican Heraldry Commission was established under the Ministry of Culture.

[6] The current coat of arms of Panevėžys is a red brick building in the silver panel field, symbolizing the city gate.

[6] Legend has it that Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great, returning from Samogitia to Vilnius in 1414, found a temple (alka) of the old Lithuanian religion in the present-day surroundings of Panevėžys, but this has not been documented.

Panevėžys was first mentioned evidently on 7 September 1503 in documents signed by the Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon, who granted the town building rights to construct a church and other structures.

"[15] Panevėžys Mound with a flat top and 1.5 – 2 meters high embankments previously stood at the confluence of river Nevėžis and stream Sirupis (destroyed in the 19th – 20th centuries).

He managed to escape to the British Mandate of Palestine where he set about rebuilding the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak where it still exists in modern Israel.

[34] Moreover, the scouts were sent to all roads leading from the city and on 25 June, at the initiative of the rebels, the Piniavos Bridge and the food factory Maistas were demined.

[33] During the first days of the war, the NKGB units carried out repressions, arrested participants of the June Uprising and civilians who spoke out against the Soviet government; the detainees were transported to the Panevėžys Prison.

During the Nazi occupation nearly all the Jewish population of the town was killed in 1943 during the Holocaust;[35][11][12] only a few managed to escape and find asylum abroad.

[36] Also, two companies of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force were stationed in Panevėžys[37] In 1944 the city was yet again occupied by the Soviet Union leading to a new wave of political exiles and killings.

[12] The Soviet authorities also partly destroyed the old town and only after protests by local population was total destruction of the old city center stopped.

[citation needed] During the 1990s, with crime rate increasing in all post-Soviet states, Panevėžys shortly became the one of the centres of criminal activity in Lithuania.

[40] Soon, in a more convenient place, on the land of the Grand Duke's manor on the left bank of the Nevėžis, near the important roads to Ramygala and Upytė, New Panevėžys began to develop (the current city center).

[44] As a result, no prominent architectural ensembles and dominant compositions were formed, also there were no public buildings that stood out in terms of size or artistic expression.

[44] The entire structure was dominated by New Panevėžys in which the Piarists Monastery with a Classicist style towerless stone church was rebuilt after the fire of 1790.

[44] As the territory grew more slowly than the population, the buildings were mostly built in the central part of New Panevėžys, where densely built-up quarters were formed.

[44][48] Other notable buildings from the 19th century and early 20th century are two windmills in Ramygalos Street (built in 1875 and 1880),[1] historicism brick style Panevėžys bottling plant of the state vodka monopoly in Kranto Street (built in 1880; served as a Panevėžys Cannery during the Soviet period),[49] building of the current Juozas Balčikonis Gymnasium (1884),[50] residential house of J. Kasperovičius (1889; served as a court during the interwar period, later as a Local Lore Museum during the Soviet period and currently is the Panevėžys City Art Gallery),[51] historicism brick style prison buildings – a two-story administrative building near the street and a four-story prison building in the courtyard (1893; P. Puzino St. 12),[52] eclectic two-storey hotel Centralinis with mezzanine and attic (1894; Laisvės Square 1),[53][54] Moigių houses complex of pink and yellow brick masonry (1895; now Panevėžys Museum of Local Lore),[55][56] historicism style yeast and distillery factory buildings (Respublikos St. 82),[57] historicism style two-storey J. Masiulis Bookstore (1890–1900),[58] Natelis Kisinas' house (1900; in 1987 it was integrated into the Panevėžys City Municipality building complex),[59] neoclassical with Art Nouveau style features Panevėžys Credit Society Palace (1915; now Panevėžys County Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library).

[62] Following the Lithuanian Wars of Independence, Panevėžys began to recover: city's bridges were renovated (1925), streets were paved, a power plant was built (1923).

In 1928, the Jewish Gymnasium from yellowish bricks was built in Elektros Street in the style of historicism (now serves as the Panevėžys Regional Court), which was called as a palace due to its splendid exterior decoration and installed heating and water supply systems.

[77] Industrial enterprises were renovated in the post-war years, three-storey blocks of flats were built in empty places in the city center and near the center in Kranto, Ukmergės, N. Gogolio (now Smėlynės), Ramygalos, Klaipėdos, Agronomijos (now Marijonų), Sandėlių (now S. Kerbedžio) streets, Liepų Avenue, and two-storey houses in Margių, Algirdo, Stoties streets.

[80] In the first years of the re-established Independent Lithuania, huge residential houses of several hundred square meters with no architectural value began to sprout on the outskirts of the city.

[108] In 1636, Grand Duke Władysław IV Vasa built the Chapel of Saint Casimir of the Vilnius Cathedral and assigned to it manors of the Panevėžys Old Town and Ramygala.

[112] In 1938, construction of Panevėžys Minor Priests Seminary began, however it was never fully completed due to the World War II and was subsequently converted to a gymnasium.

[114] As early as 1897, the Jewish community in the city had one main synagogue, later numbered 8, 7, 12, and perhaps 15 houses of worship, however only small fragments of these buildings have survived to this day.

[114] The most important wooden synagogue, built in 1764 or 1794, stood in the area between Elektros and Ukmergės streets, but it burned down at the end of the World War I.

[117] The church was significantly damaged following the Soviet occupation of Lithuania as the building was nationalized, its tower was demolished and it was converted into a dance club, later – a household goods store.

The Brass Orchestra "Panevėžio Garsas" (English: Panevėžys Sound) plays not only for Lithuanian audience but also for people in the Baltic countries, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

[121][130] Following the restoration of Lithuania's independence in 1918, Panevėžys continued to grow and Lithuanization of education system was implemented which was beneficial for the Lithuanians who constituted the majority of the city's residents (e.g. 53% in 1923).

[132] Most of pupils in Panevėžys later studies in the universities or colleges as Lithuania is one of the world's leading countries in OECD's statistics of population with tertiary education (58.15% of 25–34-year-olds in 2022).