The name derives from Lithuanian su- (near) and valka (creek, marsh), with the combined meaning "place near a small river or swampy area".

[citation needed] The village was founded by Camaldolese monks, who in 1667 were granted the area surrounding the future town by the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the King of Poland John II Casimir.

The village was located almost exactly in the center of Camaldolese estates and lay on the main trade route linking Grodno and Merkinė with Königsberg.

[citation needed] In 1710 King Augustus II the Strong granted the village a privilege to organize fairs and markets.

The town was divided into 300 lots for future houses and its inhabitants were granted civil rights and exempted from taxes for seven years.

The status of a powiat capital was briefly withdrawn, but it was reintroduced on January 16, 1816, when the Augustów Voivodeship was created and its government was gradually moved to Suwałki.

In addition, between 1840 and 1849 the main Catholic church was refurbished by many of Poland's most notable architects of the era, including Piotr Aigner, Antonio Corazzi and Enrico Marconi.

[citation needed] After the spring of 1905, when the Russians were forced to accept a limited liberalization, the period of Polish cultural revival started.

The town and surrounding areas were detached from the rest of the Polish lands and were directly administered by the German military commander of the Ober-Ost Army.

Severe laws imposed by the German military command and the tragic economic situation of the civilians led to the creation of various secret social organisations.

In February 1919 the local inhabitants took part in the first free elections to the Polish Sejm, but soon afterwards the German commanders changed their mind.

The Polish-Lithuanian War erupted and for several days fighting for control over Suwałki, Sejny and other towns in the area took place.

[citation needed] The city was renamed Sudauen and annexed directly into Nazi Germany's province of East Prussia.

[citation needed] Despite the resistance, almost all of the town's once 7,000-strong Jewish community was deported and murdered, beginning in December 1939, when German troops brought the elderly, sick, and disabled into a nearby forest and machine-gunned them en masse.

[citation needed] Also, in Suwałki's suburb of Krzywólka, the Germans established the Stalag I-F POW camp for almost 120,000 Soviet prisoners of war.

[citation needed] The apparatus subordinate to the Polish Committee of National Liberation took power in Suwałki without major problems.

He was accompanied by several officials previously organized in Sejny with the deputy head Edmund Przybylski, as well as Tadeusz Sobolewski - the president of the interim Powiat Council.

[citation needed] On the same day, at Mickiewicz Square, supposedly spontaneously organized, so with the participation of new authorities and over five thousand inhabitants of the city, and then in the "Rusałka" cinema hall a meeting of representatives of the population with the envoys of the Polish Committee of National Rebirth.

Most probably then or at the beginning of February, the staroste S. Łapot issued an oral but very important order to subordinate Suwałki to the administration of the poviat level.

The governor Wacław Kraśko, who was present at it, was rather reluctant to propose separating the city from the poviat and pointed to the need to improve, first and foremost, the situation and condition of municipal enterprises.

[citation needed] Another politician calling for restoring Suwałki to the legal status of before September 1, 1939 was mayor Wacław Rudzki.

[citation needed] At the Municipal National Council meeting on March 25, 1946, he submitted the first motion to separate the city from the poviat, which was motivated by prestigious, historical and financial considerations.

[citation needed] Nevertheless, on July 25, 1946, the MRN decided to send a delegation of councilors composed of Leon Bracławski, Józef Wiszniewski and Antoni Zalewski to the Ministry of the Interior to support current activities and accelerate the restoration of Suwałki's rights of a separated city.

This position was taken by the Inter-Enterprise Founding Committee of the Solidarity Independent Trade Union in Giżycko and Suwałki in regards to the party complex in 83 Noniewicza street.

[8] Before the next round of talks on the night of February 14–15, under the cover of the Citizens' Militia and Security Service, the PZPR KW was moved to new buildings.

Creation of the Suwałki Special Economic Zone and the proximity of the Russian and Lithuanian borders opened new possibilities for local trade and commerce.

In the 21st century, residents of Suwałki frequently travel across the Russian and Lithuanian borders for shopping trips as well as to make use of the various attractions both countries offer.

It is a flat narrow piece of land, a gap, that is between Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and that connects the three NATO-member Baltic States to Poland and the rest of NATO.

According to the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW), the snow stays there for the longest time in non-mountainous areas of Poland.

Summers are pleasant, warm and often sunny, with the maximum daily temperatures sometimes exceeding 30 °C (86 °F),[23] though the season is still somewhat cooler in the city, as compared to the rest of Poland.