Juodkrantė was first
mentioned (as Schwarzort) by
the Teutonic Knights in 1429 in a letter describing storm damages. It was
initially situated along the Baltic Sea shore, about 2.5 km from the
present location. In the early 17th century, due to the Black Death, and moving
sand dunes threatening to bury the village, it lost almost all of its
inhabitants. In the 1680s, the village relocated to its present location
