growing as a trading center, and was granted
city privileges sometime in mid-16th century. Its coat of arms depicted Saint Anthony
of Padua. At the time it was royal property and King Sigismund I the Old built
a castle for his Italian wife Bona Sforza. Therefore the old hill fort is
sometimes known as Bona's Hill. Sigismund also reconstructed the town church.
After extinction of the Jagiellon dynasty, Maišiagala lost its status as royal
summer residence and began to decline. It became property of various nobles:
first Sapieha, then Tyzenhaus family. In 1805 the Houvalt family bought the
town from heirs of Ignacy Massalski, Bishop of Vilnius. They built a manor,
which now houses a school, in the Classical style.
After World War I, the town was a target of clashes in the Polish–Lithuanian
War. After the Żeligowski's Mutiny in 1920, it became part of the Second Polish
Republic. After the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty of 1939,
Lithuania acquired the town.
Among its natives was the great Jewish philosopher Rabbi David ("the
Nazirite") Cohen
