Skapiškis is a town in the Kupiškis district municipality

Kupiškis district municipality

Kupiškis district municipality is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania....

, Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

. It is situated on the shores of Lake Mituva and near the road and railway connecting Panevėžys

Panevežys

Panevėžys see also other names, is the fifth largest city in Lithuania. As of 2008, it occupied 50 square kilometers with 113,653 inhabitants. The largest multifunctional arena in Panevėžys is the Cido Arena...

 with Daugavpils

Daugavpils

Daugavpils is a city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. Daugavpils literally means "Daugava Castle". With a population of over 100,000, it is the second largest city in the country after the capital Riga, which is located some...

. According to the 2001 census, it had population of 496.

The first church, named after Saint Hyacinth

Saint Hyacinth

Saint Hyacinth, O.P., was educated in Paris and Bologna. A Doctor of Sacred Studies and a secular priest, he worked to reform women's monasteries in his native Poland...

, was built in 1519. In 1752 the Dominican monks

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 established a monastery. The monks opened a parish school, which had 40 students in 1805. Both the monastery and the school were closed by tsarist authorities after the Uprising of 1831. After the construction of the Panevėžys–Daugavpils railway, the settlement grew into a trading town. It had 1,184 inhabitants in 1897. It declined sharply after World War II.