The picturesque town of Kartenos and its surroundings, located in the valley of the Minija River, have been known since 1253, when Kartenos Castle, standing on a hillfort, was first mentioned. The Kartenos manor and parish have been known since the 16th century. In the 17th century, they were owned by the Sapiega family, who built the first church in 1634 and founded a school in 1639. A tavern that has survived since the end of the 18th century still stands here. The town is adorned by the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kartenos, built in 1875. This is the only neo-baroque basilica church without a tower in Samogitia. Next to the Kartenos hillfort, on the left bank of the Minija River, on the outskirts of the village of Abakų, the Kartenos Lurdas has been famous since ancient times. Here you will find a stone-built Lourdes grotto with a sculpture of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes. It is said that the water from the spring in front of it has healing properties. In 1922, a wooden chapel (by K. Navirauskas) was built in this sacred place, where services are held every year on September 8. On the lands of the village of Gintarai (also known as Senoji Kartena) near Kartenos stands Vyšnių Hill. In the first millennium, a wooden castle stood on it, and in the 16th–17th centuries, the Old Kartenos Manor. The farmstead was surrounded by three ponds to the south. There was a water mill in the Minija Valley. After the manor burned down, the old manor site was marked for centuries by lush cherry trees, which gave the hill its name. At the foot of the former Gintarai manor, there is a 2nd century BC–13th century Gintarai burial ground, and at the other end of the hill stands one of the largest and most beautiful hillforts in the area, Martynaičiai Hillfort, dating from the 8th–13th centuries.