Gryfów

Gryfów, later called Gryfino and known in German as Greifenhagen, lies on the eastern river branch of the Oder south of Szczecin. Duke Barnim I granted it Magdeburg town rights in 1254, and its craftsmen received guild privileges in 1271 modelled on those of neighbouring Szczecin. In 1281 the town was exempted from customs duties and declared a free port. In 1306 the duke allowed a bridge and dam to be built across the Oder and tolls to be collected there.

Epidemics in 1625 and 1638 and successive imperial and Swedish occupations afflicted the town during the Thirty Years' War. It remained Swedish afterwards, but Brandenburg-Prussia acquired it in 1679. French Huguenot refugees settled here in 1723, while Russian troops plundered the town during the Seven Years' War.