Kołobrzeg

Kołobrzeg, known in German as Kolberg, lies at the mouth of the Parsęta on the Baltic coast. An early Pomeranian stronghold grew near salt springs, and in 1000 a bishopric was established here under the Polish ruler Bolesław the Brave. The diocese was short-lived, but the town remained an important coastal centre. A new settlement founded farther north received Lübeck law in 1255 and eventually eclipsed the older stronghold.

The bishops of Kamień became rulers of the town and made it their residence in the thirteenth century. Kołobrzeg joined the Hanseatic League in 1361. Its merchants sent salt, beer and other goods to ports including Amsterdam and those of Scotland and Scandinavia. The Reformation changed the government of the bishops' lands, while imperial and Swedish troops occupied the town in succession during the Thirty Years' War. Kołobrzeg later became a Brandenburg-Prussian fortress. In 1807 its defenders held out against a French and Polish siege during the Napoleonic Wars. The old port's history had thus been shaped by salt, Baltic commerce and the rival powers of Pomerania.