Kościerzyna

Kościerzyna lies in the wooded Kashubian country of Gdańsk Pomerania. First recorded in 1284, it came under the Teutonic Order in 1310 and developed into a town during the fourteenth century. After the Second Peace of Toruń in 1466 it returned to Poland and became a seat of royal officials in Royal Prussia. Its people lived by farming, crafts and trade, but fire repeatedly threatened the town: it burned in 1626 and again in 1709. Prussia annexed Kościerzyna in 1772.