Nowogard

Nowogard, known in German as Naugard, grew from a fortified Slavic settlement that was the seat of a local castellan. In 1268 Duke Barnim I of Pomerania granted it to the bishopric of Kamień, whose bishops built a castle here. The Eberstein family administered the town and surrounding country from 1274 and held it for nearly four centuries.

Nowogard adopted German municipal law in 1309. New fortifications went up in the first half of the fourteenth century around a town centred on its market, town hall and Saint Mary's Church. After the last Eberstein died in 1663, the estate passed to Ernst Bogislaw von Croÿ and then, in 1684, to the electors of Brandenburg. Polish, French and Italian forces captured the town in 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars.