Tczew

Tczew stands on the Vistula in eastern Pomerania. Duke Sambor II moved his residence here to control traffic on the river, and the town received its charter in 1260. Its port and the grain trade made it an important centre on the lower Vistula. Gothic churches in the old town recall the wealth of the medieval settlement.

The Teutonic Order took Tczew in the early fourteenth century. It later joined the Prussian Confederation against the Order and, after the Thirteen Years' War, became part of Royal Prussia under the Polish Crown. Its riverfront continued to connect the grain-growing interior with Gdańsk and the Baltic. Like other towns of the region, Tczew experienced the disruption of the wars fought over Prussia and the Vistula.