Stare Drawsko (until 1945 pl, Drahim; german: Draheim) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Czaplinek __NOTOC__ Gmina Czaplinek is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Drawsko County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. Its seat is the town of Czaplinek, which lies approximately east of Drawsko Pomorskie and east of ...

, within

Drawsko County __NOTOC__ Drawsko County ( pl, powiat drawski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local gover ...

West Pomeranian Voivodeship The West Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as the West Pomerania Province, is a voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals 22 892.48 km² (8,838.84 sq mi), and in 2021, it was i ...

, in north-western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The village is prominent as the seat of the historic

Starostwo of Draheim Starostwo of Draheim or Drahim ( pl, starostwo drahimskie, german: Starostei Draheim) was a starostwo (crown territory) of the Polish kingdom from the 15th century, seated in Draheim. Pawned to Brandenburg-Prussia in 1657, it was directly incor ...

Geography

The village forms a northwestern outpost of the historic

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed ...

region, where it borders with

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

. It lies approximately north-west of

Czaplinek Czaplinek (german: Tempelburg; csb, Czôplënkò) is a town in Drawsko County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, with 7,012 inhabitants as of December 2021. The former name of ''Tempelburg'' refers to the Templar Knights, which settled near ...

, east of

Drawsko Pomorskie Drawsko Pomorskie (until 1948 pl, Drawsko; formerly german: Dramburg) is a town in Drawsko County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland, the administrative seat of Drawsko County and the urban-rural commune of Gmina Drawsko Po ...

, and east of the regional capital

Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

. The village has a population of 140.

History

The 14th century Drahim Castle was a stronghold of the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

, who controlled the Polish-Pomeranian border region. In 1407 German and Polish robber barons conquered the castle and expelled the knights. The robber barons made the castle the starting point of their

brigandage Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder. It is practiced by a brigand, a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.Oxford English Dictionary second edition, 1989. "Brigand.2" first recorded usa ...

, until the burghers of Drawsko defeated them in 1422. In 1438 the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

arranged it so that Poland could take control of the region, which it reorganised as the Starostwo Drahimskie, with Drahim as its capital, within Greater Polish

Poznań Voivodeship Poznań Voivodeship was the name of several former administrative regions (''województwo'', rendered as ''voivodeship'' and usually translated as "province") in Poland, centered on the city of Poznań, although the exact boundaries changed over t ...

Stare Drawsko, kościół Wszystkich Świętych, 2008

In 1657 King

John II Casimir of Poland John II Casimir ( pl, Jan II Kazimierz Waza; lt, Jonas Kazimieras Vaza; 22 March 1609 – 16 December 1672) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1648 until his abdication in 1668 as well as titular King of Sweden from 1648 ...

pawned this Poznanian

starostwo Starostwo (literally " eldership") ; be, староства, translit=starostva; german: Starostei is an administrative unit established from the 14th century in the Polish Crown and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until the part ...

, including Drahim, to the "Great Elector"

Frederick William of Brandenburg Frederick William (german: Friedrich Wilhelm; 16 February 1620 – 29 April 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is ...

in return for a credit by the

Treaty of Bromberg The Treaty of Bromberg (, Latin: Pacta Bydgostensia) or Treaty of Bydgoszcz was a treaty between John II Casimir of Poland and Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia that was ratified at Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) on 6 November 1657. The trea ...

. In 1668 Frederick William acquired the starostwo as his personal estate and invested a bailiff with its administration. In the course of the First Partition of Poland in 1773, ''Draheim'' was incorporated into the Brandenburgian ''

Neumark The Neumark (), also known as the New March ( pl, Nowa Marchia) or as East Brandenburg (), was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945. Calle ...

'' region within the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

. Following a Prussian administrative reform it became part of the

Köslin Koszalin (pronounced ; csb, Kòszalëno; formerly german: Köslin, ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-stat ...

region in the Province of Pomerania in 1817, which formed a part of Germany between 1871 and 1945. After the defeat of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1945, it was reincorporated to Poland.

References

{{Authority control

Stare Drawsko Stare Drawsko (until 1945 pl, Drahim; german: Draheim) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czaplinek, within Drawsko County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. The village is prominent as the seat of the histor ...