Nowogard () ( csb, Nowògard; formerly german: Naugard) is a town in northwestern

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 ...

, in the

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 ...

. it had a population of 16,733.

Name

''Nowogard'' is a combination of two Slavic terms: novi (new) and gard, which is Pomeranian for ''town'', ''city'', or ''fortified settlement''. In this capacity, the term gard (or gôrd) is still being used in the only surviving variation of the

Pomeranian language ), East Low German, East Pomeranian dialect The Pomeranian language (Polish: ''pomorszczyzna'' or ''język pomorski'', German: ''Pomoranisch'' or ''die pomoranische Sprache'') is in the Pomeranian group of Lechitic languages (Polish: ''grupa po ...

, Kashubian.

Location

Nowogard has been situated in Goleniow County of West Pomeranian Voivodship since 1999, but formerly in Szczecin Voivodship from 1975 to 1998. It is located northeast of

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 ...

and south of the Baltic coast

History

Fragment muru obronnego z wejściami w strone placu

In the 10th century the area became part of Poland. Probably then the first Catholic chapel was established in present-day Nowogard. The town's origins go back to a fortified Slavic settlement which was the seat of the local

castellan A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant o ...

. The settlement was first mentioned in 1268 as "Nogart" when Barnim I, the Duke of Pomerania granted it as a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

to the

Bishopric of Cammin The Bishopric of Cammin (also Kammin, Kamień Pomorski) was both a former Roman Catholic diocese in the Duchy of Pomerania from 1140 to 1544, and a secular territory of the Holy Roman Empire ( Prince-Bishopric) in the Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) area f ...

(Kamień Pomorski). The bishops erected a castle in the city.nowogard.pl
In 1274, the town and its surrounding area was administered by Otto von Eberstein, it remained in the possession of the "von Eberstein" family until 1663. They were a side-wing of the

Counts of Everstein Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

(sometimes also called Eberstein) from

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

with their ancestral home Everstein Castle on the

Burgberg (ridge) The Burgberg (also called the Burgberge) is a ridge of hills up to high in the German federal state of Lower Saxony. Geography The Burgberg, which belongs to the Solling-Vogler Nature Park, is located in the district of Holzminden in the We ...

. In 1309 the town adopted

German town law The German town law (german: Deutsches Stadtrecht) or German municipal concerns (''Deutsches Städtewesen'') was a set of early town privileges based on the Magdeburg rights developed by Otto I. The Magdeburg Law became the inspiration for regional ...

. In the first half of the 14th century, fortifications were erected with an oblong market square in the center of the town. This is where the town hall and the St. Mary's Church were erected. In 1663, after the death of the last Eberstein, Naugard became property of

Ernst Bogislaw von Croÿ Ernst Bogislaw von Croÿ (26 August 1620, in Finstingen (Fénétrange) – 7 February 1684, in Königsberg) was a Lutheran Administrator of the Prince-Bishopric of Cammin and official in the service of Brandenburg-Prussia. Family Ernst Bogisl ...

and in 1684, property of the

electors of Brandenburg This article lists the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg during the period of time that Brandenburg was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Mark, or ''March'', of Brandenburg was one of the primary constituent states of the Hol ...

. During the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, in 1807, the town was captured by allied Polish-French-Italian forces. In the 18th century, the town became part of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

, and from 1871 it was also part of Germany. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

many forced labourers of different nationalities were brought to the town by the Germans, and there was also a Nazi German prison for youth in the town. Throughout the Soviet East Pomeranian Offensive operation of

up to 60 percent of the town was destroyed. On the 5 March 1945, the town was taken by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

, and the population fled or was expelled in accordance to the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

. Following the war, Nowogard became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. It was resettled with Poles. The first new Polish settlers were the freed forced labourers.

Sights

The city's main tourist attraction is a large lake which extends to the center of Nowogard. Its surface covers with a length of and a width of . Surrounding forests have mushrooms, berries and game. Historic heritage sights include the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Church of the Assumption and medieval town walls.

Population

*1875: 4,765 inhabitants *1880: 4,949 inhabitants *1890: 4,872 inhabitants *1925: 6,302 inhabitants *1933: 7,356 inhabitants *1939: 8,202 inhabitants *1960: 6,500 inhabitants *1970: 8,800 inhabitants *1975: 9,900 inhabitants *1980: 11,300 inhabitants

Transport

The Polish S6 highway acts as a bypass of the town, and the

Voivodeship road According to classes and categories of public roads in Poland, a voivodeship road ( pl, droga wojewódzka) is a category of roads one step below national roads in importance. The roads are numbered from 100 to 993. Total length of voivodeship r ...

s (roads of regional importance)

106 106 may refer to: *106 (number), the number *AD 106, a year in the 2nd century AD *106 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *106 (emergency telephone number), an Australian emergency number *106 (MBTA bus), a route of the Massachusetts Bay Transportatio ...

and 144 pass through the town. There is also a train station in Nowogard.

Notable residents

Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen The Reverend Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen (1694 - 24 January 1776) was a German-English clergyman, who worked as a court preacher for the Hanoverian King George I of Great Britain. At the same time, he was a prominent Pietist and one of the most ...

(1694–1776), German clergyman, court preacher of

George I of Great Britain George I (George Louis; ; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first ...

Paul Manasse Paul Manasse (14 March 1866 in Naugard – 27 September 1927 in Würzburg) was a German physician, who specialized in the field of otology. He studied medicine at the universities of University of Tübingen, Tübingen, University of Berlin, Be ...

(1866 in Naugard – 1927) a German physician, who specialized in the field of otology *

Zbigniew Szczepkowski Zbigniew Szczepkowski (4 May 1952 – 4 February 2019) was a Polish cyclist. He competed in the team pursuit event at the 1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultu ...

(born 1952) a Polish former cyclist, competed in the team pursuit at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

Ewa Durska Ewa Durska (born 27 February 1977) is a Paralympian athlete from Poland competing mainly in category T20 shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possibl ...

(born 1977) a two time Paralympic gold medalist, competing mainly in category T20 shot put

International relations

Twin towns — sister cities

Nowogard is twinned with: *

Gützkow Gützkow () is a town in the District of Vorpommern-Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated some 15 km south of Greifswald, on the north bank of the River Peene. Gützkow was the central town of the medieval County o ...

, Germany * Heide, Germany * Kävlinge, Sweden * Veles, North Macedonia In 1963

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

(''FRG'') town of Heide took over a partnership for the expelled populace of Naugard. In 1996 this led to the signing of a contract of partnership between Heide and Nowogard in which the former populace is regarded "constitutive partners".heide.de

References

External links

Homepage of City

Homepage of High School no 1
{{Authority control Cities and towns in West Pomeranian Voivodeship Goleniów County