Gościno (; ; ) is a small

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

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

West Pomeranian Voivodeship West Pomeranian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals , and in 2021, it was inhabited by 1,682,003 people. It was established on 1 Janua ...

, in north-western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

(administrative district) called Gmina Gościno. It lies in

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

, approximately south-east of

Kołobrzeg Kołobrzeg (; ; ) is a port and spa city in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in north-western Poland with about 47,000 inhabitants (). Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast of the Baltic Sea (in the middle of the section ...

and north-east of the regional capital

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

. The town has a population of 2,332.

History

The territory became part of the emerging Polish state under its first ruler

Mieszko I Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was Duchy of Poland (966–1025), Duke of Poland from 960 until his death in 992 and the founder of the first unified History of Poland, Polish state, the Civitas Schinesghe. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was t ...

around 967. The earliest documentation of the village of Gościno appears in the year 1238 as a property of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The town's name derives from the

Old Polish The Old Polish language () was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language. The sources for the study of the Old Polish language are the data of the co ...

male name Gościmir. A main tourist site in Gościno, the Church of St. Andrew Bobola, houses a cup-shaped baptismal font hewn from one Gotland limestone boulder, from the 12th and 13th centuries. It is one of the few sacred relics of this kind in Western Pomerania. During earlier centuries the settlement had been a domain owned and farmed out by the town of

. It had been bought by the town's magistrate in the 14th century from the abbot of

Doberan Abbey Doberan Abbey (''Kloster Doberan'') is a former Cistercian monastery in Bad Doberan, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The Brick Gothic church continues in use as Doberan Minster (''Doberaner Münster''). After the conversion to Christianity o ...

. Around 1780 the domain included 16 farm houses. From the 18th century the village was part of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

and from 1871 to 1945 it was also part of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, administratively located in the Landkreis Kolberg-Körlin of the Province of Pomerania. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, in February 1945, a German-perpetrated

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires tha ...

of Allied prisoners-of-war from the Stalag XX-B

POW camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, an ...

passed through the town. After the defeat of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in the war in 1945 the area became again part of Poland. Since 1 January 2011 Gościno has had the status of a town.

Gallery

File:Goscino-180715-2.jpg, IV Dywizji Wojska Polskiego Street File:Goscino-biblioteka-070905-90.jpg, Public library File:Goscino-memorial-stone-1-180715.jpg, Memorial stone File:Goscino-house-180715-3.jpg, Old house

Notable people

Egon Schultz Egon Schultz (4 January 1943 – 5 October 1964) was a German sergeant of the East German Border Troops who became the List of deaths at the Berlin Wall, fifty-second known person to die at the Berlin Wall. While responding to the discovery ...

(1943–1964) a German sergeant of the East German Border Troops who became the fifty-second known person to die at the Berlin Wall

References

External links

Website of Gmina Gościno (BIP)
(Polish) {{Authority control Cities and towns in West Pomeranian Voivodeship Kołobrzeg County Populated riverside places in Poland

History

Gallery

Notable people

See also

References

External links