Szczecin tourist information

Szczecin is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. On the Baltic Sea, it is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427.

Szczecin is located on the Oder River, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The city is situated along the southwestern shore of DÄ…bie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin borders with the town of Police, the seat of Police County, situated on an estuary of the Oder River.

The city's beginnings were as an 8th century Slavic Pomeranian stronghold, built at the site of today's castle. In the 12th century, when the surrounding settlement had become one of Pomerania's main urban centers, it subsequently lost its independence to Piast Poland, Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark. At the same time, the Griffin dynasty established themselves as local rulers, the population was converted to Christianity, and settlers from Western Europe arrived. The native Slavic population was subject to both discrimination and assimilation and gradually diminished in the following centuries. In 1237/43, the town was built anew and granted vast autonomy rights, it subsequently joined the Hanseatic League. Szczecin's oldest, Brick Gothic buildings date back to that period.

In the following centuries, the Griffins again erected a castle in the town and made it one of the Duchy of Pomerania's main residences. After the Treaty of Stettin (1630)the town came under Swedish control, though its population remained predominantly German. It was fortified and remained a Swedish fortress until 1720, when it was acquired by the Kingdom of Prussia and became capital of the Province of Pomerania, which after 1870 was part of the German Empire. In the late 19th century, Stettin became an industrial town, was de-fortified and vastly increased in size and population, serving as a major port for Berlin. Prior to World War II, the city had a population of 270,000. During the Nazi era, the city's Jews and Poles were classified as subhumans and targeted for slavery and eventual extermination. After Germany was defeated by the Allies in 1945 remaining slave workers in the city were liberated from Nazi rule by Allied forces, and Szczecin became part of People's Republic of Poland. With the remaining and returned Germans expelled after the war, Poles rebuilt and resettled the city, which became capital of the Szczecin Voivodeship. It played an important role in the anti-communist uprisings of 1970 and the rise of Solidarity trade union in the 1980s.

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