Sławno

For other places with the same name, see Sławno (disambiguation).

Sławno
St Mary's Church
Coat of arms
Sławno
Coordinates: 54°22′N 16°41′E
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	West Pomeranian
County	Sławno County
Gmina	Sławno (urban gmina)
Government
• Mayor	Krzysztof Frankenstein
Area
• Total	15.78 km2 (6.09 sq mi)
Population  (2006)
• Total	13,314
• Density	840/km2 (2,200/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	76–100
Car plates	ZSL
Website	http://www.slawno.pl

Koszalińska Street.Postcard from 1912

Sławno [ˈswavnɔ] (Kashubian/Pomeranian: Słôwno, German: Schlawe), is a town on the Wieprza river in Middle Pomerania region, north-western Poland, with 13,322 inhabitants (2006). It is the administrative seat of Gmina Sławno, though not part of it. The town is also the capital of Sławno County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, previously in Słupsk Voivodeship (1975–1998).

Sławno is a railway junction on the major Gdańsk - Szczecin line, with access to secondary importance connections to Darłowo and Korzybie. It is also a stop on the European route E28 running parallel to the south coast of the Baltic Sea between the cities of Koszalin and Słupsk.

History

Since the mid-12th century the Lands of Schlawe and Stolp (Słupsk) were under the rule of Duke Ratibor I of Pomerania and his descendants, a cadet branch of the Griffin dynasty. When the line became extinct about 1227, their estates were the matter of an inheritance conflict between the Griffin Duke Barnim I the Good and Swantopolk II from the Samborid dynasty, who ruled over the adjacent territories of Pomerelia in the east.

Swantopolk prevailed, his son Mestwin II, duke in Pomerelia from 1266, however again had to deal with claims raised by the Pomeranian Griffins and also by his brother Wratislaw II. To secure his rule, Mestwin accepted the suzerainty of the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg by the 1269 Treaty of Arnswalde. Upon his death in 1294, the Samborides became extinct and the Brandenburg margraves seized their lands. Waldemar of Ascania finally separated Sławno from Pomerelia, which he sold to the Teutonic Order by the 1309 Treaty of Soldin. He nevertheless lost the town to the Griffin duke Wartislaw IV of Pomerania in 1317, whereafter Sławno remained a part of the Pomeranian duchy until its dissolution in 1637.

Duke Wartislaw IV enfeoffed Peter von Neuenburg of the Swenzones noble family with Sławno, who granted the settlement city rights in 1317. The Gothic St Mary's Church was consecrated about 1360. Devastated during the Thirty Years' War, the town was allotted to the Brandenburg Province of Pomerania by the 1653 Treaty of Stettin. The town's German population was expelled in 1945.

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Poland

Twin towns — sister cities

Sławno is twinned with:

• Rinteln, Germany
• Ribnitz-Damgarten, Germany
• Trento, Italy

Notable people

• Franz Mehring (1846–1919), publicist, politician and historian
• Hans-Martin Majewski (1911-1997), film composer
• Marcin Wasilewski (born 1975), pianist and composer
• Wolfgang Weber (born 1944), footballer
• Agnieszka Włodarczyk (1980- ), actress and singer
• Jakub Zejglic (1990- ), footballer
• David Nilsson (1977- ), handball player

Schlawe about 1618

Population

• 1791: 1682 inhabitants
• 1852: 4382 inhabitants
• 1875: 5141 inhabitants
• 1910: 6620 inhabitants
• 1939: 9746 inhabitants
• 1947: 4800 inhabitants (estimated)
• 1960: 8,600 inhabitants
• 1970: 10,800 inhabitants
• 1975: 11,500 inhabitants
• 1980: 12,700 inhabitants
• 2002: 15,000 inhabitants

External links

• Official website