Sztum

From Free net encyclopedia

Sztum (Template:Lang-de) is a town in Poland, capital of Sztum County, located in Pomeranian Voivodship, with some 10,141 inhabitants (2004).

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History

Signs of settlement dating back to the Roman Empire era have been found. In the early Middle Ages a fortified settlement of the Prussian people existed at the site, conquered by the Teutonic Knights in 1236. City rights were granted to the settlement in 1416. In 1466 the city passed under Polish sovereignty as part of the province of Royal Prussia. As part of Poland and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city functioned as a county seat and a place to hold local court sessions and sejmiks. In 1772 as a result of the First Partition of Poland the town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1871 it became part of the newly created German Empire. The city and the surrounding area voted to remain part of Germany in the 1920 plebiscite.

Towards and after the end of World War II, the German inhabitants were either evacuated or expelled like most of the German population of East Prussia. After the war, the town, along with the rest of southern East Prussia, was given to Poland under territorial changes promulgated by the Potsdam Conference. The city was resettled by Poles, many of them expellees from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.

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