Bytów

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Bytów

	(Coat of arms)


Basic Information
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Pomeranian
Population	16 888 (2004)
City rights	1346
Latitude Longitude	54°08'N 17°30'E
Area	8,72 km²
Density	1936,7/km²
Area code	+48 23
Car plates	GBY
Twin towns	Markaryd, Zalischyky, Frankenberg, Winona
Economy and Traffic
Administration
Mayor	Ryszard Sylka
Municipal Website

Bytów Castle, originally an Ordensburg of the German Teutonic Knights.

Bytów (IPA: [ˈbɨtuf] (help·info); German: Bütow (help·info)); Kashubian: Bëtowò) is a town in the Middle Pomerania region of northwestern Poland with 16 888 inhabitants (2004). It is also the capital of Bytów County in Pomeranian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Słupsk Voivodeship (1975-1998).

1 History
2 Historical Population
3 Notable Sights
4 Municipality of Bytów
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

The first settlement at the location of Bytów probably developed in the 13th century, while the earliest written mention is from 1321 under Polish overlordship. The Teutonic Order took the town in 1335 and began construction of a rectory. Bytów received city rights on 12 July 1346. The town alternated between Poland and the Teutonic Knights during their wars, and returned to Polish control after the Second Peace of Toruń in 1466.

In 1627 during the Thirty Years' War Bytów was rebuilt after being destroyed by a fire. To gain an ally against Sweden during The Deluge, in 1657 King John II Casimir of Poland gave Bytów and Lębork to Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia as a hereditary fief in the Treaty of Bydgoszcz. Although Poland still retained sovereignty, Bytów was administered by Brandenburg and, after 1701, by the Kingdom of Prussia. During the 18th century, the town suffered from fires and plague.

In 1773 after the First Partition of Poland, Polish sovereignty over Bytów was abandoned and the town was wholly incorporated in the Prussian Province of Pomerania as Bütow. From 1846-1945, Bütow was the seat of the Landkreis Bütow district in Prussia and Imperial Germany.

Although Poland desired Bütow at the end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles kept the ethnically German town in the Weimar Republic in 1919.

Bütow was occupied by the Red Army during World War II. In 1945 the town was ceded to Poland and its German population was expelled.

Bytów became the seat of a powiat (1946-1975, 1999-) within Poland.