Słońsk

Słońsk pronounced [swɔɲsk] (German: Sonnenburg) is a village in Sulęcin County of the Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) east of the border crossing with Germany along national road DK22. The village lies about 25 kilometres (or 16 miles) northwest of Sulęcin and 36 kilometres (22 mi) southwest of Gorzów Wielkopolski.

The village borders Poland's Ujście Warty National Park stretching to the north. Słońsk had town privileges from 1808 to 1947, consequence of a small population size. During the Second World War, Słońsk (Sonnenburg) was the site of a former Nazi concentration camp, now a museum.

History

Present-day Słońsk was founded in the territory once belonging to the Kingdom of Poland and subsequently acquired by the German Margraviate of Brandenburg during the High Middle Ages. Most Slavic inhabitants of the region were gradually Germanicized in the centuries that followed.

Then known as Sonnenburg, the settlement first appears in documents in 1295. The Knights Templar held lands and buildings in the town. In 1312, the Margrave of Brandenburg and the Bishop of Lebus were joint overlords of Sonnenburg. Henning and Arnold von Uechtenhagen later received Sonnenberg as a fief and built the first castle there in 1341. From the 15th century, the town maintained a close connection with the Order of Saint John (the Knights Hospitaller), who had purchased it from Margrave Friedrich I of Brandenburg. The castle became the seat of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Order, which greatly enlarged the town, building a new church (between 1474 and 1522), a new castle (between 1545 and 1564), and a model hospital (in the 19th century).