Złotów

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title: "Złotów" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cities-and-towns-in-greater-poland-voivodeship", "złotów-county", "krajna", "populated-lakeshore-places-in-poland", "populated-riverside-places-in-poland"] topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Złotów" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
name	Złotów
image_skyline	Zlotow view7 6-2016.jpg
image_caption	Skyline of Złotów from the Złotowskie Lake
image_flag	POL Złotów flag.svg
image_shield	POL Złotów COA.svg
pushpin_map	Poland
pushpin_label_position	bottom
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name
subdivision_type1	Voivodeship
subdivision_name1	Greater Poland
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	Złotów
subdivision_type3	Gmina
subdivision_name3	Złotów (urban gmina)
leader_title	Mayor
leader_name	Jakub Pieniążkowski
established_title	Established
established_date	8th century
established_title3	Town rights
established_date3	before 1370
area_total_km2	11.58
population_as_of	2011
population_total	18303
population_density_km2	auto
timezone	CET
utc_offset	+1
timezone_DST	CEST
utc_offset_DST	+2
coordinates
elevation_m	110
postal_code_type	Postal code
postal_code	77-400
area_code	+48 067
blank_name	Car plates
blank_info	PZL
blank1_name	Climate
blank1_info	Dfb
blank_name_sec2	Voivodeship roads
blank_info_sec2	[[File:DW188-PL.svg
website	http://www.zlotow.pl
::

The town is located on the river Głomia and is surrounded by five lakes. It is part of the historic Greater Poland region. A railway line connects it to Piła and Chojnice, with buses operating locally. The local Metaplast windows fitting factory is the biggest industrial employer. The Euro Eco Meeting is organized regularly there each July.

History

Złotów is the historical centre of the northern part of Krajna. Human activity in the region goes as far back as the 8th century BC. Around 700 AD, a hill fort on the shore of the Baba lake was the residence of a Pomeranian tribal chief. The land belonged to the dukes of Gdańsk Pomerania from the house of the Samborides within partitioned Poland and after the last duke Mestwin II died in 1294 it passed under direct rule of the Piast dynasty. In the early 14th century it was occupied by the Teutonic Knights. Złotów was mentioned in 1370 in the chronicle of Jan of Czarnków. In 1370, Złotów was granted Magdeburg rights while under Polish rule. According to the last will of Polish king Casimir III the Great after his death in 1370 his grandson, Casimir IV, Duke of Pomerania, was to inherit the lands of Dobrzyń, Bydgoszcz, Kruszwica, Złotów and Wałcz as fiefs.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/PL_Złotów,_kościół_par._p.w._Wniebowzięcia_NMP,_1660-1664.JPG" caption="Baroque]] Church of the Assumption"] ::

Złotów was destroyed by the Teutonic Knights in 1455 during the Thirteen Years' War. The town later belonged to the Potulicki family which provided it with a new Gothic castle in Renaissance style at the beginning of the 17th century. In 1619, Jan Potulicki issued a founding document for the church and parish of the Holy Assumption of Mary. Later it passed to the Grudziński family. In 1665 the town still had Magdeburg rights. The castle was destroyed during the Swedish invasion in 1657. The bombardment also destroyed other parts of the city including the town hall. A new church, still standing today, was founded there in 1664 by Andrzej Karol Grudziński. After the rule of the Grudziński family came to an end in 1688, the Działyński family came into power.

From 1709 to 1711, a plague beset the area. According to incomplete church records, approximately 1,650 people died as a result of the epidemic. After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Złotów was incorporated into Prussia. In 1784 a Protestant half-timbered church was built on the great market square, which during the time span 1829–31 was replaced by a modern church designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

From 1772 to 1945, as part of Prussia and later Germany it was known as Flatow. The town was given county (Kreis) town status in 1818. It was part of the Flatow district in the Prussian Province of West Prussia. In 1871, a railway line from Piła (then Schneidemühl) was completed. Around this time many local people emigrated to America, including many members of the local Polish community. Despite the Germanisation policy of the Prussian authorities, local Poles founded several organizations, including the People's Bank (Bank Ludowy), the Cecylia choir, which is one of the oldest still existing choirs of Greater Poland and an agricultural and trade cooperative, all three of these entities operate to this day. According to the 1910 census, the population of the town was 4,282, of whom 3,190 (74%) reported German as their sole mother tongue, while 917 (21%) reported Polish; the Jewish population was 203 (4.7%).

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/DomPolski-Złotów.jpg" caption="Interwar]] headquarters of various Polish organizations"] ::

In 1919, it was decided that the eastern part of the Flatow district would be ceded to Poland and the western part of the district, including the town of Flatow would remain in Germany. This caused protests from the large Polish minority of the town and the surrounding rural lands, where Polish-speakers comprised between 20-25% of the population. From 1922 until 1938, Flatow was part of the newly formed Province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia inside Germany. When this province was dissolved on 1 October 1938, Flatow was integrated into the Province of Pomerania. Despite this, the town became the seat of local branches of the Union of Poles in Germany and the Polish-Catholic School Society. In the last months of the war, the town was captured by Polish troops in the on 31 January 1945 and was finally reintegrated with Poland.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/OdsłonięciepomnikaPiasta-wZłotowie.jpg" caption="Unveiling ceremony of the [[Piast the Wheelwright]] monument in 1957"] ::

After World War II, the redrawn borders forced upon Germany and Poland by the Soviet Union in the Potsdam Agreement placed the town, once again, inside Poland. Its first post-war mayor was , leading pre-war Polish activist in Złotów, who was imprisoned by the Germans in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the war. Already in 1945, new Polish schools were founded, and both the Sparta Złotów sports club and the "Cecylia" choir resumed their activities. In 1961 the Regional Museum was established. From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Piła Voivodeship.

Demographic development

::data[format=table]

Year	Inhabitants	Notes
1783	1,597	incl. approx. 600 German Protestants, 300 Catholics and 714 Jews
1805	1,764	incl. 1,058 Christians and 705 Jews
1831	1,960
1849	2,841
1853	2,772	incl. 2,163 Christians and 609 Jews
1864	3,172	incl. 1,631 Protestants and 993 CatholicsE. Jacobson: Topographisch-statistisches Handbuch für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder, Danzig 1868, pp. 4–5, no. 36 (in German).
1871	3,311	incl. 1,700 Protestants and 1,050 Catholics (730 Poles)
1875	3,510
1880	3,921
1890	3,852	incl. 2,082 Protestants, 1,368 Catholics and 402 Jews (800 Poles)
1925	5,939	url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001212459/http://stadt.flatow.kreis-flatow.de/
1933	7,112
1939	7,496
2012	18,754
::

Notable residents

Agnieszka Bednarek-Kasza (born 1986), Polish volleyball player
Paweł Buzała (born 1985), Polish football player
Wojciech Golla (born 1992), Polish football player
Walter Krueger (1881–1967), a United States army general
Eberhard Schöler (born 1940), German table tennis competitor

Sport

The local women's volleyball team, Sparta Złotów, plays in the third national league.

International relations

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/ZŁOTÓW._AB-034.JPG" caption="Twin towns of Złotów on a signpost in the town center"] ::

Twin towns — Sister cities

Złotów is twinned with:

GER Rathenow, Germany
GER Eggesin, Germany
GER Gifhorn, Germany

There has also been some cooperation with:

Footnotes

References

Werner Buchholz, ''Pommern'', Siedler, 1999, p.154-158, {{ISBN. 3-88680-272-8 (in German)
"Dzieje Złotowa".
(1912). "Gemeindelexikon für die Regierungsbezirke Allenstein, Danzig, Marienwerder, Posen, Bromberg und Oppeln". Königlich Preußisches Statistisches Landesamt.
. (1998). "Encyklopedia konspiracji Wielkopolskiej 1939–1945". *Instytut Zachodni*.
Johann Friedrich Goldbeck: ''Vollständige Topographie des Königreichs Preußen''. Part II, Marienwerder 1789, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQw_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA99 pp. 99-100, no. 4.] (in German).
F. W. F. Schmitt: ''Topographie des Flatower Kreises''. In: ''Preußische Provinzialblätter, Andere Folge'', Vol. VII, Königsberg 1855, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HbMtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA116 p. 116] (in German).
August Eduard Preuß: ''Preußische Landes- und Volkskunde''. Königsberg 1835, [https://books.google.com/books?id=L_sAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA377, p. 377, no. 6] (in German).
''Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder''. Vol. 43, No. 23 from 8 June 1853, [https://books.google.com/books?id=G7QDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA135 p. 135] (in German).
Neumann, Gustav. (1874). "Das Deutsche Reich in geographischer, statistischer und topographischer Beziehung". Müller.
Michael Rademacher ''[http://www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/flatow.html Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte Pommern - Landkreis Flatow]'' (2006) (in German).
Gunthard Stübs und Pommersche Forschungsgemeinschaft: ''[http://stadt.flatow.kreis-flatow.de/ Die Stadt Flatow im ehemaligen Kreis Flatow in Pommern] {{Webarchive. link. (2019-10-01 '' (2011) (in German).)

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