Starogard Gdański is located in Pomerania on the small river Wierzyca, about south-west of Tczew, south of Gdańsk and north-east of Chojnice. It is from the Tricity agglomeration on the coast of Gdańsk Bay.
Etymology
The name Starogard means "old city" in the Pomeranian language. Gdański is appended in the 20th century to the name to differentiate it from other places named Starogard. The German namePreußisch Stargard is similarly used to disambiguate from other places named Stargard..
History
Archeological evidence indicates remnants of a neolithic settlement from four to five thousand years ago. The territories of the settlement in Pomeralia belonged to a Pomeranian duchy which came under Polish rule during the 10th century and which acquired independence in 1227. Starogrod was first mentioned in 1198 when DukeGrzymisław II of Pomerania granted the settlement to the Knights Hospitaller. The Slavic name Stargarde was mentioned in 1269. In 1282, Mestwin II and Polish Duke Przemysł II signed the Treaty of Kępno, which transferred the suzerainty over Gdańsk Pomerania including Starogard to Przemysł II and reunited the region with Poland. Together with the rest of Gdańsk Pomerania it came under the rule of the Teutonic Knights during the 1308 Teutonic takeover of Danzig. In 1348 the town received city rights under Kulm Law by Grandmaster Heinrich Dusemer. Since 31 March 1440 Starogard was a member of the Prussian Confederation. It took an active part in the 1454 uprising against the Teutonic Order that led to the Thirteen Years' War. In 1454 the city recognized Polish KingCasimir IV Jagiellon as rightful ruler. In 1461 the Teutonic Knights took over Starogard and they remained in the city until the end of the war in 1466. According to the peace treaty signed in Toruń in 1466, the city was re-incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland. It became part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the province of Royal Prussia. It remained under Polish rule until the first partition of Poland in 1772, when it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1871, a large vodka distillery was built on the western end of town, which survived both world wars and today produces Sobieski and Krupnik. It is one of Europe's oldest continuously-run vodka distilleries, and one of only a very small handful of vodka distilleries predating 1945. Until 1920 Stargard belonged to the administrative district of Regierungsbezirk Danzig in the Province of West Prussia. After World War I Stargard was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic. After German invasion of Poland, Pomeralia was annexed at the beginning of World War II by the Nazi Germany. Between 1939-1945 Stargard was part of Regierungsbezirk Danzig in the new province of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. Beginning in September 1939 in nearby Szpęgawski Forest Germans killed in mass executions about 7000 Poles, among them 1680 Kocborowo and Świecie psychiatric hospitals patients. About 500 handicapped children were killed in the hospital, in Action T4. 2,842 patients died between 1940-1944.
Number of inhabitants by year
Year
Number
1772
1,103
1782
1,410
1831
3,145
1875
6,022
1880
6,253
1890
7,080
1905
10,485
1921
13,360
1943
17,895
1960
25,800
1970
33,700
1980
44,200
1990
49,500
2001
49,884
2012
49,072
Note that the above table is based on primary, possibly biased, sources.
The local football club, KP Starogard Gdański play in Liga III in the Polish league system. The team play in green and white at the Stadion Miejski. In 2018, Klub Pilkarski won the Pomorskie region section of the Polish Cup and finished a club high 9th in Liga III.
Marketplace panorama
Famous residents
Adolf Lesser a German physician who specialized in forensic medicine
