Darłowo

Darłowo (Polish pronunciation: dar'łowo; Dërłowò; Rügenwalde), in full The Royal City of Darłowo (Królewskie Miasto Darłowo), is a seaside town in the West Pomeranian Region, at the south coast of the Baltic Sea, north-western Poland, with 13,324 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located in Sławno County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship on the Slovincian Coast. The earliest archaeological signs of a settlement in the area occurred when Roman merchants travelled along the Amber Road in the hope of trading precious metals like bronze and silver for amber. By the 11th century the location of the later town was already becoming a significant trading point. The settlement received its town rights in 1312. Over the years Dukes of Pomerania constructed a Ducal Castle called Dirlow on a nearby island and chose it as their seat. It was here that the largest artillery piece in the world, Schwerer Gustav, was constructed and tested by Nazi Germany during World War II. The original medieval outline of Darłowo has been preserved to this day. The Old Town, Ducal Castle and local beaches are popular among holidaymakers. Darłowo is also an important historical centre as it is the birthplace and burial site of Eric of Pomerania, King of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. After the last Ice-age had ended at about 8000 BC, settlers of the Stone Age first populated the region. Around 100 AD the region of the later town was inhabited by the East Germanic tribe of the Rugii. According to Ptolemy at the site of the later city was a settlement called Rugium. In the 10th century, the region became part of the emerging country of Poland under its first ruler Mieszko I. By the eleventh century a fortress named Dirlow, (or Dirlovo) existed where the River Wieprza entered the Baltic. From this fortress, the district of Dirlow was administered, which belonged to the castelany of Sławno. A town was later founded in the district of Dirlow, but not at the location of the fortress itself. Following Poland's fragmentation, it was at various times part of the western and eastern duchies of Pomerania.