Santok

Santok 'santok (Zantoch) is a village in Gorzów County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Santok. It is located at the confluence of the Noteć and Warta rivers, approximately east of Gorzów Wielkopolski. The village now has a population of 780. Contemporary Santok is a large village street, over long. The village is situated at the mouth of Noteci to Warta, on a narrow terrace Pradolina Toruńsko-Eberswaldzka. From the south it is limited by the Warta and Noteci beds, and from the north by the high edge of the Gorzowska Plain. On the left bank of the Warta, settlements have been preserved, which are now a small wooded hill among wet meadows. Originally, they were located in the fork of Warta and Noteci, but during a catastrophic flood in 1751, Warta changed its channel, and decided to create a new one to the north of the settlement. Archaeological research confirmed the existence of 12 settlement layers in this area, dating from the 8th to 14th centuries. A first fortified settlement at the site was founded in the late 7th century. Santok is mentioned in the 12th century as "barbican and key" (clavem et terris custodiam) to the Polish kingdom at the border with the Duchy of Pomerania in the Gesta principum Polonorum chronicle by Gallus Anonymus. Re-established by Bolesław I the Brave in the days of the medieval Piast dynasty, Santok became an important border fortress of Greater Poland and seat of a castellany. An attack by Duke Barnim I of Pomerania in 1251 was repelled. During the 13th century however, the strategically important hill fort became the object of claims raised by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, who intended to enlarge their territories in the Neumark region east of the Oder river. Upon the marriage of Margrave Conrad of Brandenburg-Stendal with Constance, daughter of the deceased Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland, in 1260, Santok passed to the margraviate as part of her dowry.