Skarszewy

Poland, Poland

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Skarszewy is a historic town in northern Poland's Pomeranian Voivodeship, in Starogard Gdański County within the Kociewie region, located 40 km south of Gdańsk amid forests and the Wietcisa River valley with around 6,800 residents.

First documented in 1198 as lands granted by Pomeranian Duke Grzymisław to the Knights Hospitaller, it received Chełmno rights in 1320 from the order—making it Pomerania's only town founded by the Knights—before passing to the Teutonic Order in 1370.

Reincorporated into Poland in 1454 at the Prussian Confederation's request amid the Thirteen Years' War, it served as Royal Prussia's Pomeranian Voivodeship capital from 1613 to 1772, suffering devastation by Teutonic Knights in 1455, Swedes in the 1629-1655 wars, and major fires in 1708-1731 that destroyed most buildings, while hosting Józef Wybicki—who authored Poland's national anthem lyrics—in the 1760s.

Encircled by 14th-century Gothic stone walls with gates and towers, it preserves the Gothic Church of St. Michael the Archangel and features a medieval layout as a key cultural site.