About the town » Santok, Powiat gorzowski, Lubusz, Poland

Santok 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 12 km east of Gorzów Wielkopolski. The village now has a population of 780. The settlement is mentioned in the 12th century as "barbican and key" to the Polish kingdom at the border with Pomerania in the Gesta principum Polonorum by Gallus Anonymus. In the days of the medieval Piast dynasty, Santok was an important border fortress and seat of a castellany. During the 13th century however, the strategically important locality 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 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 the dowry. Once again reconquered by the Polish duke Przemysł II, it finally was incorporated by Brandenburg upon his death in 1296. According to the 1945 Potsdam Agreement, Santok with the Neumark fell from Germany to Poland.