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Chociwel
Lake Starzyca and Our Lady of Sorrows church
Coat of arms
Chociwel
Coordinates: 53°27′58″N 15°20′23″E / 53.46611°N 15.33972°E / 53.46611; 15.33972
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	West Pomeranian
County	Stargard
Gmina	Chociwel
Town rights	1338
Government
• Mayor	Stanisław Szymczak
Area
• Total	3.67 km (1.42 sq mi)
Population
• Total	3,105
• Density	850/km (2,200/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	73-120
Area code	+48 91
Vehicle registration	ZST
Website	http://www.chociwel.pl

Chociwel (Kashubian: Frinwôłd; German: Freienwalde in Pommern) is a town in northwestern Poland, in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in Stargard County. As of December 2021, it has 3,105 inhabitants.

History

In the Middle Ages it was a Slavic gród. In 967 it became part of Poland under first historic ruler Mieszko I of Poland. The first church was built around 1124. The settlement was mentioned in 1190 and 1321. In 1338 it was granted Magdeburg town rights and was known as Freienwalde. In the 15th century the town's main landmark was built – the Gothic Our Lady of Sorrows church.

After the dissolution of the Duchy of Pomerania, in the mid-17th century it fell to the Margraviate of Brandenburg, then from 1701 it was part of Prussia, and from 1871 to 1945 it was part of Germany. It had a population of 3,406 in 1939. In 1945 it was awarded to Poland, along with most of Western Pomerania, at the insistence of Josef Stalin, and its entire population was expelled. Because of this, the population in 1946 was only 402, all of them Polish newcomers. After the war, the town was given the name Chociwel, which is a modern version of the Old Polish name of the nearby lake Kotzavil, as it appeared in medieval documents. Among the settlers were Poles displaced from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, Poles returning from forced labour both from the USSR and Germany and soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

Demographics

Detailed data as of 31 December 2021:

Number of inhabitants by year

Year	Population	Source
1995	3254
2000	3311
2005	3303
2010	3300
2015	3196
2020	3123
2021	3105

Sports

The local football club is Piast Chociwel. It competes in the lower leagues.

Gallery

• Municipal office
• Memorial to Polish prisoners of Soviet Gulag camps and deportees to Siberia
• Polish First Army Memorial
• Baptist church

Notable residents

• Hugo von Kathen (1855–1932), general
• Herbert Hoffmann (1919–2010), artist

References

1. ^ "Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 2022-06-03. Data for territorial unit 3214024.
2. "O powiecie". BIP Starostwo Powiatowe w Stargardzie (in Polish). Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
3. ^ "O parafii, Parafia rzymskokatolicka pw MB Bolesnej w Chociwlu" (in Polish). Retrieved July 8, 2019.
4. Czesław Piskorski, Pomorze Zachodnie, mały przewodnik, Wyd. Sport i Turystyka, Warszawa, 1980, p. 116 (in Polish)
5. Columbia-Lippincott Gazetteer. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1952) p. 403
6. "Piast Chociwel - strona klubu" (in Polish). Retrieved 5 December 2020.

External links

• Official town webpage
• Jewish Community in Chociwel on Virtual Shtetl

v t e Gmina Chociwel
Town and seat	Chociwel
Villages	Bobrowniki Bród Chociwel Wieś Długie Kamienny Most Kamionka Kania Kania Mała Karkowo Lisowo Lublino Mokrzyca Oświno Pieczonka Płątkowo Radomyśl Sątyrz Drugi Sątyrz Pierwszy Spławie Starzyce Wieleń Pomorski Zabrodzie

• Cities and towns in West Pomeranian Voivodeship
• Stargard County