The Old Town area

The historic urban layout of Gryfice has its origins in 1262. Gryfice received town rights then. Simultaneously, the land to build the town was laid out which is intersected by streets at right angles. Having been surrounded by the walls, the whole settlement was given a fusiform shape, so typical of Pomerania. There was a rectangular market square in the centre where the town hall had to be erected. The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was build nearby. Other residential quarters were filled with tenement houses, the style of which was changed with the prevailing trends in architecture. The medieval urban layout survived unaltered until the second half of the seventeenth century. Due to the huge fires that consumed the town, it was decided to modernise it. The main roads were widened, new houses were built, the town hall was rebuilt, and an earthwork was raised in front of the walls. The second half of the nineteenth century brought the demilitarisation of obsolete elements of the fortifications. The earthwork was levelled, and the walls were mostly demolished. At that time, the houses were reconstructed, which eventually caused the obliteration of the old styles. The war led in 1945 to the destruction of more than 40% of the Old Town in Gryfice. The blocks of flats built in place of the former buildings contributed to the blurring of the old urban layout.

Currently, the Old Town of Gryfice has sights such as: Brama Wysoka [the High Gate] and Brama Kamienna [the Stone Gate], Wieża Prochowa [the Gunpowder Tower], the remains of fortifications, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the nineteenth-century houses. Outside the former walls, You can see the fifteenth-century Chapel of St George.