Dębno

Dębno (Neudamm) is a town in Myślibórz County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship in western Poland. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 13,443.

Despite its location in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Dębno is part of the historic Lubusz Land.

Dębno is known for hosting the oldest marathon in Poland (since 1969), one of the five marathons included in the Crown of Polish Marathons, along with marathons in Kraków, Poznań, Warsaw and Wrocław.

The Dębno oil field is located near the town.

History
After the Migration Period, the area was populated by Polish tribes since the 6th century. In the 10th century it became part of the emerging Polish state under its first historic ruler Mieszko I. In 1232 Dębno was granted by Duke Władysław Odonic of the Piast dynasty to the Knights Templar. Later, it was invaded by Saxons immediately after the invasion and annexation of the Catholic Duchy of Kopanica, a Polish fief. The castle of Dębno belonged to the House of Odrowąż. In 1373 the town became part of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (or Czech Lands), ruled by the Luxembourg dynasty. In 1402, the Luxembourgs reached an agreement with Poland in Kraków. Poland was to buy and re-incorporate the town and the surrounding region, but eventually the Luxembourgs sold it to the Teutonic Order, which remained in power until 1454.

During World War II, the Germans operated a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in the town.

Notable residents

 * Franz Alexander von Kleist (1769–1797), poet
 * Franz Hilgendorf (1839–1904), zoologist and paleontologist
 * Friedrich W. K. Müller (1863–1930), German scholar of oriental cultures and languages
 * Arthur Hübner (1885–1937) a German philologist, researched German literature from the Middle Ages
 * Antoni Dobrowolski (1904–2012) a Polish educator and the oldest known survivor of Auschwitz
 * Joanna Szarawaga (born 1994) a Polish handballer for GTPR Gdynia and the Polish national team

International relations
Dębno signed partnership agreements with:
 * 🇩🇪 Strausberg, Germany (1978)
 * Renkum, Netherlands (1990)
 * 🇵🇱 Tczew, Poland (2000)
 * 🇨🇿 Terezín, Czech Republic (2003)
 * 🇵🇱 Nowy Tomyśl, Poland (2010)
 * 🇵🇱 Grodzisk Wielkopolski, Poland (2022)
 * 🇵🇱 Postomino, Poland (2022)