With adjacent Lubusz Land in the south, the town became a part of the "Neumark" acquisitions of the Ascanian margraves John I and of Otto III of Brandenburg in 1248/52. In 1278 the Cistercians from nearby Chorin Abbey erected a nunnery there, which was secularised in 1555 and finally dissolved in 1611, after the Reformation. In 1373 the town became part of the Lands of the Bohemian (Czech) Crown, ruled by the Luxembourg dynasty. In 1402, the Luxembourgs reached an agreement with Poland, upon which Poland was to buy and re-incorporate the region, but eventually the Luxembourgs sold it to the Teutonic Order. In 1454 the Teutonic Knights sold the town to the Margraviate of Brandenburg in order to raise funds for war with Poland.