page_title: Ustka
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ustka / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The polish city of Ustka on the southern banks of The Baltic Sea.
context_page_description: Ustka is a town in the Middle Pomerania region of northwestern Poland with 17,100 inhabitants. It is also part of Słupsk County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously in Słupsk Voivodeship.
context_section_description: The first settlers arrived at present-day Ustka as early as the 9th century, and established a fishing settlement with the original name of Ujść.
  The area at the mouth of the river Słupia (Stolpe) was ceded to the town of Słupsk (Stolp) in 1337 with the purpose of building a fishing harbour and a commercial port there to the Baltic Sea. According to documents in 1355 a church was built. In 1382 the city of Stolp (Słupsk) became a member of the Hanseatic League.
  The town was given to Brandenburg-Prussia as part of the Duchy of Pomerania after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. On August 1, 1778,  a blaze destroyed 18 houses which, however, were soon re-built. The first railway station was opened in 1878. The rails were transported by the sea and the bedding for the track was formed by sand taken from the dunes on the Western Beach.  The first passenger train departed Stolpmünde on 1 October 1878. The rail was also used as a main transport facilitating the trade from the harbour. The rail track was extended to run into the harbour, trading mostly grain and spirits. Records state that in 1887, the local harbour shipped 5 million litres of plain spirits. The Harbour lost its importance after the World War II, fishing taking priority over trade. The current shape of the harbour is a result of an investment between 1899 and 1903 creating the largest port between Stettin (Szczecin) and Danzig (Gdańsk).
  The creation of the territory known as Polish Corridor at the end of World War I separated the German exclave of East Prussia from the German Province of Pomerania. As a result, the German Ministry for Transport established a ferry connection to East Prussia ("Sea Service East Prussia" or Seedienst Ostpreußen) in 1922, independent of the transit through Poland. These ships also harboured in Stolpmünde. Because of the increasing traffic it was planned for the harbour to be enlarged and modernized. The gigantic new development kicked off at the beginning of 1938. A third pier was started as docking station for the largest vessels. The construction of the new port was halted on 23 September 1939 after the German Invasion of Poland.
  The old part of the town has retained its layout since the Middle Ages. The small residential buildings were modernised in the thirties of the 19th century, however the layout of the streets was not changed. Since 2005, Ustka's authorities and the European Union embarked on the Revitilisation Programme for Old Ustka. Many buildings have and are being restored.
  Monuments in the town include a lighthouse from 1871  (rebuilt to include the octagonal tower in 1892), Main Post Office from 1875 and church from 1882. The first historic records mention the village of Ujść or Ujście of Pomerania in 1310. As part of the Holy Roman Empire it was ruled by Dukes of Pomerania. Stolpmünde, became part of the Kingdom of Prussia, then the German Empire until 1945 (Weimar Republic and finally, Nazi Germany).
  After World War II, the new Polish authorities took steps to determine an official name to replace the German 'Stolpmünde'. Ujść, Uszcz, and Ustka were all posted on the main railway station in 1945; Nowy Słupsk was the name on the sign at the main Post Office; Postomino was the town's name at the town hall; and Słupioujście was posted at the Harbour Master's office . The final name, Ustka, was decided upon in the late 1940s.
caption: The city as seen from a plane.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 500D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Digital Photo Professional", "Image DateTime": "2010:06:27 07:07:33", "Image Artist": "", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "272", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "5074", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "350", "Thumbnail YResolution": "350", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5186", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4347", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:06:27 07:07:33", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:06:27 07:07:33", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "69/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "43/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "55", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4752", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3168", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4752", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3168", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5004", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "792000/149", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "3168000/593", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}