Piła has originated from an old fishing settlement situated amidst forests on the River Gwda. It got its civic rights probably already in the 15th century, which was confirmed in 1513 by King Sigismund the Old. The town was not spared from catastrophes and wars. In 1626 the town was completely burned. It was reconstructed, it did not resist the Swedish army during the North War, and the biggest damage was brought by the Seven-year War. After the first partition of Poland, Piła joined the Prussian state. In 1755 an outstanding town citizen, Stanistaw Staszic, was born in the town on Gwda. This merited representative of the Enlightenment, a priest, writer, statesman and philosopher, excellent geologist became famous for creating a geological map of Poland. He was an initiator of the construction of a coal mine in Upper Silesia. After the Fist World War, Piła remained within German borders. During the Second World War the town became an important centre of German arms industry and evacuation place for German people leaving industrial regions of Reich bombed by the allied forces. At the beginning of 1945 Piła was announced a town-fortress, forming a part of Pomeranian Rampart fortifications. As a result of heavy fights, Piła crumbled into ruin. It was the last defeat in the town's history; the town was rebuilt nearly anew.
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