Usedom (town)

Usedom (German pronunciation: [ˈuːzədɔm] ) is a town on Usedom Island, in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in north-eastern Germany, close to the border with Poland. It is the seat of the Amt Usedom-Süd, to which 14 other communities also belong. The whole island of Usedom was named after the town in medieval times. The town lies in the southeastern part of the island of Usedom, in the so-called Achterland, on the northwest shore of the Szczecin Lagoon. The town is bordered on the west and north by the Peenestrom, the aforesaid lagoon's western outlet to the Baltic Sea. The following communities belong to the town of Usedom: The region has been settled since Neolithic times, and from the 8th and 9th centuries by ancient Slavs, who built a castle on the hill now known as the Schloßberg. The town's name comes from the Slavic word "uznam", meaning river mouth. The town was destroyed by the Danes in the 1110s. In the 1120s, Pomerania was conquered by Polish monarch Bolesław III Wrymouth, who initiated Christianization, entrusting this task to Otto of Bamberg. In 1128, the Slavic West Pomeranian assembly with Duke Wartislaw I adopted Christianity, and shortly thereafter, a Premonstratensian monastery, Usedom Abbey (also Grobe or Pudagla Abbey) was established in Usedom.