📜 From a princely fishing village to a Baltic resort
The first written mention of Darłowo comes from 1459 — the village was then under the rule of the Pomeranian princes and lived from fishing in the Baltic. For the following centuries the settlement remained a small, self-sufficient fishing community, its rhythm of life set by seasonal trips out to sea, storms and smoking fish for sale.
In the 19th century, with the growth of seafaring and the need to secure a dangerous stretch of coast, a lighthouse was built in Darłówko; it quickly became a symbol of the settlement and still serves sailors today. After World War II Darłowo returned to Poland, and from the 1960s and 1970s it changed its character: guesthouses, holiday cottages and the first resorts replaced the fishermen's huts, while the sandy beach, the forests and the proximity of the Baltic drew family after family.
