In the
Middle Ages it was a Slavic
gród. In 967 it became part of Poland under first historic ruler
Mieszko I of Poland. The first church was built around 1124. In 1338 it was granted
Magdeburg town rights and was known as
Freienwalde. In the 15th century the town's main landmark was built – the
Gothic Our Lady of Sorrows church. After the dissolution of the
Duchy of Pomerania, in the mid-17th century it fell to the
Margraviate of Brandenburg, then from 1701 it was part of
Prussia, and from 1871 to 1945 it was part of
Germany. It had a population of 3,406 in 1939. In 1945 it was awarded to Poland, along with most of
Western Pomerania, at the insistence of
Josef Stalin, and its entire population was
expelled. Because of this, the population in 1946 was only 402, all of them
Polish newcomers. After the war, the town was given the name Chociwel, which is a modern version of the
Old Polish name of the nearby lake
Kotzavil, as it appeared in medieval documents. Among the settlers were Poles displaced from
former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, Poles returning from forced labour both from the
USSR and Germany and soldiers of the
Polish Armed Forces in the West. ==Demographics==