Editing Piła (section)

====Early history====
A [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] settlement of [[Lumberjack|woodcutters]] in the [[Fisherman|fishing village]] Piła may have existed before any of the later villages and surrounding towns of the area were established. Thus, in the 14th century Piła grew to some extent because of its position on the Gwda, a mere {{convert|11|km|0|abbr=off}} from where it joins the river Notec. Yet, the settlement developed less than others that were on such major water routes as the rivers [[Warta]] or Vistula. Piła's simple layout of unpaved streets and primitive clay and timber houses gave little protection to its inhabitants and was still far from becoming a commercially interesting locale. If one were to credit a Privilegium ([[charter]]) of the early 1380s as evidence, a document associated with the building of a church in Piła and ascribed to the very young Queen [[Jadwiga of Poland]]—a copied document that still existed in the archives of the town before 1834—then that period could well be regarded as the time when the village of Piła/Snydemole was elevated to the status of town. The recurring double naming Piła-Snydemole may be because two originally separate localities took their name from the water-powered sawmill that had been part of the town's raison d'être from the beginning.

Documented references to Snydemole and Piła are reportedly found in parish church sources of 1449, where there is mention of a sawmill and of the name of the current [[wojewoda]] (governor) Paul. Evidence also exists of a letter from 1456 by the [[Margraviate of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]] [[Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg|Friedrich II Hohenzollern]] who had bought the Neumark region from the [[Teutonic Order]] in 1455. The letter is addressed to bishop Andrzej of Poznań and to Łukasz Górka, the local [[Starosta]], the royal constable of [[Wielkopolska]]. The elector complained that in prevailing peace times some burghers of Snydemole and Piła were making raids on his lands. This accusation may tend to give additional credence to the earlier claim that Queen Jadwiga in the 1380s was indeed the founder of the town of Piła.