Stamp piston

Grabowo, which currently is one of the districts of Szczecin, initially was merely a settlement growing around the Carthusian monastery founded in 1360 and secularised in 1538. In mid-16th century, the monastery was rebuilt and transformed by Barnim IX (1501-1573) into a ducal residence of Oderburg. The castle, supported by Grabowo, is mentioned in the diary of Filip Hainhofer (1578-1647) an art dealer and collector from Augsburg, associated with the court of the Duke of Szczecin Philip II (1573-1618). After the Thirty Years' War the Oderburg fell into disrepair, and the ruins were demolished in the second half of the 17th century. In 1855 Grabowo, which grew thanks to its shipbuilding industry, was granted city rights and functioned as an independent city until 1900. In 1856, the city had its coat of arms designed, based on which the municipal seal was made – it depicted a griffin pierced by a spire of the tower finial, the so-called wind vane. The coat of arms is an allusion to Oderburg, the former ducal castle. The contemporary graphics depicting the building show castle towers with weather vanes in the form of griffin, the family coat of arms of the dynasty of the Pomeranian dukes. Initially the city authorities wanted to include the entire Oderburg in the coat of arms, but the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1795-1861) decided that including the weather vane would be the most appropriate. After being transformed into a district of Szczecin, Grabowo lost its city rights, and the seal was no longer needed. Made out of gilded bronze, the seal was attached to a turned, brown, lacquered wooden handle.

Mieszko Pawłowski