A first fortified settlement at the site…

A first fortified settlement at the site of Santok, or Zantoch, had been founded in the late seventh century.

An important base and crossing point over the Warta near its junction with the Noteć, Santok is mentioned in the twelfth century as "barbican and key" (Latin: clavem et terris custodiam) to the Polish kingdom at the border with the Duchy of Pomerania in the Gesta principum Polonorum chronicle by Gallus Anonymus.

Reestablished by Duke Boleslaw I Chrobry in the days of the Piast dynasty, Santok has become an important border fortress of Greater Poland and seat of a castellany.

An attack by Duke Barnim I of Pomerania in 1251 had been repelled, but the strategically important hill fort has become the object of claims raised by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg, who intend to enlarge their territories in the Neumark region east of the Oder river.

Upon the marriage of Margrave Conrad of Brandenburg-Stendal with Constance, daughter of the deceased Duke Przemysl I of Greater Poland, in 1260, Santok passes to the margraviate as part of her dowry.