Viritium, a Germanic city in the 2nd century as shown on the map of Greek geographer Ptolemy, existed at the site of present-day Człopa.

Człopa is an ancient town that was part of Poland since the 12th Century, guarding its northern and western borders after the loss of the areas located more north and west.

By the end of the 13th century, the Czarnkowski family of the Nałęcz szlachta received possession of the region around Człopa from Przemysł II, Duke of Greater Poland.

In the early 14th-century the town was briefly occupied by the Margraviate of Brandenburg, before it was recovered by Polish King Casimir III the Great in 1368.

[6] From 1871 it was part of Germany and the post-World War II Treaty of Versailles did not restore the town, along with the northern outskirts of historic Greater Poland, to the re-established Polish Republic.