Czaplinek [t͡ʂaˈplʲinɛk] (German: Tempelburg; Kashubian: Czôplënkò) is a town in Drawsko County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, with 7,012 inhabitants as of December 2021.

[4] The area was initially inhabited by the Goths in the ancient times,[5] followed by the West Slavs, whose settlements called gords were most likely burned down by Duke Bolesław III the Wrymouth, thus incorporating Pomerania into the Polish state.

During World War II, the Germans established a labor camp for Soviet POWs and prisoners in Czaplinek.

In the final stages of the war, on March 3, 1945, the Battle of Czaplinek took place, in which the First Polish Army defeated the forces of Nazi Germany and captured the town.

The remaining pre-war Polish inhabitants of the town, were joined by various other groups of Poles, the first of which were the just freed forced laborers and prisoners of war.

Already in 1945, restaurants, cafes, shops, bakeries, butcheries, a brewery, a pharmacy, a carbonated water plant and a dairy cooperative were founded.

[12] In 2005, a monument of Pope John Paul II was unveiled in Czaplinek on the 50th anniversary of his visit to the town as a young priest.

Other points of interest include the reconstructed early medieval Slavic stronghold Sławogród and the Gothic Holy Trinity church, which is the oldest preserved brick building of Czaplinek.