Lebus is situated in the southeast of Märkisch-Oderland District, on a ridge at the left bank of the middle Oder river, which since the implementation of the Oder–Neisse line in 1945 marks the eastern German border with Poland.

The settlement itself was mentioned as a town Liubusua and Libusua urbs in the annals of Thietmari merseburgiensis episcopi chronicon written in the years 1012 - 1018 (under the rule of Bolesław) by the Saxon bishop and chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg.

Duke Bolesław allied with Emperor Otto III to fight against the Polabian Lutici tribes, sealed in the 1000 Congress of Gniezno.

[4] The Diocese of Lebus was founded in 1124-25 AD, during the reign of the Polish duke Bolesław III Wrymouth to counter and convert the resistant tribes of the Liutizi federation.

Dedicated to Saint Adalbert of Prague, it served as an important centre for Christian missionaries preaching in and developing the Oder region.

The Brandenburg margraves eventually took over control and during the Late Middle Ages, Lebus served as an important stop on trade routes from the Baltic coast to Italy and from the Greater Polish residence in Poznań to Flanders.

However, after the destruction of the town's cathedral by troops of Emperor Charles IV in 1373, during the struggle between the Imperial Houses of Wittelsbach and Luxembourg Luxemburg over the Brandenburg heritage, the seat of the bishopric was moved from Lebus to Fürstenwalde.

The populace became Lutheran during the Protestant Reformation, and the bishopric was finally secularized in 1555 following the death of the last Catholic bishop, Georg von Blumenthal.

During the last stage of World War II, Lebus, including its medieval center, was almost completely destroyed in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.