During the Early Middle Ages, the Pomeranian tribes established a settlement at the site of modern-day Budzistowo. Thietmar of Merseburg first mentioned the site as "Salsa Cholbergiensis". Around the year 1000, when the city was part of Poland, it became seat of the Diocese of Kołobrzeg, one of five oldest Polish dioceses. During the High Middle Ages, the town was expanded with an additional settlement inhabited by German settlers a few kilometers north of the stronghold and chartered with Lübeck law, which settlement eventually superseded the original Pomeranian settlement. The city later joined the Hanseatic League. Within the Duchy of Pomerania, the town was the urban center of the secular reign of the prince-bishops of Cammin and their residence throughout the High and Late Middle Ages. When it was part of Brandenburgian Pomerania during the Early Modern Age, it withstood Polish and Napoleon's troops in the siege of Kolberg. From 1815, it was part of the Prussian province of Pomerania.