history of Malbork

source wikipedia


The castle was founded in 1274 by the Teutonic Order during its rule of Prussia. It is located on the southeastern bank of the river Nogat. It was named Marienburg after theVirgin Mary, patron saint of the Order.

The Order had been based in Acre (present-day Israel). When this last stronghold of the western Crusades fell to Muslim Arabs, the Order moved its headquarters to Venice. In 1309, in the wake of the papal persecution of the Knights Templar and the Teutonic takeover of Danzig,Siegfried von Feuchtwangen led the Order to relocate its headquarters into the Prussian part of its monastic state. They chose the site of Marienburg, conveniently located on the Nogat in the Vistula Delta. As with most cities of the time, it was based on water for transportation.

The castle was expanded several times to house the growing number of Knights. It became what some claim is the largest fortified Gothic building in Europe. It has several subdivisions and numerous layers of defensive walls. It consists of three separate castles - the High, Middle and Lower Castles, separated by multiple dry moats and towers. The castle once housed approximately 3,000 "brothers in arms". The outermost castle walls enclose 52 acres (21 ha), four times the acreage of the enclosed space of Windsor Castle. The developed part of the property designated as a World Heritage Site is 18.0380 ha.

The favourable position of the castle on the river Nogat allowed for easy access by barges and trading ships arriving from the Vistula and theBaltic Sea. During their governance, the Teutonic Knights collected river tolls from passing ships, as did other castles along the rivers. They controlled a monopoly on the trade of amber. When the city became a member of the Hanseatic League, many Hanseatic meetings were held at Marienburg castle.

In 1456, during the Thirteen Years' War, the Order—deserted and opposed for establishing taxes to pay high ransoms for prisoners taken by the Polish king—could not pay its mercenaries. Hochmeister Ludwig von Erlichshausen moved the seat of the Order to Königsberg. Stibor de Poniec of the Clan of Ostoja raised funds from Gdansk for a new campaign against the Order. Learning that the Order's Bohemian mercenaries had not been paid, Stibor convinced them to leave by promising them their unpaid wages. He used the money from Gdansk to pay them. Following the departure of the mercenaries, King Casimir IV Jagiellon entered the castle in triumph in 1457.In the summer of 1410, the castle was besieged following defeat by the armies of Władysław II Jagiełło andVytautas the Great (Witold) at the Battle of Grunwald. Heinrich von Plauen successfully led the defense in theSiege of Marienburg (1410), during which the city outside was razed.

Under mayor Bartholomäus Blume, the city resisted the Polish forces for three more years, but the Poles captured and hanged him in 1460. A monument to Blume was erected in 1864. In 1466 both castle and town became part of Royal Prussia. It served as one of the several Polish royal residences. During the Thirty Years' War, in 1626 and 1629 Swedish forces occupied the castle. They invaded and occupied it again 1656 to 1660 during the Northern Wars.