Malbork

State of preservation:		The rebuilt castle
Admission:		It is very expensive, but worth it
Parking:		The parking lots near the castle are paid, there are, however, free parking lots on the housing development by the castle
Searching difficulty:		The boards lead to the destination
Access difficulty:		From the parking lot you must go down the walking avenues
Subjective rating:		Similarly to the Wawel, due to the mass of tourists sightseeing Malbork loses its climate, therefore it was rated at 4 stars

Driving directions:

Perhaps everyone knows where Malbork lies. If someone, however, has forgotten he/she should drive around 40 km southeastwards of Gdańsk. After arriving in the town you should head for its center where the castle is visible from a distance, and furthermore the boards lead up to it.
It is the best to enter Malbork down the road no. 22 from Tczew (that is from the west) and reach the bridge over the river Nogat. Since from that place is the best view of the castle.


Historical outline:

The former name: Marienburg

The construction of the castle in Malbork was started in 1274, thanks to a national master, Teodoryk Gatirslebe and the commander of Dzierzgoń, Hermann von Schönenberg. The works were begun with the construction of the present High Castle, and its first stage ended at the end of the XIIIth cent. So arisen conventual castle was surrounded with a ward and a moat. After transferring the residence of the Grand Master of the Order from Venice to Malbork on the 14th of the September in 1309 the second stage of the construction of the castle was started, in the middle of which the castle considerably expanded, gained new defensive and sacral buildings (among others, a new church and a cemetery). As a result of an extension the High Castle became a regular quadrilateral building, while a present Low Castle became the main production center for the whole Teutonic country. It may be admitted that the second stage of the construction ended in the middle of the XIVth cent.
In the following years continued the further construction and extension of the castle, which did not end until 1457, when it was Poland that took over the castle. Since then until the second half of the XVIIth cent. the stronghold was not modernized, and even began to be neglected, since for the maintenance of such an enormous castle it needed great amounts of money, which Poland lacked. In 1565 the crack on the wall of the Great Refectory was spotted, which was the beginning of the problem solved only in the XXth cent.
In 1644 the roof of the High Castle burnt down, which was not completely rebuilt, and e few years later the part of the buildings the Jesuits took over, who started converting them for their own needs.
The Swedish Deluge surprisingly did not bring greater destructions of the castle, but after the First Partition of Poland in 1772 the stronghold was converted into the barracks of the Prussian soldiers. It contributed to substantial devastation of the building. For instance the High Castle became the cereal storehouse, the function of which it fulfilled till 1871. Supposedly the disassembly of the entire stronghold was considered and the construction of new barracks from the materials acquired that way. In the meantime the patriotic communities began to intervene in the defense of the castle, which produced an effect in the form of a ban on the further conversion of the castle imposed by the Prussian king Frederick William III as well as the beginning of the reconstruction after 1815, which lasted till the World War II.
The war brought serious destructions of the stronghold, which was provisionally secured in the years of 1947-1950. Only the fire in 1959 and the establishment of the museum in the castle stepped up the restoration work.


Pictures:



Pictures of knights tournament which took place at this castle




Nearest castles:

Gniew