Malbork Castle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malbork Castle (German: Ordensburg Marienburg) was built by the Teutonic Order as Ordensburg and named Marienburg (literally "Mary's Castle"). The city which grew around it was also named Marienburg, now called Malbork.
It is a classic example of a medieval fortress; it is the world’s largest brick castle and one of the most impressive of its kind in Europe. The castle and its museum are listed as UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.
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[edit] History
[edit] Foundation
In the early 13th century the Teutonic Knights launched its first crusades to the territories around the central stretch of the river Nogat in order to convert the local Prussian inhabitants to Christianity.
At the beginning of the 1280s the Teutonic Knights started building a castle here () which they referred to as Marienburg (St. Mary's Stronghold). In just under 30 years they raised a quadrangular convent building complete with chapel, chapter house, dormitory, refectory, an enclosed courtyard and a bailey situated to the north. A long, high gallery was built leading from the south-west corner to the Danske or sewage-tower, which was also used for defence purposes.
On September 14, 1309 Grand Master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen moved the Teutonic Order's headquarters to Marienburg. As the seat of the Teutonic Hochmeister, the castle rose in rank to become capital of one of the most powerful states on the southern Baltic coast. It quickly became clear that the building was inadequately equipped for its new role.
Its subsequent redevelopment lasted nearly 40 years and transformed the convent into a heavily defended fortress known as the "High Castle" (Hochschloß). Surrounded by deep moats and several circuits of curtain walls, it included a number of noteworthy features. Among these was the Church of Our Lady which had been enlarged by the addition of a new presbytery and the St. Anne's Chapel, a burial place of the grand masters. The former bailey was also adapted, becoming a large and serviceable residential quarters known as the "Middle Castle" (Mittelschloß) - a complex where visiting knights from western Europe could stay.
As well as residential rooms, the Middle Castle also included the Great Refectory (the largest room in the castle) with its beautiful fan vaulting, the Infirmary, where the sick and elderly members of the Order were cared for, and the Grand Masters' Palace.
During the 14th and early 15th century a third element was added to the defence - the "Low Castle" (Unterschloss), now usually referred to as the Outer Bailey. It was here that the Karwan was raised - a large armoury where cannon and military vehicles were stored. The Outer Bailey also had a riverside granary and a series of service buildings, including a bell foundry, stables and a brewery. Next to one of these buildings stood St. Lawrence's Chapel, which was set aside for the use of the castle's servants. The whole complex was surrounded by moats and curtain walls with numerous towers. These walls joined on to the fortifications of the town of Marienburg/Malbork, which lay to the south.
[edit] Thirteen Year' War
During the Thirteen Years' War, the Hochmeister Ludwig von Erlichshausen had to hand it over to his mercenaries in lieu of pay, as the order was short on cash. They sold it to the Polish king who seized the castle in June 1457. The running of the castle was taken over by a royal sub-prefect. Numerous inventories drawn up by court officials in the 16th and 17th centuries show how the function of various parts of the castle complex changed over the years. The High Castle ceased to be a convent and became instead the fortress's service area. Pitch, salt, beer, hops and other foodstuffs were stored here. The Middle Castle provided living quarters for the court's army and administrative officials. The Outer Bailey was adapted for strictly military purposes. Canon, ammunition and firearms were housed in the Karwan, whilst the towers and bastions were used for storing barrels of gunpowder and saltpetre.
[edit] Royal Prussia
The castle became part of the Polish province of Royal Prussia in 1466. The castle complex which had been built and developed by the Teutonic Knights retained its original use under Polish rule. Enormous costs were, however, involved in the maintenance of this vast fortification and essential funds for this purpose were always lacking. Evidence of this can be found in the aforementioned inventories. One of the very first (dating from 1565) records the appearance of a crack in the north wall of the Great Refectory. This defect marked the beginning of a problem which was only recently fully resolved.
A new roof on the church was built in 1647. The repair of the others took a long time. This lead to the collapsing of the vaults in the southern wing and in the Chapter House in 1675. It was not until the mid 18th century that new roofs were laid on the Main Castle and that the tower was crowned with a helmet with a lamp, all thanks to the initiative of king August II the Strong.
At the beginning of the 17th century a number of rooms in the Grand Masters' Palace were transformed into royal apartments. The main body of the fortress did not suffer any major destruction as a result of the Swedish Wars. Serious damage was, however, caused when the roof of the High Castle was accidentally set fire to in May 1664. The medieval covered galleries were destroyed in the blaze. They were soon replaced, though in a very different, Baroque style.
In the years 1756-67 a large Jesuit college was raised on the former site of the Priest's Tower, situated between the Church of Our Lady and the Middle Castle. From 1652 to1772 the castle church was cared for by the Jesuit order. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries construction work on the Middle Castle was limited to essential repairs carried out on rooms in constant use in the north and east wings.
[edit] Deconstruction
In September 1772 Malbork was captured by Prussian troops during the First Partion of Poland. They took up residence in the High Castle within the barracks which had been set up there by a Polish infantry regiment in 1737-44. However, this accommodation proved too small and before long work on extending it began. The cloisters were bricked up and a gate leading out towards the town was added to the south wing. The Great Refectory in the Middle Castle was converted into an arena for equestrian drill: the main entrance was enlarged, the tiled floor dismantled and some of the windows bricked up. During the 1780s a cotton spinning workshop was installed in the Grand Masters' Palace as were living quarters for riverboat captains.
This period marked the beginning of nearly twenty years of building and deconstruction work at the castle. This work continued despite the fact that in 1799 an album showing various views of Malbork was published. It was compiled by three Friedrichs: F. Gill (illustrations), F. Frick (engravings) and F. Rabe (maps), the historical introduction to this volume having been written by Konrad Levezow. The book's authors wanted to make the general public aware of the beauty of the historic castle and persuade the relevant authorities to put an end to its being demolished. Despite these efforts, in the very same year a decree came from King Frederick William III recommending that the High Castle be turned into military stores. Work started in 1801 dramatically changed the outside appearance of the fortress. All of the medieval windows (except those of the church) were bricked up and new ones put in, their positions dictated by new interior divisions. The exterior elevations were rendered and the entire building received a new, low roof. The remains of any medieval vaulting and interior walls were dismantled and replaced with wooden ceilings. The Middle Castle was subjected to similar treatment, the east wing being converted into a granary, which required the demolition of St. Bartholomew's Chapel, as it stood on this.
A breakthrough for the castle at that time was the article written by Max von Schenkendorf, a royal student, which was published in a Berlin newspaper in 1803. The author, a young romantic poet, strongly protested against the destruction of the medieval monument. In consequence to this appeal, a new cabinet order was prepared, which halted the further destruction of the castle.
[edit] Reconstruction
Plans to rebuild the castle began to be drawn up immediately after the retreat of Napoleonic troops from the town of Marienburg. One of these projects was drafted in 1815 by the president of West Prussia, Theodor von Schön (1773-1856), who received official orders from the state chancellor, Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, instructing him to start the rebuilding program. In 1816 a Reconstruction Committee was formed, named "Schloßbauverwaltung Marienburg". The work started one year later, from the partial reconstruction of the eastern elevation, during which a 17th century flight of stairs was demolished, and St. Catherine's chapel was reconstructed. In the years 1819-1850 August Gersdorff, an architect, was the chief of the reconstruction crew., With the help of such persons as the famous painter and architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the historian Johannes Voigt and a pastor and expert on the Teutonic Knights from Marienburg Ludwig Häbler, he conducted the reconstruction of the western part of the Middle Castle.
After removing remains of the looms, new ceramic floors were laid and doors were mounted. New stained glass windows portraying scenes from the times of the Teutonic Order were mounted in the Summer and Winter Refectory. The eastern windows in the Great Refectory were unblocked, and new floors were laid. The reconstruction of the High Castle was confined to the rebuilding of the roofs and to the construction of the main tower's neo-gothic capital in 1842.
One move that proved very controversial to the historians at that time was the building of the new summit on the Medium Castle. According to Gersdorff, the decoration was to be a counterpart of the medieval Infirmary summit. The criticism mentioned concerned not only the most recent activities, but also those from the first half of the century. As early as 1849-50, Alexander Ferdinand von Quast, the first conservator of the Prussian monument, had negative opinions on this matter. He became the chief of the reconstruction work and kept his position till 1876. Thanks to his initiative, the collapsing western wall of the Great Refectory was secured by steel anchors, and the mosaic on the eastern elevation of the castle church depicting Mary with the Child was restored. The latter was executed by specialists from Venice (five centuries earlier, artists from this town composed the original mosaic!).
The castle was examined by a secret building advisor Hermann Blankenstein. His work, combined with the celebrations of the anniversary of Western Prussia's return to the Prussian Kingdom which were held in Marienburg in September 1872 ignited a new wave of interest in the former capital of the Teutonic Order from historians all over Germany.
In 1881, thanks to the active attitude of the parliamentarians from Western and Eastern Prussia, the government decided to initiate the reconstruction of the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the High Castle. A year later, the minister of religious beliefs summoned a commission, which was to control the actions of the Castle Reconstruction Management. Unanimously, it put Conrad Emmanuel Steinbrecht in charge of the work, a young and talented architect (1849-1923). He later turned out to be one of the most important people in the modern annals of Marienburg. He had archaeological experience from Greece (1877) and lead studies on the architecture of the Empire of the Order, which resulted in publishing an interesting monograph "Thorn im Mittelalter" (1881). The methods of his work can be summed up in the following points:
- precise evaluation of the present state of behaviour, - archaeological studies - scientific travels - archive studies - restoration of old building methods
His main motto was "no step shall be taken if it is not in the historical spirit". A fine example of how he applied this theory was the rebuilding of the Chapter House's vault. Thanks to extremely detailed studies and inventories, the medieval details found in the rubble were placed in their exact original position in the interior of the hall.
The conservatory works, lead in a grand style, were financed mainly from the state budget of Prussia. The Imperial family also became interested in the castle's rebuilding. Emperor Wilhelm II visited it more than thirty times during his reign. The financial support also came from the Society of Reconstructing and Beautifying Marienburg. This society was formed on the 3rd of March from the initiative of a few high Prussian officials, among them the President of Eastern and Western Prussia and the mayor of Danzig (Gdansk). It's roots reach back to 1872, when, during the ceremonies mentioned above, the Committee of the Rebuilding of the High Castle was brought to life.
The Society had a honorary protectorate from the Emperor. The first paragraph of the statute read: "The Society was formed to gather financial means for the proper reconstruction of the Marienburg Castle and to spend these means in accordance with the government" represented by the Castle Reconstruction Management. The money came mainly from lotteries, organised from 1886. The idea of this method of financing was born in 1881 and was based on the lotteries from which the cathedral in Köln was reconstructed. The funds gathered by the Society enabled the conservation of the old murals and the painting of new ones, and also covered the costs of purchasing military objects, books, paintings and architectural details.
By 1900 the most fundamental stages of work to the High Castle had been completed. A number of the main interiors had been rebuilt: the Church of Our Lady, St. Anne's Chapel, the chapter house, kitchens, dining room and the convent common room. Work on the Middle Castle continued until 1918 and resulted in the reconstruction of the east wing (including St. Bartholomew's Chapel, the Master's Chamber and the Infirmary) and the west wing together with the Great Refectory. Only the interiors of the Grand Masters' Palace were left in their early 19th-century form.
[edit] Interwar years
After the First World War a plebiscite was held in the Marienwerder area under Aliied supervision to determine weather the inhabitants wanted to belong to the newly founded Polish republic or to Germany. Ninety-two percent of the inhabitants voted in favour of Germany. The Polish corridor was given to Poland and Danzig became the "Free City of Danzig", an independent quasi-state under the auspices of the League of Nations, without giving the inhabitants of these two areas a choice on the ballot.
Towards the end of June 1922 during the interwar period, after forty years' work at Malbork Castle, Conrad Steinbrecht finally retired. His successor was the master builder Bernhard Schmid who was also officially responsible for the care and protection of Eastern Prussia's historical monuments. It was under his supervision that the castle took on its final shape.
The reconstruction of St. Catherine's Chapel was already completed by 1922. Four years later the walls and towers in Plauena were rebuilt, and in 1931 the work on the New Gate, also called Hindenburgtor was finished.
Having been rebuilt and equipped with some items of Neogothic furniture the castle was opened to visitors as a museum of interiors, showing the workings and day-to-day life of a medieval monastery. A number of furnished rooms were used to help illustrate this, among them the Church of Our Lady, the chapter house, chambers in the west wing of the High Castle, the kitchens and the Great Refectory.
This form of exploiting the gothic monument brought common praise from the society. The citizens of Marienburg were proud to posses the only fully reconstructed and richly equipped castle - monastery on the terrain of Prussia. It attracted tourists not only from Eastern Prussia, but also from the depths of Germany.
Among the most valuable collections are the military objects, most of which were purchased in 1896 from a well known collector from East Prussia, Theodore von Blell. The specimens dated from the times of the Roman Empire to the end of the 19th century and included Celtic and East Asian weapons. Another collection were the coins gathered and forwarded to the Castle by the councillor Jaquet, counting more than 10 thousand pieces. Among the many fine examples of gothic sculpture, three altars can be destinguished – the Graudenz polyptych from 1370 – 80, the Hamburg altar from 1499 and the Teknit altar from 1504. Several valuable documents were preserved in the archive in the Klesza Tower, among them the Royal Polish privileges for the town, stamp acts etc. The archaeological collection was very imposing. Their main attribute were the architectural details from the Teutonic Order lands. Interesting elements of this collection were the decorative, glazed roof tiles from the Imperial palace in Peking and a few bricks from the Chinese wall. A type of regional room, the so called "Heimatmuseum" was organised in one of the restored buildings on the castle, in which specimens of regional culture of the people from Marienburg and the Low Grounds were displayed.
[edit] World War II
The political situation in Germany during the 1930s also affected everyday life at the castle. On 1 May 1933 the flag of the Third Reich was hoisted above the principal tower. The fortress became a frequent venue for receptions attended by high ranking Nazi party officials. Events such as these led to plans being drafted in 1934 for an amphitheatre to be built on the east side of the castle. Luckily, this idea was never put into effect. On 1 September 1939 in the Great Refectory Gauleiter Forster officially announced the return to Germany of territories lying on the left bank of the Lower Vistula, and with this the reinstatement of the province of West Prussia within its former boundaries, but renamed Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreussen.
In May 1940 the same room was used to stage a 'welcoming' for the Banderia Prutenorum - replicas of the Teutonic flags taken from Wawel Castle in Cracow. During the Second World War the refectory bore witness to swearing-in ceremonies for youths entering the Hitler Youth and soldiers setting out for the eastern front. In 1941 preparations began to be made in order to protect Marienburg castle from air-raids. These measures included the making of a plaster-cast of the Madonna from the Church of Our Lady and the dismantling of all the stained glass windows in the church.
Both the town and castle suffered severe damage in 1945. Heavy fighting between the "Marienburg" Task Force and units from the 2nd Russian Strike Force resulted in the destruction of nearly eighty percent of the Old Town's buildings. Serious losses were also noted in the east section of the castle complex. These included the presbytery of the Church of Our Lady with its gigantic mosaic statue of the Virgin and Child, the principal tower, the east wing of the Middle Castle and the buildings situated in the outer bailey. On 8 March 1945 German forces blew up the bridges over the River Nogat as they made their retreat.
[edit] Post-1945
Communist Polish civilian administration had already been put in place by the Soviet Union in what was now called Malbork in April 1945, the last organised departure of any remaining Germans taking place in 1957. The late 1940s marked a period of systematic demolition of what was left of buildings in the Old Town. This scheduled work meant that by the beginning of the 1950s the only structures left standing in the Old Town were the medieval parish church, the town hall, two town gates and a few sections of the town walls. The drab "People's Republic of Poland Twentieth Anniversary Housing Estate" was raised here in 1962-68.
In June 1957 the Public Committee for Castle Reconstruction and 500th Anniversary Celebrations of the 'Liberation of Malbork' unveiled a plaque on the gate of the Middle Castle commemorating the event in question, whilst on the ground floor of the castle's east wing a tourist inn - The Halberd - was opened. The inn was designed to meet the needs of visitors, who began to arrive at the castle in ever increasing numbers. They were shown around by members of the PTTK association of tour guides, founded in 1954.
It was hoped that the anniversary celebrations would draw public attention to the fortress which had lain in ruins since the war, and of which only a part had been safeguarded against further deterioration. The devastation which it had undergone was further exasperated by looters, whose actions the castle's curators and owners were unable to curb. From 7 August 1945 it was owned by the Polish Army Museum, whose directors decided to remove some of the castle's most valuable items to Warsaw. On November 30, 1950 ownership of the castle complex, which had already for a year been officially recognised as a historic monument of the highest national grade, was transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Art. The ministry entrusted the everyday care of this ruined fortress to the General Management of PTTK (1951), who in turn passed on responsibility for the castle's administration to the Institute of Tourist Services in Sopot.
[edit] Museum
Malbork Castle Museum was founded on January 1, 1961. The decision to create this museum was accelerated by a serious fire which had broken out on September 7, 1959 on the roofs of the west and north wings of the "Middle Castle" (Mittelschloß). July 3, 1965 saw the opening of an amber exhibition in the partially rebuilt east wing. This exhibition became one of the castle's main visitor attractions. The "Light and Sound" performances held here since 1980 have also proved very popular with the public.
In December 1997 the castle complex was included on UNESCO's world heritage site register.
[edit] External links
Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Białowieża Forest (with Belarus) | Castle of the Teutonic Order, Malbork | Centennial Hall, Wrocław | Churches of Peace in Jawor and Świdnica | Kraków's Historic Centre | Kalwaria Zebrzydowska | Park Mużakowski (with Germany) | Medieval Town of Toruń | Warsaw Old Town | Wieliczka Salt Mine | Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland | Zamość
