On Friday morning we were ready to leave Gdańsk for a day, and travel 60 kilometers (60 min) southeast to the small town of Malbork....and there see the Malbork Castle.
This castle is the largest brick castle in the world! No wonder so many people come to see this enormous structure...walk the paths and halls and learn about its 800+ year history.
We liked seeing this map near the Malbork train station...showing us exactly where we were in Poland...just a bit southeast of Gdańsk.
Our taxi ride from the train station to the castle was a short 10 minute ride. We had no idea where the castle was...but our taxi driver did...with our limited Polish request he knew exactly where we wanted to go. We were happy!
We missed the English group tour by 30 minutes, and we didn't want to wait 2 hours for the next one....so we opted to take the audio tour. There were 50 stations for us to see and learn about. We had heard the tour could take anywhere from 2 to 8 hours...so we wanted to begin.
Even without the audio tour of the castle, this castle would be amazing to look at, walk through, and wonder how it was ever created so many centuries ago.
This enormous castle was built by the Teutonic Knights...a group of German Roman Catholic religious crusaders in the 13th century. They were given this area as a sanctuary by Polish kings....in exchange for protecting Poland from invasion by neighboring countries.
This castle was a part of Prussia at the time...and the centerpiece of what was once a ring of 120 castles surrounding the Teutonic Knights' territory.
The castle later became a fortress for Poland and a Royal Residence ....becoming a stopover point for monarchs making their journey between Gdańsk and Warsaw.
This castle changed hands numerous times in its history....over the centuries it was part of Prussia, Poland, Germany, and was even an independent state at one time.
The castle was restored in the 19th century and again after World War II. Below are actual cannon balls from centuries ago...inside one of the courtyards.
The architecture throughout the castle is quite amazing!
Here is a miniature model of the castle...it covers 52 acres...and originally home to over 3,000 knights!
This engraving above one of the doorways tells the story of the wise and foolish virgins from the New Testament.
I thought the trees growing on and up the castle wall were amazing to see...
This well is in one of the courtyards...it is quite large as you can see compared to the people in the background.
As we toured this enormous castle...we could have easily been transported back into the 14th century. There were a number of rooms displaying the Teutonic way of life, rooms displaying weapons and medieval history and even a large room displaying all kinds of amber and amber products.
We climbed up and down many stairs...and I wondered how such a large and complex building was designed and constructed hundreds of years ago?
In the 1930s with the rise of Adolf Hitler's power, the Nazis used the castle as an annual pilgrimage destination for Hitler's Youth and the League of German Girls.
In 1945 the castle was nearly destroyed...the picture below shows what it looked like after World War II.
After WWII, Malbork and the Malbork Castle became part of Poland once again.
The castle has been under reconstruction over the past 50 years, and much restoration still remains to be done. The main cathedral in the castle was restored before WWII, then destroyed in battle. It still remains in ruins.
We learned so much on this Friday afternoon....we didn't count the hours but our feet and brains were tired when the tour was complete.
We took a taxi to a restaurant we had read about that came highly recommended in one of our guidebooks. It was fun to eat outside and then we actually walked to the train station from the restaurant!
The train goes right past the castle...coming into and leaving Malbork...an almost isolated historical structure in the middle of this little part of Poland.
I think I would like to return here again one day...maybe I could remember a little more of what I learned on this Friday excursion with Mark.
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