Malbork Castle Museum
The vast brick fortress of the Teutonic Knights on the Nogat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Malbork Castle was begun by the Teutonic Knights in the 1270s and became the seat of their Grand Master in 1309, when the order moved its headquarters from Venice. Built almost entirely of brick, it grew into three linked strongholds — the High Castle, the Middle Castle and the outer bailey — ringed by walls, moats and gates. By surface area it is the largest castle in the world. The complex passed to Poland in 1457 and served as a royal residence until the Partitions.
Nineteenth-century Prussian conservators, led from 1882 by Conrad Steinbrecht, carried out a thorough restoration that shaped the castle seen today. Heavy damage in 1945 was followed by decades of rebuilding, and UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1997. The Malbork Castle Museum, founded in 1961, presents the Grand Master's Palace, the refectories, the rebuilt St Mary's Church and collections of amber, arms and armour, architectural sculpture and ceramics.
Highlights
- The largest castle in the world measured by land area
- Grand Masters' Palace with its palm-vaulted Summer Refectory
- One of Europe's foremost collections of worked amber
- St Mary's Church and the restored Golden Gate portal
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
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![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
