AmberPodcast Episode #15 Malbork part 1 – the history of the Teutonic Castle

What was everyday life like in the largest Gothic castle in Europe? Why did the Teutonic Knights choose Malbork as their seat? In the fifteenth episode of the AmberPodcast, we move to one of the most impressive fortresses of the Middle Ages. Together with the guide, Mrs. Katarzyna Czaykowska, we discover the beginnings of the history of the Teutonic Castle, the secrets of its construction, the daily duties of the monks and the unique architecture of the castle complex. We get to know the backstage of medieval feasts, the role of horses, amber and sand in the Teutonic state, and we find out what makes this Gothic fortress still awe-inspiring. Turn on the AmberPodcast and discover Malbork from a completely new perspective

Anna Kordecka: Welcome to the new episode of AmberPodcast. This time we move to one of the most impressive castles in Europe – the Teutonic Castle in Malbork. It is a place where history comes to life in every nook and cranny – from the mighty walls, through the medieval cloisters, to the rooms where key decisions affecting the fate of the state were made.

This is the first of two episodes devoted to this unusual fortress and the next part of the tourist series Discovering the Pomeranian Region, created in cooperation with the Pomeranian Regional Tourist Organization. Our guest, Ms. Katarzyna Czaykowska, a guide and Gothic enthusiast, will tell us about the extraordinary history of the castle, its secrets and contemporary attractions that attract tourists from all over the world.

Hello. 

Katarzyna Czaykowska: Hello. 

Anna Kordecka: It is impossible not to start talking about the castle with its history. What were the circumstances of the creation of the castle and why did the Teutonic Knights choose Malbork as their seat? 

Katarzyna Czaykowska: The Teutonic Knights, as we know, and those who don’t know, will find out, were invited to deal with the Prussians – they were such a people.

Mr. Marek Stokowski, a person who was a custodian at the castle in Malbork, in one of his statements called the Prussians Indians of northern Europe. Because they are no longer there, they have blended in. But in the past, when they were there, they went too far –  they went to Gniezno, and somewhere near Warsaw they went there. And the Teutonic Knights were invited, because if you had a problem with your neighbors in the Middle Ages, you called the Crusaders.

And such a little unemployed, perhaps a little looking for their place on earth, were the Teutonic Knights. One of the three large monastic corporations. And they came, they accepted the invitation. And since they had already settled here, they dealt with these Prussians very quickly, because it took them fifty years.

They had other weapons. Besides, as it is said, the Teutonic Knights were managers of wars, so they were able to manage both armament and military – everything. When they managed  – and I say right away, they didn’t kill those Prussians. Indeed, there were very bloody Prussian uprisings, one of the princes, as we say today, we would say Polish, princes took part in these crusades.

But these Prussians were not exterminated. We think all the time in the Sienkiewicz way. They blended into life. Like with Pharaoh’s ants –  you can’t exterminate, you have to love it. Many Prussians converted. The Teutonic Knights said: good we have people, so we need to start building a place for ourselves.

They chose Malbork. And in fact , it is not known why. Is it because it stands on such a verge of the plateau ? This upland is lowering and on the last one, I will not call it professionally, hill, on the last hill, it was decided that we would build a castle here. Not necessarily because we wanted to, but because someone had already lived there. Because it turned out that there was actually a laux there, or as we would say a settlement.

If someone lived there, so did we. Construction began. There was a navigable river,  but today the Nogat is very lazy and you don’t really know which way it flows, because it is almost stopped, but it used to swim very quickly. Therefore  , if we have a river, if we are on such a large plane, we are building. And they built Marienburg.

It is said that he was in the center of the Teutonic state. However, not entirely. It was simply a good place, because it was possible to build a canal with mills, also from the lake, because there is a lake, and you could cooperate  with this Nogat. This is how the High Castle was first created.

What we know today as the High Castle – the commander’s castle. And how do we know that he is a commander? Because it was there, of course it was built in stages, because first there were northern wings, then there were eastern, then southern and western wings, but all in all it was closed in a quadrangle – something like in the castle in Gniew. And then you know, when we drive around the former state of the Teutonic Order and see such brick castles in a quadrangle – this is where the Commander lived. Not some prosecutor or mayor, because they had locks not in a quadrangle, but, for example, two or three wings.

If we already have a castle,  then we need to do something with this land, because we have Żuławy. Settlers began to be brought in. Settlers from everywhere, from the German states, from Mazovia.

The Prussians were also great scouts and they managed to be crammed somewhere in the villages. We build a castle and the beginning of the fourteenth century comes. For Gdańsk it is such a symptomatic time, because it is said that  the Teutonic Knights took over Gdańsk. Because since there was a Nogat near the Vistula, the Vistula flows into the sea somewhere, then you would have to take where it flows. Amber, sand, all the fish that still lived in the Baltic Sea, and those herrings – they were real herrings. We are building it, this 1308, 1309, it is given in various ways, since we already have a castle, we expand it, because we need it. We are moving from Venice, because the Teutonic Knights were in Venice at that time.

They didn’t succeed very well there, it was too close to everything, and here it was far from everything. It was a new area that could be developed perfectly. And they started building. And they built themselves such a huge fortress on the Nogat, which made an incredible impression, because it was built at once as a center of power.

Once one of such British professors came especially to the castle. He spent nine hours in this castle, touching bricks, because bricks are the first things – we don’t have stone, so all this stone was imported from Scandinavia, I mean, from today’s point of view, from Sweden, or from Estonia, because we have bricks, we have clay.

And this professor later wrote such an excellent essay, medieval centres of power in Europe at that time, that is, in the world. And he started with Malbork, because it was the largest and very important. Today it is a tourist centre, but it was once known, for example, for the fact that it was, as we call it, the capital of the Teutonic Order.

It was an exceptional country. Once they built such a big capital for themselves, they also created a state for themselves. It was a monastic state and the only one in Europe that had no debts. So the castle in Malbork had to be powerful and that is why it was built. 

Anna Kordecka: And for how many years, if the Teutonic Knights, you mentioned , were they so great at managing wars, were they equally efficient in building?

How many years did it take them to build the castle? 

Katarzyna Czaykowska: They were also efficient in building power, because they were excellent hosts. It’s so boring, because it’s actually said that a Teutonic Knight should be a knight, clinking armor, a sword in his hand and flying around the battlefield, from behind a bush somewhere and necessarily with peacock feathers on his helmets, which is absolutely untrue, but we like it.

On the other hand, they were above all excellent organizers and hosts. It is difficult to say how many years they built, because in fact, since we know that it was the years 1270-1280, but it is not that he came, built and that’s it. We had to prepare, because we had to burn the area, we had to bring the material, make bricks.

Brick takes about 3 years to make it, because first you have to season the clay, you have to prepare it, then you have to form, dry and fire. And then check which is good and which is not. By the way, there are a lot of bricks with dog paw prints in the castle. Anyway, in the castle lapidary there is one with a child’s footprint. When they were drying, various companies ran through there.

They had to be delivered. The bricks were most likely made on the other side of the Nogat, where Kałdowo is today. People had to be hired to do it. There are different theories and there are different stories about the builders, because we actually know that there was someone who managed, there was an investor, that is, the Teutonic Order, but there was no Mr. Pieprztyński, Iksiński, who would build it.

But it is said, here again we refer to the common opinion, that the best builders were people from today’s Silesia. There are many analogies to these Silesian buildings. Will architectural historians discover that someone else was building? I don’t know, maybe they’ll find something. In any case, what we think was most likely built, that is, historians tell us that after the Great War, i.e. the years 1409-1411, the Teutonic Knights ceased to prosper.

That is, they had to pay contributions, they had to ransom prisoners, it was different. Prosperity, the best time for the Teutonic Knights, was the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, then they really built, and there was such a great master, my personally very favourite, he reigned for 30 years and died naturally, Winrich von Kniprode.

In the courtyard of the Middle Castle there is one of these four great masters. He holds gloves in one hand and has a bag of money at his belt, because he was the first to reform the monetary system in the Teutonic state, he was an exceptional figure. So those were the best times and then most of the buildings were built. So the High Castle has been modernized, as they say, the Middle Castle has been built and what we call the outer bailey, that is, the whole entourage through which we go to the gate so that they can scan our ticket when we enter the Middle Castle.

In all probability, later the Teutonic Knights did not have enough money or importance to continue building the city. What was done until the end of the Great War was the maximum, it is said that until 1414-1415. It is these Plauen embankments, where there is a battle every year, that means the siege of Malbork. And so it continued.

The area of the castle was 21 hectares. It was indeed almost six times larger than Wawel, for example. So it was really a huge center of power, making an incredible impression, because when you drive through Żuławy, it’s flat, flat, flat, nothing, and then suddenly the castle in Malbork shoots you up. It really probably caused them to almost go in on their knees.

Anna Kordecka: From what you say, a lot of historical events had an impact on what this castle looks like. Did we have a castle there in addition to the aforementioned Middle Castle… 

Katarzyna Czaykowska: High, medium and outer bailey, that is, the utility part, where the Karwan conference centre is located today, because Karwan was such a huge, we sometimes call it, garage, but it was not a garage-garage, but it was a place to store heavy vehicles, repair wheels, a utility place.

There was a bakery and, of course, a brewery, because it had to be. There was a stable there, history says, and a historical rumor, which, if you repeat this rumor for some hundred years, it becomes history, that there was a stable for about 400 horses. So we can imagine that so many guests could enter the castle there, if they were invited, of course.

And there were farm buildings, a mill, because it was known that it was an outer bailey and there was a very important temple, chapel, others say the church of St. Lawrence with relics. Because it was a country of the Teutonic Order, they were hosts, they were investors, they were managers of wars, they managed the state, but all the time they were knights-monks, so these relics raised the prestige of the capital.

Anna Kordecka: Okay, and if, since we already know what a castle looks like, if we wanted to feel like the Teutonic Knights, what would our everyday life look like? 

Katarzyna Czaykowska: Our everyday life would look like this: first of all, we would have to know the prayers, the main ones , certainly the prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, because she is the patron of the Order.

I am only reminding you that the order exists to this day, although in a completely different form. They are no longer knights, but this is an order. They have their headquarters in Vienna. If someone is in Vienna, it is worth visiting them. However, it is necessary to know these prayers. If someone had a problem with learning, they had to, as the slang goes, go to the grand master and ask for a postponement.

They were there for a few months, but they were people of action, so they didn’t have much time. They weren’t literate, so that was a problem too. Besides, you had to know the rule, and if you didn’t know the rule, it was bad, because you had to ask someone to explain the rule. It is not too thick compared to the rule of the Benedictine Order.

Such a very thin rule, because this is a rule  of practitioners, not theoreticians. Anyway, they had vicars to pray, someone had to do it. You had to participate in liturgical hours, that is, what we reduce to such a statement that you had to fly to pray every three hours.

In fact, medieval people lived like that, so it was not a phenomenon, it is only us who have a problem today when the alarm clock rings. Whereas they really lived according to liturgical hours. Of course, there was food – they ate twice a day. There were a lot of activities. When you watch movies, these knights are so beautiful and so beautifully dressed.

Some even carried such boxes with perfumes. But they were all very busy. Everyone had their own task to do. There were those who took care of them, of course the armoury, because the armoury was very important, especially since they did not own these weapons. So she had to be taken care of so well that she could simply be taken out of the arsenal just in case.

They managed practically everything, starting from collecting sand, which was extremely important, because sand was used to make hourglasses – everything was exported, through monopolizing the amber trade, because today we can wear various rings and pendants, and in the past it was forbidden, you had to have a special privilege to go to the beach and this amber was usually processed into rosaries. Because it was the most important thing and it was also exported. But also supervision over all breeding, because Teutonic horses were extremely important. There were various horses, post horses, but there was also a prototype of a tank, that is, a horse on which such a Teutonic Knight in armor could actually sit. And there had to be someone who managed it.

They were also extremely busy people, they were not such beautiful gentlemen who sat and only ate and drank there. Of course, they ate and drank, but only on special occasions, when, for example, there were some official visits, and there were a lot of them, because it was the capital, it was the main house. 

Anna Kordecka: Exactly, since we are talking about eating and drinking, if they have already met at such great celebrations, what did they eat and drink?

Katarzyna Czaykowska: They imported wines, and various wines, and there were cellars, and there is a cellar in the castle. Privately speaking, as a child I was convinced that when I grew up, I would be able to drink this wine, but no. In Gdańsk, for example, 18 types of beer were brewed and some of this beer went to the grandmaster’s table, because Gdańsk was a contour.

As I mentioned, wines were imported – different wines, because different wines are drunk to this day, maybe there were not as many of them as today, but there was certainly a choice, because the right groups from different kingdoms had to be accepted in different ways. What they introduced, actually, was probably a novelty, because  the Teutonic Knights used sugar, for example, to sweeten some dishes.

What we complain about today is that sugar is everywhere, there was sugar for desserts, and sugar was sold, i.e. imported in “heads”. I don’t know to what extent this information is verified, but it is extremely popular when it comes to novels about how they managed money and how much money they had, that a sugar head cost as much as its weight.

You know, when someone walks around the castle in Malbork and ends up in the kitchen of the convent at the High Castle, there is a head of salt and there is sugar there too, so you can compare. What was it used for? Just like I said, for example to sweeten the so-called desserts. At the same time, apples, because they are very juicy, were used to rinse some medicines down.

A lot of meat was eaten. We would say today that the diet was quite heavy, there were various sauces, like hot-sour -sweet, but certainly not bland. In general, the Middle Ages were not bland under any circumstances. There were many different pâtés, and birds were also eaten . Because there was a lot of game in the forests, and the forests were not so far away, because it was enough to cross the Vistula and, for example, a town called Grabiny Zameczek in Żuławy, there were forests there.

Hunting was carried out there, so everything that moved and did not run away to the tree was hunted. A lot of fruit was eaten, but there are stories about what we call them, fairy tales of moss and ferns, that strawberries were eaten. This is not true, because there were no strawberries, but there were wild strawberries and various berries. There were so-called exotic fruits, so these lemons and oranges really appeared, and rice was such a delicacy and it was served spicy, but also sweet, so the feasts were really sumptuous.

Gold leaf was also used, and this is not a novelty, because  the Teutonic Knights did not invent it, but, as they say, parroted it, because it was already used once, so why not? Since it was, I still use this name, the capital, because it was indeed a powerful center of power, why not? Besides, if you wanted to be a war manager, our saying pawn yourself and bet yourself did not come out of nowhere.

Anna Kordecka: It sounds very exquisite, you would like to participate in such a supper. Okay, but since we already know what the castle looked like and what it looks like, what the life of the Teutonic Knights looked like and what they ate and drank, is it true that the Teutonic Castle is the largest Gothic building in Europe? 

Katarzyna Czaykowska: Yes. We call it the largest pile of bricks north of the Alps.

Indeed, it is the largest Gothic building, a castle in fact. Some people are outraged because they say, but how come, it is largely rebuilt? Let’s put it differently – the largest Gothic defensive complex, but not only defensive, because it was also a residence, it was a center not only of power, but also of culture, and of medieval art. Definitely yes.

Today it is no longer 21 hectares, maybe 17 hectares, 17.5, but it still makes an incredible impression, despite everything he experienced and how he survived. 

Anna Kordecka: And do you know how many bricks it  was built of? 

Katarzyna Czaykowska: That’s a great question. I have always suggested that we just count, because the Chełmno foot, if someone has a shoe number of 40-41, is more or less the length of a brick. Sometimes they were longer, sometimes they were shorter, but you can count.

However, I heard different versions. I’ve heard that from 35 million to about 48-50 million bricks. Taking into account that the foundations were certainly piles, there were certainly huge stones, the foundation stones that were imported. Because even though Żuławy is also a post-glacial landscape in a sense, we don’t have such big stones to build anything on them.

In the so-called meantime, to put it ugly, bricks were already going into these foundations, so then everything came up, outside. One of the walls, the so-called zero wall in the Palace of the Grand Masters, is over five to six meters thick, because it is known that this castle must have stood somehow.

If we count these bricks, it is almost 30 out of 15 out of 9.5. You can forget the dates of birth of children and grandchildren, but you have to remember the brick size. So we can count how many bricks there are. Actually, any number, because we probably won’t be able to count it at the moment.

Anna Kordecka: What is so special about the architecture of the castle, apart from its size, of course? As you have already confirmed, it is the largest brick castle in the world. 

Katarzyna Czaykowska: First of all,  it is a complex of castles, a castle complex, it will sound better and correct this way, because this is how we should talk about it, because we have a high castle, a medium castle, we have an outer bailey, and actually when we enter this complex, we start reading this story “We, the Teutonic Knights” from the back, from the last page, that is, we enter through this last stage of construction. Only then do we calmly  reach the first page, i.e. the High Castle.

It is unique that we have… I’m not mentioning all those columns, all those medieval bricks, these extremely interesting symbols, because it’s such a big book. Someone once very wisely said that the castle in Malbork, this castle complex, is one big book that cannot be read. However, what is impressive and what can actually be seen from a distance is the tower.

On the occasion of Christmas, the Polish flag flies on the tower and it looks so dignified. It was rebuilt after World War II and in fact everyone should climb this tower, because the view from there is stunning and only gives the impression of the power of the order. So, what is it about a castle? Actually, it should tell us – everything.

Anna Kordecka: Thank you very much to Katarzyna Czaykowska, who told us about the beginnings of the history of the Teutonic Castle and the everyday life of the Teutonic Knights.

In the next part of our conversation, we will learn about its further fate: we will find out what events influenced its appearance and what treasures are hidden inside. We will discover works of amber art, as well as other attractions that await tourists in Malbork.

I invite you to listen to the next episode and hear from you!