Malbork Castle – the largest brick Gothic castle in the world | Poland

Updated: September 2, 2020 | By | More

Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork or simply Malbork Castle is the largest Gothic building in the world and the largest brick building in the world. It is located in Poland in the town of Malbork, on the southeastern bank of the river Nogat.

Malbork Castle, Poland
Malbork Castle by DerHexer

Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork is the former seat of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. The castle complex consists of three parts – Bottom castle, Middle castle and Upper castle. Teutonic Knights started to build the castle in 1274. About 2 years later the settlement that arose here during the castle construction  obtained city rights.

Between 1309-1457, the Malbork Castle was the seat of Grand Master. During the thirteen-year war (1454 – 1466) – known also as the War of the Cities, the castle was bought by the Casimir IV Jagiellon (Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440, and King of Poland from 1447 – until his death). Since then until 1772 the castle became one of the residences of Polish kings. Later on, during the wars with Sweden, Napoleonic wars and Poland splitting, the castle was damaged.

Reconstruction works began in 1817 and were completed in 1923. After that, during the World War II, the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork was occupied by the Nazis and during the fighting with the Red Army the half of the castle was destroyed.

After the war, the reconstructions started again, but have not been finished yet. Since 1997, the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork and its museum are included in UNESCO World Heritage List.

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Category: Castles and Palaces, Poland

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