Malbork Castle

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Malbork Castle, in northern Poland on the Nogat River, was built by the Teutonic Order, a German crusading order. Called Marienburg, after Mary, the order's patron saint, it is a Brick Gothic fortress built mostly between 1274 and 1406. It covers about 21 hectares and is called the largest castle in the world by land area; it was also the world's largest brick castle when finished in 1406.

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At a glance

Country: Poland
Location: Malbork, Poland
Built: 1406
Type: Castle

Quick answers

Where is Malbork Castle?

Malbork Castle is in Malbork, Poland.

When was Malbork Castle built?

Malbork Castle was built in 1406.

Built by the Teutonic Knights, the largest brick castle in the world.

Malbork became the headquarters of the Teutonic Order in 1309. The castle once housed about 3,000 'brothers in arms'. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in 1997, and Poland also counts it as an official national Historic Monument.

Three castles in one

The complex has a High Castle, a Middle Castle and a Lower Castle, separated by dry moats and towers, with many layers of defensive walls. Its outer walls enclose about 21 hectares, roughly four times the area enclosed by Windsor Castle. The castle sat by the river, so barges and ships from the Vistula and the Baltic Sea could reach it. The knights collected river tolls and held a monopoly on the amber trade.

From Teutonic knights to Polish kings

The Order built the castle after conquering the region in order to control it. After the Order lost the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the castle withstood a siege. In 1457, during the Thirteen Years' War, unpaid Bohemian mercenaries sold it to King Casimir IV of Poland. It then served as a Polish royal residence until 1772, with a Polish mint and the largest arsenal in the Commonwealth. Swedish forces occupied it twice, in the 1620s and the 1650s.

A damaged and rebuilt giant

After the First Partition of Poland in 1772 the castle came under Prussian rule and fell into disrepair, used as barracks and a poorhouse. A Prussian architect surveyed it in 1794 to decide whether to keep or pull it down. In early 1945, fighting with the Red Army destroyed more than half of it. After the war it became part of Poland, and rebuilding has been going on since 1962.