Teutonic Plates

Malbork Castle (a.k.a. Marienburg, named for their patron saint the Virgin Mary) was founded in 1274 by the Teutonic Knights and became the seat of the order. It is the largest brick castle in the world. In 1457, the knights were forced to hand it over to some mercenary soliders (to pay off their indebted wages for a two year battle), who in turn sold it to King Casimir IV of Poland. When the knights tried to take the castle back, it was so well built that even they could not retake their own castle.

Marienburg is actually made up of three concentric castles. These photos are taken from outside the middle castle.

And this is only a small part of the exterior of that middle castle.

These are actually some ancillary buildings in the lower (outermost) castle.

The main gate to the middle castle.
They weren't kidding around with the gates -- strong iron gates, with openings above for pouring hot liquids on invaders.

Like all crusader castles, Marienburg was equipped to hold off an attack for two years. This meant that there were sufficient food and water stores to maintain the residents of the central castle, as well as those that lived and worked in the surrounding grounds (the lower castle). The decoration on top of this building indicates that it was used to store grain.
The ceilings and walls were painted in motifs typical of the time.
This is a council room that was supported by a single pillar. There is a story that enemies tried to attack the order by firing a cannonball at the single column in the hopes of collapsing the room, but it missed its target. The cannonball is secured in place where it hit the upper wall.
Because of the extensive damage to the castle over time, the paintings are not original, but have been recreated.
These views are taken from the courtyard inside the middle of the three castles.
Some of the tilework on the floors is amazing.
And what would a castle be without ivy?
The castle was being restored when World War 2 broke out, during which 50% of it was destroyed. After the war, the people of Poland wanted to tear it down and use the materials to fix their own buildings, seeing this as a piece of German history. But, since the king of Poland had lived here at one point, it was also considered a piece of Polish history, and was fortunately preserved and rebuilt.
The kitchen had to feed the residents of the castle, which included 12 monks, each with two assistants, and the other workers in the castle, which would have made for a total of about 200 people.
Inside the innermost castle...
... was the high council room where decisions regarding the order were made.
From this model, you can see the immense size of this complex.
Refectory (a.k.a. dining hall).
From the back side.
I am sure my father is turning green with envy as he reads this post, but at least I shared the pictures with him.
I met a group from Spain, who invited me to join them for pizza before catching a train back to Gdansk, where I ran to catch my train to Krakow.
Sadly, my interim connection between Gdansk and Krakow was badly delayed. As I stood on the platform in the cold midnight air, waiting for a train that was posted as 10 minutes late, I heard an announcement in Polish, followed by a groan from the crowd on the platform. This is never a good sign. As there was no English announcement, I waited for the delayed to be posted on the board -- 100 minutes! The station was locked, so I was stuck out in the cold in my thin travel pants and only a fleece to wear over my tee shirt, with a fellow traveler from Germany. We watched each other's bags and tried to catch a few winks between shivers. Several announcements followed and, in the end, the train was more then three hours late to arrive at the station and four hours late to arrive in Krakow. But at least it was warm inside the train.