Origins The
Teutonic Order had been created in
1191 in
Acre (present-day Israel). When this last major stronghold of the
Crusader states in the
Levant fell to the Muslims in 1291, the Order moved its headquarters to
Venice before arriving in Prussia. The castle was built by the Order after the
conquest of Old Prussia (). Its main purpose was to strengthen their own control of the area following the Order's 1274 suppression of the
Great Prussian Uprising of the
Baltic tribes. No contemporary documents survive relating to its construction, so instead the castle's phases have been worked out through the study of architecture and the Order's administrative records and later histories. The work lasted until around 1300, under the auspices of Commander
Heinrich von Wilnowe. Malbork became more important in the aftermath of the Teutonic Knights' conquest of
Gdańsk () and
Eastern Pomerania in 1308. The Order's administrative centre was moved to Marienburg from Elbing (now
Elbląg). The
Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights,
Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, who arrived in Marienburg from Venice, undertook the next phase of the fortress' construction. The castle once housed approximately 3,000 "brothers in arms". The outermost castle walls enclose , four times the enclosed area of
Windsor Castle. The developed part of the property designated as a World Heritage Site is . In 1361, the future Grand Duke of
Lithuania Kęstutis was briefly imprisoned in the castle. In 1365, Polish King
Casimir III the Great visited the castle. In the summer of 1410, the castle was besieged following the Order's defeat by the armies of
Władysław II Jagiełło and
Vytautas the Great (Witold) at the
Battle of Grunwald.
Heinrich von Plauen successfully led the defence in the
Siege of Marienburg (1410), during which the city outside was razed. By 1456, during the
Thirteen Years' War, the Order faced severe financial distress. Its
cities revolted against raised taxes meant to cover
ransoms and other war expenses. Long unpaid, the Order's Bohemian mercenaries agreed to
sell Malbork and withdraw, compensated with funds raised by Polish General
Stibor de Poniec of Ostoja in Danzig.
Residence of the Polish kings In 1466 both castle and town became part of the Polish
Malbork Voivodeship in the province of
Royal Prussia. Since 1457 it served as one of the several Polish royal residences, fulfilling this function for over 300 years until the
First Partition of Poland in 1772. During this period the Tall Castle served as the castle's supply storehouse, while the Great Refectory was a place for balls, feasts, and other royal events. Then the castle was visited by Swedish kings
Gustav Adolf (in 1626) and
Charles X Gustav (in 1656). Gilly's son,
Friedrich Gilly, produced several engravings of the castle and its architecture, which he exhibited in Berlin. These were published by Friedrich Frick between 1799 and 1803 and led the Prussian public to "rediscover" the castle and the history of the Teutonic Knights.
Napoleon visited the castle in 1807 and 1812. The restoration of the Marienburg was undertaken in stages until the beginning of the Second World War. In memory of the town's residents voting in favor of remaining part of Germany, after the First World War, a monument of a knight on a tall column was erected in front of the castle. The town was transferred to Poland in 1945. The column was cut in half. The upper part remains at the original location and now carries a statue of Mary, mother of Jesus, while the rest of the column can be found supporting a
Saint Christopher statue in a monastery garden near St. John's church.
Restoration since 1962 A severe fire in 1959 caused further damage to the castle. In 1961 the Castle Museum (
Muzeum Zamkowe) was founded, Malbork Castle remains the largest brick complex in Europe. ==Burials in the mausoleum under the Chapel of St. Anne==