The Castle Museum in Malbork
Muzeum Zamkowe Malborku
ul. Starościńska 1, 82-200 Malbork
Director: mgr Mariusz Mierzwiński
tel. (+48 55) 647 08 00-02
fax (+48 55) 647 08 03
www.zamek.malbork.pl

Opening hours: Open daily, 9am-5pm; no visiting of interiors on Mondays.

The Malbork Castle is the largest brick building in Europe, boasting unique Gothic architecture and exemplary restoration work. Construction of its oldest part began in the late 13th century and produced the four-winged Tall Castle. Construction work on the Castle and its fortifications system continued up to the mid-15th century, adding the residence of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (the Middle Castle) and a new forecastle (the Low Castle). Destroyed by the Prussian army in the 18th century, the Castle was first restored by the Germans in the 19th century and then painstakingly revived again by Polish experts after the damage of World War II.

In contrast with the raw beauty of the rooms of the Tall Castle, serving as a monastery, the Palace of the Grand Masters was lay in nature, its rooms richly decorated with partly surviving polychromy. Adjacent to the Palace is the famous Great Refectory, also called the Knights' Hall, with its magnificent stellar vaulting. A central heating stove used in the fourteenth century is still there to see under the Refectory. The Castle is surrounded by fortifications featuring bastion systems, rare to find nowadays.

Of Malbork's pre-war museum holdings only a collection of architectural elements and details extending from the Middle Ages to Modern times has survived and is one of Europe's largest collections. Over time the Museum has amassed significant collections of archeological and architectural exhibits, numismatics and medals, prints, drawings and ex librises. The latter form Europe's largest collection of more than 14,000 items acquired through the international Ex Libris Biennale held at the Castle since 1963. The Museum also preserves military and decorative arts objects and boasts rich holdings related to Malbork, including more than 350 prints with the views of the town and the castle. There are also considerable collections of the 13th through 18th century weapons and decorative arts and crafts. Of special note is one of the world's most precious collections of amber, including such masterpieces as a group of portable altars and caskets from the second half of the 17th century and the famous casket topped with the late 17th century Judgement of Paris' group by Christopher Maucher.

The Castle rooms house the following permanent exhibitlons: "The History of Amber"; "Weapons of the Old Times"; "Pomeranian Tile Making in the 15th to 17th Centuries"; "100 Years of Architectural Development at the Malbork Castle: 1882-1982"; "19th Century Malbork Stained Glass"; "Formal Interiors of the Palace of Grand Masters"; "Inside the Kitchen of the Teutonic Order"; "Medieval Sculpture". The Lapidarium houses an exhibition of architectural detail.

The Malbork Castle Museum has a branch at nearby Kwidzyn, called the Kwidzyn Museum, 82-500 Kwidzyn, ul. Katedralna 1, tel. (0-55) 79 38 89. Opening hours: Closed Mondays, open all other days, May-September, 9am-4pm, October-April, 9am-3pm.

The Kwidzyn Museum is housed in a 14th century Teutonic castle, unique for its two protruding bridges ending with closet towers called the Great Gdanisko and the Small Gdanisko. The castle's two-storeyed arcades are home to summer musical events, and its holdings include the world's only original Teutonic bombard dating from the early fifteenth century.

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