Teutonic Knights: Sites and History
The Teutonic Order began as a hospital for German pilgrims during the siege of Acre around 1190 and became a military religious order. Its castles in Prussia and Livonia supported territorial rule, while commanderies, residences, hospitals and churches served its wider European network. The Livonian branch included the former Sword Brothers after their incorporation in 1237; the two orders had separate earlier histories.
The surviving places range from the brick fortress at Malbork to Livonian castles and later residential complexes. The map brings those sites together while the articles for each place explain its building phases and uses. Later branches and the modern Catholic order belong to a different phase from medieval government in Prussia and Livonia.
Explore Teutonic Knights sites
More than 200 Teutonic and Livonian Order sites show how castles, commanderies and churches served government, worship and defence.
Daily life
Daily Life in Teutonic Territories: Society in Prussia and Livonia
Daily life in Teutonic Prussia and Livonia differed across towns, farms and castles, where law, labour, language and religion shaped people’s work and choices.
- Farmers, Artisans and Merchants in Teutonic Territories: Work and Trade in Prussia and Livonia
- Food and Meals in the Teutonic Territories of Prussia and Livonia
- Hospitals and Infirmaries of the Teutonic Order in Prussia and Livonia
- Languages, Learning and Cultural Life in the Teutonic Order’s Prussian and Livonian Territories
- Parishes, Crusading Pilgrimage and Religious Change in Teutonic Prussia and Livonia
- Teutonic Convents: Religious and Household Life in Prussia, Livonia, and the West
History and society
The Teutonic Order: A Religious Order and Medieval Military State
The Teutonic Order grew from a hospital at Acre into a military order that ruled Prussia and Livonia, then continued in different forms after its Baltic territories were secularized.
- Law, Courts and Social Status in the Teutonic Territories
- Teutonic Armies, Fortresses and Frontiers: How the Order Organized Warfare
- Teutonic Estates, Towns and Trade: How the Order’s Economy Worked
- Teutonic Order Architecture: Castles, Churches and Monastic Houses
- Teutonic Order Communication and Administration: Messengers, Routes and Records
- Teutonic Order: Government and Provincial Organisation