Gdańsk Castle: Teutonic Order Fortress and Commandery Seat
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Poland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Crusader, Teutonic Order
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Gdańsk Castle was a Gothic fortress built in Poland by the Teutonic Order after 1335, on the site of an earlier fortified settlement that had served as the seat of the dukes of Gdańsk and Pomerelia. Construction probably began in 1337 or 1338 on the instructions of Dietrich von Altenburg, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, the medieval military-religious institution that ruled a territorial state in the eastern Baltic. The stone castle was completed by the middle or late fourteenth century and became the centre of Teutonic administration in Gdańsk.
Teutonic Administration
After the Teutonic takeover of Gdańsk in 1308, the Order’s city government used the site as its seat. The completed fortress became the residence of the Komtur, a senior official who governed a Teutonic administrative and military district, and the centre of the Gdańsk commandery. Control of revenues from the busy port helped finance construction. Gdańsk and its surrounding region were regarded as among the wealthiest and most influential parts of the Teutonic state.
Changes in the course of the Vistula led to the creation of the castle’s eastern moat in 1371. The complex was enlarged during the 1380s and 1390s. A major fire on the night of 15–16 October 1394 destroyed the castle, and rebuilding continued until 1396.
War and Destruction
During the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War of 1409–1411, a conflict between the Teutonic state and the Polish-Lithuanian union, Gdańsk surrendered to Władysław II Jagiełło, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania. Repeated efforts to make the castle surrender failed. Commander Johann von Schönfeld agreed to open its gates if Malbork Castle fell, but Malbork remained in Teutonic hands. Hostile actions by the city against Teutonic authorities contributed to the execution of two of Gdańsk’s mayors.
In 1454, during the Thirteen Years’ War, an anti-Teutonic uprising broke out in Gdańsk. The commander surrendered to the townspeople, who dismantled the castle within a month. This destruction was intended to remove a symbol of Teutonic domination and prevent the fortress from being used against the city again.
After the Castle
The former castle grounds could not immediately be redeveloped. Houses began to be built there in 1648, and the area later became known as Zamczysko, a name derived from the Polish word for “castle.” Buildings from the seventeenth century still occupy parts of the former site. Surviving castle remnants on Wartka Street were placed on the regional heritage list under registration number A-1960 on 1 November 2018.
Remains
The castle occupied a site northeast of Gdańsk’s Main City and southeast of the Old Town, beside the Motława and the Radunia Canal. Its fortifications extended between the streets now called Na Dylach, Dylinki, Rycerska, Karpia, Wapiennicza, Wartka, and Sukiennicza. The earlier Pomerelian ducal stronghold was a wooden-and-earth fortification on an island beside the Motława, covering about 0.4 hectares. The later Teutonic complex used massive Gothic masonry and comprised a central High Castle, an outer bailey, defensive walls, towers, and associated working buildings.
Principal Fortifications
High Castle
The High Castle was the first section completed and was in use from about 1350. It formed a rectangular structure measuring approximately 60 by 63 metres, with an internal courtyard bordered by a cloister, a covered walkway enclosing or adjoining the courtyard. Its rooms included a chapter house, refectory, dormitories, chapel, treasury, scriptorium, armoury, kitchen, pantry, and wardrobe. Four substantial towers strengthened the building. The northeastern tower was the tallest structure in the complex, and its height was not to be exceeded by a church tower.
Outer Bailey
An outer bailey, the defended area outside the principal inner building, extended north and west of the High Castle. Walls and wall towers enclosed workshops for crossbows and coopers, together with the commander’s stables. A hospital was established in this part of the complex during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The northwestern wall tower, known as the Swan Tower, controlled access to Gdańsk’s river port. A gate toward the Radunia later became known as the Rähm Gate.
Military and Economic Facilities
Between 1384 and 1437, the castle held three large guns as well as changing numbers of medium and smaller guns. The recorded totals rose from eight guns in 1384 to eleven in 1413, twenty-two in 1428, and sixty in 1434. The wider castle estate included the Great Mill and the nearby Little Mill, which served as a granary, along with a bathhouse, bakery, brickworks in Zaroślak, and a carpenter’s workshop on Ołowianka. Holdings on Ostrów Island included a stable, saddler’s workshop, cattle ranch, and forge.
Surviving Fabric
The Swan Tower and small sections of the castle walls survive along the Motława shore on Wartka Street. A well-preserved fragment of the inner moat’s curtain wall, a continuous defensive wall between towers, also remains there. Part of a bastion, a projecting fortification that strengthened a defensive line, has been incorporated into a town house. Bricks and other structural elements are occasionally found beneath the former castle grounds.
The former line of the road west of the castle, within the fortification walls, survives in the course of present-day Sukiennicza Street. A fourteenth-century painting known as The Ship of the Church may partly represent the castle, although interpretations of the buildings shown vary. Later academic reconstructions have consequently offered differing views of the complex’s former appearance.
