The Teutonic Knights Castle of Gdansk

The Teutonic Knights Castle of Gdansk Panorama

So I got inspired by one post of my new friends of Gdańsk, Danzig, Gdansk, Freie Stadt Danzig. So inspired that I immediately wanted act on my inspiration. You can certainly guess that the post was about Teutonic Knights castle of Gdansk.

"Swan Tower" post Teutonic

Wow, I thought, Gdansk finally is going to be one of the cities that have castles. I mean, nowadays cities can get anything: skyscrapers, shopping malls, even lakes,but not castles. Like the old medieval ones. I am sure you understand how exiting it was, Gdansk would advance in city ranks for sure.

Fortification Wall, Gdansk

The good news is that not all cities of the world had Teutonic Knights castle within the city limits. The bad news is that all that is left of Teutonic Knights castle is a tower and a little wall. I say, better this than nothing :)

Mighty Teutonic Tower :)

The history of Teutonic Knights Castle is quite rich and starts in X century, with wooden castle which didn't belong to Teutonic Knights at all. Well, calling it castle is a little of overstatement. It was more like a fortified manor house. In XII century, as a celebration of Pomerelia joining Poland, two brick structures where added: a church and a tower (that beside serving defence purposes, was also used by prince and his family as their private quarters when they came to visit).

This isn't Teutonic wall, but we can pretend it is:) right?

So, how the Teutonic Knights did take over the castle? In 1308 Gdansk was attacked by Brandenburg Margraves and since Gdansk couldn't fight them off, they hired help: the Teutonic Knights.

Panorama of former grounds of the Teutonic Knights Castle in Gdansk

The Teutonic Knights did fight the other army off, but they didn't leave. Instead they took over the castle, and started adding buildings and fortifications. When they finished the upper castle consisted of: infirmary, kitchen with chamber, the commander chamber, bath house, cellar, armory, dormitories, church with library, chapter house, refectory, and a bakery.

Supposed map of the castle grouds, source: zamki.pl

The word consisted of: woodshed, granaries, grindery, cloakroom attendant storerooms, forge, workshops, stables. All of it was of course surrounded by curtain, donjon, towers. They were fully equipped too. From registry we know they stored, among others, crossbows, bolts, bombard, saltpeter and of course helmets and other armour and weapons.

Supposed view of the castle, source: altiok.blox.pl

Not only did they have the "state of the art" castle. The fact of Gdansk being the hub of transport and trade, made this Teutonic Knights Castle one of the richest and most influential. 

The Teutonic Knights actual wall, Gdansk

The rule of Teutonic Knights in Gdansk came to an end in XV century. The clever people of Gdansk then proceeded to demolish some of the fortification, and then rebuilding it back (like the only tower that still remains to this day). 

The tower, view from the other side 

Unfortunately nobody knows how the castle really looked like. The only painting that portraying the castle was destroyed in WWII. Thanks a lot!

The Teutonic Tower up close

There you have it, the one and only mysterious castle that, well still exists within the city. The most obvious is the tower, and piece of curtain. I read that some pieces of fortification are still embedded in walls of nearby restaurant, and also remember that hotel by the tower is build on foundations of the castle.

Winter in the City - TriCity

On the way to Ski Land :)

Long time, no see :-) Unfortunately I have experienced close encounter with not one, but two dental surgeons. As a result, I am growing bruise on my cheek and haven't had any solid food for a week :( Only comfort I have at the moment is that I can catch up with my ice cream eating :-) My biggest worry is that this Thursday is Fat Thursday and i won't be able to eat donuts.

Train stop covered in snow - it is winter time!

Anyhow, back when I looked like myself I wanted to explore more winter activities that you can enjoy in, or around TriCity. As I wanted to get out of the city I decided I will go skiing. Actually I decided I am going skiing about 2 months ago. It just took that long to moan somebody into coming with me. Fortunately volunteer was found before all the snow melted.

Winter landscape, what else would you need?

There are few ski slopes around TiriCity, with the closest being around half hour drive to about hour. (there is one ski slope in TriCity, more specifically in Sopot, but due to TriCity microclimate, might be closed if winter is not very wintery :) All of the ski slopes offer ski rental, tutoring and i am pretty sure all of them have bar or some kind of facility to eat in. Also, some have more than one slope and are artificially snowed, but all of them have some sort of skilift.

Winter branches

I choose to go to the closest one, not only because it is closest, but also because it seemed to be the least crowded. I did brag how I skied when I was a child in order to find somebody to come with. But truth to be told I had skis on one time in my life before and was skiing on a hillock so small that you wouldn't know that it was a hillock if you weren't told. However I didn't expect it to be any difficult, after watching all the winter adds where everybody is a professional skier, even cartoon characters. I was convinced is easy as pie.

Icy road, and sunbathing dog

It is nice to get out of town once in a while, especially in winters. TriCity has a special microclimate. Everywhere around is winter, but in TriCity is autumn, or if we are lucky - spring :-) so I really enjoyed the drive and the views. However when I got to the ski slope my heart stopped and I was ready to run back home, and if it wasn't for my pride I would. The slope looked much steeper and higher than on their website, it was also much busier than I expected.

Ski slope from the bottom

Let's just say that I turned out to be the best at putting shoes on and off, the other stuff - not so much. Just to get to skilift I had to use help of everybody and everything around me: fellow skier, their ski poles, wooden fence, workers, plastic fence. At one point I wished i could crawl. And all of that before I even got to the top of the slope.

Ski slope - the middle

Once I got to the top I was even more scared. It was much higher that I thought it would be. As I proceeded down I almost skied of the slope path into a ditch, also whenever I wanted to stop I was only gaining speed. The only way I figured out how to stop was to throw myself on the ground.

Ski slope - the top

As a result after 20 min of me trying ski I started to feel as if I went swimming not skiing. Not only all my cloths were wet. I had wet hair and was getting wrinkled skin of my fingers from constant water. I can truthfully say that 5-year-old skis better than me. After making that observation you cannot wonder that after one downhill ride I was done and ready to go home.

Funny enough, when that trip convinced me I am clearly not made for skiing, everyone wants to go skiing :-) Go figure!