Castle in Szymbark

Information

The Castle in Szymbark is a fourteenth-century castle in the village of Szymbark. It was built on the site of an earlier Prussian stronghold built on a small hill surrounded by water. It is the second largest Gothic castle in Poland after Malbork. The castle was built on a rectangular plan, with dimensions of 75 by 92 meters, using the embankment of the destroyed Prussian hillfort. It was surrounded by a wall with ten towers, protruding from the face of the wall in order to increase the defense potential of the whole. The entrance to the castle led through a drawbridge, which was replaced in the 19th century by an arcaded bridge, and a gate. The highest point of the castle was the 24-meter high clock tower, located in the immediate vicinity of the entrance. The castle courtyard was built up with residential buildings with a representative west wing, put into use by the parish priest in the Middle Ages, with a chapel and a refectory. After the building was burnt down by the Soviet Army in 1946, the castle was mainly preserved around the perimeter of the defensive walls with the gate, towers and the bridge. The castle now has the form of a permanent and partially preserved ruin.