Ordensburg Szymbark in Northern Poland

The castle in Szymbark (Schönberg in old East Prussia) is considerably smaller than the castle in Malbork, but also impressively demonstrates the size and lordliness of an Ordensburg in northern Poland.

From the brick Gothic of the 14th century to a Renaissance castle, to the Baroque and finally back to the neo-Gothic reconstruction in the 19th century, Schönberg passed through many epochs of architectural history. Besides the Ritterorden, the owners were well-known noble families such as Eulenberg and von Finckenstein,

During World War II, Russian forces set up a command center here and burned down the castle when they withdrew. In recent decades, only minor work has been done to statically secure the ruin. In 2018, an auction resulted in a change of ownership and good news: with the help of a foundation, the castle will be rebuilt and brought back to life.

We stay on the ball and hope that this time it could work, because already in the 80s a foundation tried the reconstruction, but failed due to low response and lack of funds.

Today, however, the interest and support for this project could be greater and it would not be the first castle in former East Prussia to be rebuilt on the basis of the surrounding walls.

More information on the new website of the foundation.