I was lucky that during my visit to Lithuania this summer my friends Arￅﾫnas and Nijolￄﾗ drove us to Northern Poland for a several day trip. That land at some point in history was Prussia, so it has a very well built red brick churches and castles, built by the crusaders. Also, the soil is fertile and flat, good for agriculture. But some of the roads are still very narrow and have big trees growing very close to their sides. The biggest of the castles, in fact the biggest castle in Europe from red brick is the Magdeburg castle. If you are interested in its historical significance, have a look at Wikipedia. it also has fantastic pictures of the whole castle from the other side of the river. We didn’t stop for those pictures, so here are mine glances inside the castle courtyards and halls. The good feature – most of polish museums provide you with the “talking stick – audio guide” – you can switch it into any language of your choice and once you enter each location, it starts telling you stories about what is shown. It even sends you from one location to another, whereas otherwise you can end up seeing only a fraction of the rooms and places. The castle is rather big and complicated. I would advise at least 3 hours visiting, maybe even more. Here are the views through my eyes:
The first courtyard.Those are the 4 rulers of the castle during the crusader times – they are called the Grand Magistrates.This is a chapel and there is a story about that hole in the window and the column – it saved the inhabitants during some war but it escaped my mind :-). It is funny what stays in our minds after visits to museums and what not. And then you start wondering, was it worth visiting?Located not far from the Baltic sea, amber was the main “gold” of the Magistrate.Monks were making decors from amber, mostly pieces of crafts used in their services and their chapels, but also traded them.It reflects what a wide color palette amber has…Now there is a pretty big amber museum in one of the cellars in the castle. There was some modern amber jewelry.How did they manage to make those stone balls that were used in a canon only once, as far as I understand. Humanity uses a lot of resources for war reasons…This courtyard was used by monks as a garden area, for growing vegetables. This pelican is staged on top of a water well in the very central courtyard. I guess it is there to remind monks how they are digging their hearts like this bird. or maybe something else…Beautiful loggias surround the yard. There were some cellars for prisoners and unruly monks, too. This is a corridor to them.Expressive.Seems that the monks were short…or maybe they slept in a sitting pose.Bathroom – the hole opens to a moat down below. What a nice environment they had! 🙂I loved the corridors, they are like music. Monk’s church or chapel – whatever the proper name for it. Not completely restored yet. The main dining hall.It has an appropriate fresco – The Last SupperThose were the doors through which food was delivered to the dining hall. This shows what a big fortress it was and still is.Modern combined with old. Some decors I really liked. A better use of a canon ball.
