Kwidzyn

Kwidzyn (German: Marienwerder) is a town in northern Poland on the Liwa River, with 40,008 inhabitants (2004). It has been a part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously in the Elbląg Voivodeship (1975-1998). It is the capital of Kwidzyn County.

1 History
2 The castle
3 Modern town
4 Twin towns
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The Teutonic Knights founded an Ordensburg castle in 1232 and a town the following year. This new settlement of Marienwerder became the seat of the Bishops of Pomesania within Prussia. The town was populated with Masurian settlers from the Duchy of Masovia. Werner von Orseln, who died in Marienburg (Malbork) in 1330, was buried in the cathedral of Marienwerder. St. Dorothea of Montau lived in Marienwerder from 1391 until her death in 1394; pilgrims would later come to pray in the town at her shrine. The rebellious Prussian Confederation was founded in Marienwerder on March 14 1440.^{[citation needed]} In 1466, the town became a Polish fief together with the remainder of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights after their defeat in the Thirteen Years' War.

Marienwerder became part of the Duchy of Prussia, a fief of Poland, upon its creation in 1525. The duchy was inherited by the House of Hohenzollern in 1618 and was elevated to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. The town became the capital of the District of Marienwerder. After the First Partition of Poland, Marienwerder became an administrative seat of the new Prussian Province of West Prussia. The town and district were included within the government region of Marienwerder after the Napoleonic Wars.

According to statistics,^{[citation needed]} in 1818 it was populated by a Polish speaking, Masurian majority. The policy of forceful^{[citation needed]} Germanization, however, gradually decreased the share of Polish speaking inhabitants who participated in the social life of the province that spoke German. After 1871, when Marienwerder was included in the newly created German Empire, the Kulturkampf was aimed mainly at Catholics. In 1885 Marienwerder had 8,079 mostly Lutheran inhabitants, many of whose trades were connected with the manufacturing of sugar, vinegar, and machines. Other trades were brewing, dairy farming, and fruit-growing. According to official statistics, ca. 1910 35.7% of the county's population was Polish.

After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 transferred most of West Prussia to the Polish Second Republic. The treaty permitted a plebiscite in a few areas. To determine if Marienwerder would remain in Germany as part of East Prussia or join Poland; 92% voted on 11 July 1920 for East Prussia, to which the town was joined.

During the Weimar Republic, a Polish high school was founded in the town. On August 25 1939, pupils of the school were deported to Nazi concentration camps^{[citation needed]}.

In 1945 during World War II, Marienwerder was plundered by the Soviet Red Army but not destroyed. The post-war Potsdam Conference placed it under Polish administration in 1945. Parts of the town's old center were dismantled to provide material for the rebuilding of Warsaw after its destruction in the Warsaw Uprising.

[edit] The castle

Image:Ordensburg marienwerder.jpg

Gothic castle as in 1912

Kwidzyn contains the partially-ruined 14th century Brick Gothic Ordensburg castle of the Teutonic Order, namely the Bishops of Pomesania within the Order. Connected to the castle to the east is a large cathedral (built 1343-1384) containing the tombs of the bishops as well those of three Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights.

The literally outstanding feature of the castle is a sewer tower which is connected to it by a bridge. The tower used to be placed at the river which has changed its course since, leaving it on dry land.