CASTLE RUIN IN SZYMBARK, VIEW FROM THE SOUTHEAST

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

CURRENT STATE

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he cas­tle was prob­a­bly built in the 1370s by the parish priest of the Po­me­za­ni­an chap­ter Hen­ry of Skar­lin. An in­scrip­tion made of glazed ce­ram­ic tiles, which was once placed above the gate, in­di­cated the founder of the stronghold. Its text was as fol­lows: HEC POR­TA CON­STRUC­TA EST AN­NO DO­MI­NI MC­C­CLXXXVI TEM­PORE FRATRIS HENRI­CI DE SKAR­LIN PRE­POZ­I­TI, which can be trans­lat­ed as: The gate was erect­ed in the year of our Lord 1386 un­der the reign of broth­er Hen­ry of Skar­lin - the pro­vost. Some his­to­ri­ans, how­ev­er, pre­sent a slight­ly dif­fer­ent opin­ion, ac­cord­ing to which the con­struct­ion of the cas­tle be­gan much ear­li­er, per­haps even in the 13th cen­tu­ry, and the above men­tioned text refers to the fi­nal phase of this pro­ject. Szym­bark cas­tle orig­i­nal­ly served as the res­i­dence of a high-rank­ing provost who was a mem­ber of the wealthy epis­co­pal chap­ter.

EAST WING WITH ENTRANCE GATE

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he lo­­cat­ion of the cas­tle was qui­te u­nu­­su­al, mo­re than 40 ki­lo­me­ters from the head­­quar­ters of the chap­ter (town of Kwi­dzyn), far a­way from the lar­ger ur­ban cen­ters, but cha­rac­te­ri­zed by ex­cel­­lent na­­tu­ral con­dit­ions for its de­fen­se. We as­­su­me that the first sta­ge of the con­struc­tion works was com­­ple­t­ed in 1386 and in­­­clu­d­ed the full pe­ri­me­ter of the walls equipped with ten tow­ers, a gate tow­er and a draw­bridge lead­ing to the court­yard. How­ev­er, two of the planned tow­ers were nev­er com­plet­ed, but the in­­ten­­tion to build them is e­vi­­den­ced by the re­­mains of foun­­dat­ions in the wes­tern wall. In this pha­se of the ca­s­tle's ope­ra­ting, the re­si­den­ce prem­ises and the u­ti­li­­ty rooms we­re con­­cen­­tra­t­ed in the wes­tern part of the court­­yard.

THE COAT OF ARMS OF THE VON POLENZ FAMILY, FORMER OWNERS OF THE CASTLE

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t the be­gin­n­ing of the 15th cen­­tu­ry the cas­tle was mo­der­ni­zed in such a way that it be­came much more re­si­den­tial. The spa­­tial ar­ran­ge­­ment was then en­lar­ged by e­rec­t­ing the east­­ern part of the sou­th­ern wing and rai­s­ing the nor­th­ern part of the wes­tern wing, whe­re the re­fec­­to­ry and ca­s­tle kit­chen we­re lo­­ca­t­ed. As part of the Go­th­ic tran­s­­for­­ma­­tion, the outer walls were rai­sed by 2 to 4 me­tres, the cor­n­er to­w­ers re­cei­ved po­­ly­­go­­nal or cy­lin­­dri­­cal tops, and the ga­te was ex­ten­d­ed. In the first half of the 15th cen­­tu­ry the cas­tle was not on­­ly the seat of the pro­vost, but al­­so the pla­ce whe­re Ger­­man set­tlers sta­yed. It is al­­so worth men­­tio­n­ing the lon­ger vi­sit of the bi­shops Ger­hard Stolp­­mann and Hans Ma­rie­­nau, who sta­yed he­re in 1421 to su­per­vi­se the scrip­­to­ri­um pre­­pa­ring do­cu­­ments for the plan­ned trial be­tween the Po­lish sta­te and the Or­der.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CASTLE AT THE TURN OF 14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES ACCORDING TO A. MACUR

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he cas­tle in Szym­bark in the early 15th cen­tu­ry was a spa­cious and com­fort­able place for the in­hab­i­tants, but its de­fen­sive fea­tures were not im­pres­si­ve. As a re­sult, dur­ing the Thir­teen Years' War waged be­tween Poland and the Teu­ton­ic Order, the fort­ress was cap­tured several times and fi­nal­ly - de­stroyed. Fol­low­ing the peace of To­ruń, it re­mained with­in the bor­ders of the Teu­ton­ic state and was lift­ed from ru­ins and slight­ly mod­ern­ized with­in few years. Szym­bark had a great im­por­tance at that time as the main res­i­dence of the Po­meza­ni­an cathe­dral parish priests, as ev­i­denced by doc­u­ments of the Grand Mas­ter from 1466, in which it was de­scribed as pro­bist Kain Schon­berg and our house and our cas­tle.

THE AUSTERE, UNDECORATED WESTERN CURTAIN OF THE CASTLE WALLS

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ur­ing the last Pol­ish-Teu­ton­ic war the cas­tle wasn't be­sieged. Al­though the Pol­ish troops un­der the com­mand of Sta­ni­sław Kost­ka ar­ri­ved, but thanks to the fact that the parish priest Mi­ko­łaj Schönborn prudently opened the gates, no fights took place. The con­se­quence of the war lost by the Or­der was its sec­u­lar­iza­tion and huge ter­ri­to­ri­al loss­es for the ben­e­fit of Poland. The last Po­me­za­ni­an bish­op Er­hard von Queiss (d. 1529) con­vert­ed to Luth­era­nism and bish­op's es­tates for­mal­ly were hand­ed o­ver to the Prus­sian prince Al­brecht Ho­hen­zollern (d. 1568). However, in prac­tice he still man­aged them, but not as a cler­gy­man but as an of­fi­cial of the new sec­ular state. Af­ter his child­less death, the starosty and the cas­tle re­ceived the first Evan­gel­i­cal bish­op Georg von Polenz (d. 1550), who didn't live in Szym­bark, but in dis­tant Bał­ga, which may sug­gest that the cas­tle was not in good con­di­tion then.

THE CASTLE IN THE DRAWING FROM THE 1. HALF OF THE XIX CENTURY

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is son Teo­philus von Polenz (d. 1599) took over the es­tate in 1550. Af­ter him Szym­bark was man­aged by grand­son Al­brecht von Pol­enz (d. 1619), who, al­ready hav­ing the hered­i­tary right to own the es­tate, be­tween 1570-90 re­built the cas­tle in the Re­nais­sance style. The ef­fect of the con­struc­tion works was a very far-reach­ing degra­da­tion of its de­fen­sive fea­tures in favour of changes aimed at im­prov­ing ev­ery­day func­tion­al­i­ty and aes­thet­ics. The west­ern wing has been com­plete­ly trans­formed - since then it housed the com­fort­able liv­ing rooms. Cor­ner tow­ers in the east wing re­ceived stuc­co in­te­ri­or dec­o­ra­tion and Re­nais­sance fire­places, while res­i­den­tial build­ings were dec­o­rat­ed with or­na­men­tal tops. There were al­so trans­for­ma­tions in the spa­tial lay­out of the clock tow­er, but the most im­por­tant change from the point of view of de­fen­sive fea­tures loss of the cas­tle was re­place­ment of the wood­en draw­bridge with a brick bridge.

LITHOGRAPH BY DORGERLOH FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE XIXTH CENTURY, THE CASTLE SEEN FROM THE SOUTH

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he von Po­lentz fam­i­ly ruled the Szym­bark es­tate for 121 years. In 1653 it was bought by Jo­nas zu Eu­len­burg (d. 1667), and four­teen years lat­er the wid­ow of the de­ceased own­er pledged it to her son-in-law The­odor von Schlie­ben (d. 1695), a Kur­land voi­vode, who be­came a full own­er of the prop­er­ty in 1670. Af­ter the death of The­odor, in 1699 his son Ernst Si­gis­mund (d. 1741) sold the cas­tle. The buy­er was the starosts of Dąb­rów­no and Iła­wa Ernst Finck von Finck­en­stein (d. 1717), called a wealthy sheep­herd, be­cause the von Finck­en­stein fam­i­ly owed their enor­mous wealth and high so­cial po­si­tion to the breed­ing of these an­i­mals and wool trade in par­tic­u­lar. Ernst per­ma­nent­ly resid­ed in Dąb­rów­no, in the palace an­nexed to the old Teu­ton­ic cas­tle, and nev­er moved to Szym­bark. His son Al­brecht Chris­toph Finck (d. 1730) was the first to do so, and in 1700-30 he re­built the cas­tle in the Baroque style in or­der to adapt it to his own and his fam­i­ly's needs.

ROMANTIC VIEW OF THE CASTLE FROM THE 2. HALF OF THE XIXTH CENTURY

FAMILY PORTRAIT OF THE CASTLE OWNERS, 1910

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n years 1857-58 Lud­wig Finck von Finck­en­stein (d. 1863) re­built the south wing of the cas­tle and con­nect­ed it func­tion­al­ly with the wing lo­cat­ed in the south-east­ern cor­ner. The in­te­ri­ors have been re­dec­o­rat­ed and or­na­ment­ed, and adap­ted to rep­re­sen­ta­tive rooms, two li­braries and a the­atre hall called the Greek Cham­ber. The vast gar­den around the cas­tle and the lake were trans­formed in­to a land­scape park and a small me­na­ge­rie. The cylin­dri­cal stair­case, added to one of the tow­ers in the south­ern wall, fa­cil­i­tat­ed access to them. In ad­di­tion, at the west­ern wall of the res­i­den­ce, the own­ers ar­ran­ged ten­nis courts.

ONE OF THE CASTLE INTERIORS ON A 1920S PHOTOGRAPH

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he sub­se­quent and last mod­ern­iza­tion of the cas­tle (1904-30) was aimed at adapt­ing it to the use of mod­ern tech­no­log­i­cal achieve­ments: elec­tri­fi­ca­tion and tele­phones, but al­so in­clud­ed a dec­o­ra­tion chan­ges and re­pair of the north wall and the bridge. These works were car­ried out strict­ly ac­cord­ing to the in­struc­tions and un­der the su­per­vi­sion of Bernard Schmid, the con­ser­va­tor of Mal­bork cas­tle. As the au­thor em­pha­sized, the main idea ac­com­pa­ny­ing the restora­tion was to pre­serve the cas­tle in its con­tem­po­rary shape, and only gently to mit­i­gate the slight­ly ex­ag­ger­at­ed form, which was the re­sult of a ro­man­tic re­con­struc­tion from the 19th cen­tu­ry.

THE SOUTHERN WING IN 1915 AND ITS RUIN IN 2019

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he mem­bers of the von Finck­en­stein fam­i­ly lived in Szym­bark al­most un­til the end of the Sec­ond World War, leav­ing it on 21 Jan­uary 1945 for fear of the 2nd Be­laru­sian Red Army of­fen­sive. And al­though the di­rect fights be­tween Ger­mans and So­vi­ets luck­i­ly avoid­ed the cas­tle, af­ter rob­bing its in­te­ri­ors in April that year the so­vi­ets sold­iers burned it, as well as the near­by palace in Ka­mie­niec. Ac­cord­ing to the eye­wit­ness of those events, they had to set it on fire as many as twice, be­cause the first time the fire didn't get too close to the walls. When the cas­tle was tak­en with fire for good, the tem­per­a­ture was sup­pos­ed­ly so high that the tiles were found after even at the rail­way sta­tion in Ząb­ro­wo. On­ly the rem­nants of the tow­er and ex­ter­nal walls re­mained of this dis­aster.

VIEW OF THE CASTLE (SOUTHERN WING) IN 1910 AND CURRENTLY

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n the 1960s, some se­cu­ri­ty works be­gan, in­clud­ing roof­ing the clock tow­er and the gate build­ing. The in­te­ri­or was cleared of rub­ble as well. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, soon af­ter­wards, the vol­un­teers ir­re­spon­si­bly dis­man­tled the rem­nants of the south wing. In 1988 the ruin was tak­en o­ver by the foun­da­tion Wi­dzieć Mu­zy­ką with the in­ten­tion of re­build­ing it and open­ing here a cen­tre for ed­u­ca­tion of blind chil­dren from all o­ver Eu­rope. Af­ter sev­er­al years of the foun­da­tion's ac­tiv­i­ty, as a re­sult of which the west­ern wall was par­tial­ly re­con­struct­ed and the vaults in the cor­ner tow­ers were re­con­struct­ed, the re­no­va­tion plan col­lapsed prob­a­bly due to fi­nan­cial rea­sons. In 1997 the ru­in was bought by a pri­vate own­er and since then it has been aban­doned. In 2018 it was sold again. The new owner announ­ced that he in­tends to re­build the cas­tle and put a ho­tel in it.

THE EASTERN WING SEEN FROM THE COURTYARD, CONDITION BEFORE THE 2ND WORLD WAR
AND AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XXIST CENTURY

THE CASTLE IN THE 1930S, FROM THE TOP: VIEW FROM THE WEST, WESTERN WING ON THE COURTYARD SIDE

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

CURRENT STATE

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he cas­tle was built on a plan sim­i­lar to a rect­an­gle (75x92-95), pre­sum­ably at the site of an ear­ly me­dieval Prus­sian stronghold, so the court­yard lev­el is about 9 me­ters high­er than the sur­round­ing lev­el. Ten tow­ers are in­te­grat­ed in­to the brick walls and pro­tru­de slight­ly in front of them: there are four cor­ner tow­ers and six cur­tain tow­ers. The orig­i­nal height of walls was 2 to 4 me­tres low­er than the cur­rent one, which is well vis­i­ble in the north­ern cor­ner tow­ers, which are rect­an­gu­lar in their base and top­ped with a cylin­dri­cal and polyg­o­nal su­per­struc­ture. An en­trance to the court­yard led from the east on a wide em­bank­ment ris­ing up­wards, and fur­ther o­ver the cas­tle moat on a wood­en draw­bridge, re­placed in the 17th cen­tu­ry with a brick ar­cade bridge, and then through a gate build­ing.

PLAN OF THE CASTLE FROM 1885, DIE BAU- UND KUNSTDENKMALER DER KREISES LOBAU:
1. ENTRANCE GATE, 2. SOUTHERN WING, 3. WESTERN WING, 4. STABLES, 5. KITCHEN, 6. RIDING HALL, 7. OFFICE, 8. MAIN TOWER

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he gate is ad­joined by a 24-me­tre-high, four-storey main tow­er, so­me­ti­mes cal­led the clock tow­er. It is in­ter­est­ing to note the con­trast in the use of the space of it, where the first floor, vault­ed and dec­o­rat­ed with col­or­ful poly­chromes, served as a chapel, and un­der­neath it a 10-me­tre deep prison cel­lar was sit­uat­ed. Four winged build­ings ad­joined the cur­tain wall from the in­side. Their lay­out, height, in­te­ri­or ar­range­ment and style of ex­ter­nal dec­o­ra­tion were chang­ing over time. It can be as­sumed, how­ev­er, that the ba­sic func­tions were per­formed by the west­ern wing, where ini­tial­ly res­i­den­tial cham­bers were loc­ated, as well as a chapel and a re­fec­to­ry, and from the mid-15th cen­tu­ry al­so by the south­ern wing, with the most rep­re­sen­ta­tive rooms in the cas­tle.

THE EASTERN WING, IN 1885 'DIE BAU- UND KUNSTDENKMALER DER KREISES LOBAU', AND CURRENTLY

HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASTLE

CURRENT STATE

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nly perime­ter wall with tow­ers, as well as gate and stone ar­cade bridge sur­vived the war and sub­seq­uent dam­ages. The in­ter­nal and par­ti­tion walls of res­i­den­tial build­ings have been pre­served in their rem­nants, which is main­ly due to ir­re­spon­si­ble de­ci­sions about the suc­ces­sive de­mo­li­tion made dur­ing the com­mu­nist era. An unat­tend­ed park, once a land­scape park, is now ac­tu­al­ly a for­est with a still im­pres­sive trees. There are al­so no traces of for­mer glo­ry like the al­leys sur­round­ing the cas­tle and even­ly trimmed lawns, which turned in­to a mead­ow. Since the ruin is in pri­vate hands (1997-), not much has changed here, al­though per­haps its in­ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty o­ver the years saved in­te­ri­ors from van­dal­ism.

IN THE CASTLE COURTYARD, PHOTOS FROM 2004

The castle can only be viewed from the outside.

You can come here with your dog. The sur­round­ings of the castle is an at­trac­ti­ve place for walks.

Friendly place to fly: no lo­cal air cor­ri­dors and no major build­ings.

VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST, 2019

AND THIS IS HOW THE CASTLE LOOKED 100 YEARS EARLIER

GETTING THERE

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he ruin is lo­ca­ted in the west­ern part of the vil­la­ge, on the sho­res of Szym­bar­skie La­ke. Dri­ving by car a­long road No. 521 from Iła­wa (di­rec­tion Pra­bu­ty, Susz) af­ter a­bout 9 ki­lo­me­ters you should turn left and a few hun­dred me­ters away - by the cha­pel - turn left a­gain, and then dri­ve straight un­til you reach the gro­ce­ry sto­re, whe­re you should turn right. It is al­so con­ve­nient to get to the ca­stle by train. Then you should get off at the Zą­bro­wo sta­tion and from the­re head north-east. Af­ter about 200 me­tres the as­phalt road runs left into the vil­la­ge, and to­wards the east the­re is a dirt road marked as a bi­cy­cle trail. Con­ti­nu­ing the course set by the trail you will reach your de­sti­na­tion af­ter 20 mi­nu­tes.

The car can be par­ked di­rec­tly in front of the ca­stle.

Bicycles will come al­most right up to the gate.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. M. Garniec, M. Jackiewicz-Garniec: Zamki państwa krzyżackiego w dawnych Prusach, studio Arta 2009
2. M. Haftka: Zamki krzyżackie w Polsce, 1999
3. L. Kajzer, J. Salm, S. Kołodziejski: Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001
4. M. Prarat, K. Zimna-Kawecka: Konserwatorskie i społeczne aspekty ochrony ruin zamków [...]
5. R. Sypek: Zamki i obiekty warowne Państwa Krzyżackiego, Agencja CB 2000
6. J. Wańkowska-Sobiesiak: Zamek w Szymbarku: budowa, zniszczenie [...], Ochrona zabytków 46/4 1993
7. P. Zaniewski: Szlakami zamków krzyżackich, Sport i Turystyka MUZA SA 2005

GREEN TOURIST TRAIL LEADS TO THE CASTLE

Castles nearby:
Prabuty - the relics of Pomezanian bishops' castle from the 13th century, 24 km
Lubawa - the relics of Chełmno bishops' castle from the 14th century, 32 km
Bratian - the relics of Teutonic castle from the 13/14th century, currently the mill, 38 km
Dzierzgoń - the relics of Teutonic castle from the 13th century, 38 km
Przezmark - the ruins of Teutonic castle from the 14th century, 44 km

text: 2019
photographs: 2004, 2019
© Jacek Bednarek