Malbork Castle in Poland is one of the country’s most famous medieval sites. Some physical parts of that history have now been returned to the castle in recent weeks.
Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has announced that a piece of an altar dating to around 1500 is now part of the castle’s museum collection. The item was taken from Malbork after the Second World War and found its way to a church in Gdańsk. It was originally made in southern Germany for a church in Lower Saxony but was sold to Malbork in 1893.
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Photo courtesy Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Malbork’s Castle Museum has also successfully recovered three pieces of stained glass that were originally held in the castle’s Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These were also lost in the years after the Second World War and found their way into private hands.
A stained glass panel from Malbork was found photo courtesy Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Stained glass was an important element of interior design, both in the Middle Ages and in modern times. Researchers believe that the first stained glass windows appeared in the most important castle temple in Malbork in the mid-14th century. However, no fragments of this medieval glazing, even the smallest ones, have survived to this day. There are also few mentions of stained glass in later sources. Only in illustrations from the 16th and 17th centuries can you see that the church windows were equipped with figural stained glass. As a result of a fire on the roofs of the High Castle in 1644, the castle church and its stained glass windows were destroyed.
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From the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, construction and conservation works were carried out in Malbork, implementing the idea of rebuilding the castle, thanks to which it was to become the pantheon of the Prussian province (Prussian Westminster). In 1819, the first imports of medieval stained glass windows arrived there, purchased for the decoration of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the High Castle. They included: quarters from the 14th century, from the demolished Dominican church of St. Nicholas in Toruń, and an unspecified number of stained glass windows from the Franciscan church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Toruń (dating to the end of the 14th century). Further stained glass windows for the church decoration were purchased in 1888 from the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chełmno and the Franciscan church in Toruń. The last batch of medieval stained glass windows (with ornamental and figural motifs) was obtained in 1898 from the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Toruń. Some of them are currently in the collections of the District Museum in Toruń.
A section with a representation of the Prophet Moses from the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the High Castle in Malbork, recovered to the collection of the Malbork Castle Museum in August 2023. – photo courtesy Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
However, the acquired medieval stained glass windows did not meet the needs related to furnishing all the windows of the castle church, so a decision was made to fill the missing glazing with new stained glass windows. In 1884, the Castle Reconstruction Board headed by Conrad Steinbrecht began cooperation with Johann Baptist Haselberger from Leipzig and the Royal Institute of Stained Glass in Charlottenburg near Berlin. The recently recovered stained glass panels come from this series.
Since 2018, the Castle Museum in Malbork has been participating in a ministry program focusing on items lost in the Second World War. The program has identified over 2,000 lost objects from Malbork, with many items scattered in various institutions in Poland and abroad.
Top Image: Altar wing from Ingeln, South German workshop, Lower Saxony, circa 1500, 141.5 × 82 cm, polychrome, gilding, wood, gold – photo courtesy Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
Malbork Castle in Poland is one of the country’s most famous medieval sites. Some physical parts of that history have now been returned to the castle in recent weeks.
Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has announced that a piece of an altar dating to around 1500 is now part of the castle’s museum collection. The item was taken from Malbork after the Second World War and found its way to a church in Gdańsk. It was originally made in southern Germany for a church in Lower Saxony but was sold to Malbork in 1893.
Malbork’s Castle Museum has also successfully recovered three pieces of stained glass that were originally held in the castle’s Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These were also lost in the years after the Second World War and found their way into private hands.
Stained glass was an important element of interior design, both in the Middle Ages and in modern times. Researchers believe that the first stained glass windows appeared in the most important castle temple in Malbork in the mid-14th century. However, no fragments of this medieval glazing, even the smallest ones, have survived to this day. There are also few mentions of stained glass in later sources. Only in illustrations from the 16th and 17th centuries can you see that the church windows were equipped with figural stained glass. As a result of a fire on the roofs of the High Castle in 1644, the castle church and its stained glass windows were destroyed.
From the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, construction and conservation works were carried out in Malbork, implementing the idea of rebuilding the castle, thanks to which it was to become the pantheon of the Prussian province (Prussian Westminster). In 1819, the first imports of medieval stained glass windows arrived there, purchased for the decoration of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the High Castle. They included: quarters from the 14th century, from the demolished Dominican church of St. Nicholas in Toruń, and an unspecified number of stained glass windows from the Franciscan church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Toruń (dating to the end of the 14th century). Further stained glass windows for the church decoration were purchased in 1888 from the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chełmno and the Franciscan church in Toruń. The last batch of medieval stained glass windows (with ornamental and figural motifs) was obtained in 1898 from the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Toruń. Some of them are currently in the collections of the District Museum in Toruń.
However, the acquired medieval stained glass windows did not meet the needs related to furnishing all the windows of the castle church, so a decision was made to fill the missing glazing with new stained glass windows. In 1884, the Castle Reconstruction Board headed by Conrad Steinbrecht began cooperation with Johann Baptist Haselberger from Leipzig and the Royal Institute of Stained Glass in Charlottenburg near Berlin. The recently recovered stained glass panels come from this series.
Since 2018, the Castle Museum in Malbork has been participating in a ministry program focusing on items lost in the Second World War. The program has identified over 2,000 lost objects from Malbork, with many items scattered in various institutions in Poland and abroad.
Top Image: Altar wing from Ingeln, South German workshop, Lower Saxony, circa 1500, 141.5 × 82 cm, polychrome, gilding, wood, gold – photo courtesy Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
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