[SunkenCiv]

Joanna Szycik | Dreamstime.com

[beebuster2000]

great post. where do you find this stuff?

[nkycincinnatikid]

Marienburg has only been in Poland for a few decades.
In fact only since the conclusion of the great rape of central and eastern Europe by russia and her allies during the last century.
When speaking in the timeframe of ecosystems, Marienburgs present location seems rather immaterial.

[patton]

Looks like Heidelburg,

If they were monastic, where did they get 220k people?

Oh, and I am going to build a Tutonic shrine in NY on my farm.

That ought to f((k with people for a couple of thousand years.

After all, I am a 3rd degree mason. So are my sons.

LOL.

[colorado tanker]

As in the picture, the Knights typically built with brick, I suppose due to the lack of stone in flat Poland. The castles were stark and utilitarian. One interesting feature is the use of a latrine tower, which also served as a refuge in time of attack.

[colorado tanker]

The Knights' realm at its greatest extent:

In 1242 the Knights invaded Novgorod, one of the precursors of the Russian state, intent on converting the Russians to western Catholicism. The Battle of Lake Peipus, or Battle of the Ice was won decisively by Alexander Nevsky and the Russians, as memorialized in the beautifully filmed propaganda piece by Eisenstein. The boundary between the Baltic States and Russia remains the border between western Christianity and Orthodoxy.

In 1410 the Knights were defeated in the Battle of Grunwald, losing to the rising Polish-Lituanian power. Eventually, they were relegated to a few possessions in the Holy Roman Empire.