Stutthof Concentration Camp - Malbork Castle

Route: Gdansk - Stutthof Concentration Camp - Malbork Castle - Gdansk
Duration: 7 h
Firstly we will visit to Museum Stutthof which is located in the former German Stutthof concentration camp. The museum preserves, researches and displays archival records and historical artefacts. Exhibitions and videos offer visitors a haunting insight into the lives of the 110.000 people that were imprisoned here during the Second World War.  The Museum is established in some of the buildings of the camp. The former German headquarters for instance is now a cinema. There are also permanent exhibits with videos and artefacts: objects of camp life,  crafted objects, artwork created by the inmates (drawings, pictures, portraits, decorative caskets, rings, signets, crosses) and post-war works of art, dedicated to the memory of the victims of Stutthof. Thus the museum strives to protect and investigate the heritage of the camp, and to make its visitors aware of the brutal and inhumane effects of war. Next we will visit to the Malbork Castle which was built by the Teutonic Knights, an order of monks and knights who were known for their might, strength and brutality. The Knights were Germanic Roman Catholic Crusaders, and they spread out far and wide across Europe. Evidence of their power and the castles they constructed can be found as far away as Bran Castle in Romania to the East and Metz in France to the West. When the Crusades ended in the 12th-Century, the Knights turned to converting ‘pagans’ little closer to home. They plundered Poland and set about converting people to Christianity, often by brute force. On the back of this pillaging, they gathered plenty of wealth; enough to build the largest castle in the world. The castle was built in a prominent position along the River Nogat, a perfect place to control all trade that passed through to the Baltic Sea. However, what is known is that Malbork Castle existed as early as the later 1200s. When it was first constructed, it was known as Marienburg, named for the patron saint of the Teutonic Order, Mary. At some point during the 1400s, the Teutonic Knights finally lost their grip on the area. They were forced out and for the following centuries, the Germans and the Polish owned Malbork Castle. After we return to Gdansk.
Price: per person