The ruins of the Teutonic commanders’ castle in Brodnica

The organized Strasburg settlement-town complex was established in this area in the second half of the 13th century, after the Teutonic Knights, who were brought here by Konrad Mazowiecki, faked the document of ownership of these lands, occupied the princely watchtower and adapted them for their own needs. As a wooden-earth construction, this watchtower was destroyed at least twice by invasions of pagan tribes: in 1262 by the Jaćwing tribe and in 1298 by the Lithuanian army. The growth of the threat from the pagan east and from the south, where Poland was uniting after nearly 200 years of the district breakdown, helped in making the decision to replace the old construction with a new center of power in a form of a conventual, brickmade castle, situated by the trading route, which combined the Chełmno land with Mazowsze. The construction of the stronghold began in the early 14th century and was supervised in four stages until 1415.

Through the entire period of use, the castle was besieged, often unsuccessfully, by the armies of Poland, Sweden, and later also by French, Russian and German armies. The prelude of all these events were the maneuvers of the Lithuanian and Polis armies in September of 1330, which didn’t end in the attack at the castle. In the 14th century, there were no large conflicts, and it wasn’t until the summer of 1410, that the Polish army won the battle of Grunwald, forcing the Teutonic knights to give up the stronghold, although commander Wilhelm Rosenberg was defending it fiercely for a long time.