Grunwald

The battle at Grunwald is one of the greatest and most important battles in the history of medieval Europe. In the german historiography it is described as the battle at Tannenberg, after the German name of the village of Stębark, which is located at the same area as Grunwald.

The date of July 15th 1410 went down in history as the great triumph of Poland and Lithuania above the Teutonic order. The failure of the Crusaders made such a gigantic impact on the German countries, that the 1914 battle at Stębark between the Russian and German armies was called the Second Battle at Tannenberg and – after the victory of the German army – was hailed as revenge on the Slavonic people.

The giant battlefield is located at the large area between the villges of Grunwald, Stębark, Ulnowo and Łodwigowo. The only memorial from the times of the battle are the ruins of a chapel, which was built right after the battle was finished, probably in the place of the death of the great master Ulrich von Jungingen. For centuries, this place was famous for miraculous events and was visited by numerous pilgrims. In 1901, the Germans put a giant erratic boulder in the ruins of the chapel as a tribute to the defeat of the great master.

The great victory and the symbolic of the battle, which were forgotten in the coming years, became important once again during the partition of Poland, and especially in the late 19th century.