Marienburg

Marienburg, an old town of Prussia, on the Nogat, 30 miles by rail SSE. of Danzig. It was long the seat of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order (q.v.), who removed from Venice hither in 1309. The fortress of the Knights, however, was founded here about 1274. Marienburg remained in their hands till 1457, when it was taken by the Poles, and by them it was held till 1772. The castle, in which seventeen Grand Masters resided, a noble edifice in a style of Gothic peculiarity to the vicinity of the Baltic, was thoroughly restored in 1817-42. Pop. (1875) 8538; (1895) 10,738. See works by Witt (1854) and Bergau (1871).