High Castle Courtyard
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Transcript
The High Castle was the core convent. Here the brothers’ daily life followed religious rules: worship, communal meals, meetings and regulated residence. That is easy to forget when armour and battles dominate popular images of the Teutonic Order.
The Order was military, but it was also monastic. The courtyard and surrounding cloisters connected the spaces needed for a disciplined religious community. This dual identity created Malbork’s distinctive architecture. Defensive walls protected not just soldiers, but a monastery that happened to sit at the centre of a state. The contradiction was built into the institution rather than added later.