Castle of the Teutonic Order, Malbork, Poland

In what areas is the castle in Malbork record-breaking?

1) The largest brick castle in the world - a fortress so fortified that it was never conquered militarily, the inhabitants could survive 3 years without any supplies, and the monastery part was accessed by 4 bridges thrown over the water.

2) The largest kitchen hood in the world - the most exquisite food of the Middle Ages came out of the kitchen, this was confirmed by important heads of Europe at that time, it was also tasted by King Casimir the Great.

3) The largest sculpture of medieval Europe - the Malbork Madonna is over 8 meters high, it was recreated by modern conservators, covered with a mosaic containing real gold. It can be seen on the castle walls of the chapel, from under the ticket office building. Interestingly, the glass cubes were brought from Venice, and the gold elements from Gdańsk.

4) The largest number of latrines in a stronghold in the Middle Ages - even cooks had their own toilet, and cabbage leaves were often used as toilet paper, which also had medicinal properties, e.g. anti-inflammatory.

5) The largest number of wells in a castle in the Middle Ages. Interestingly, the fortress also had access to running water.

6) The oldest underfloor heating in these lands - large stones in the basement were heated in fireplaces and acted as storage furnaces. The heat escaped into the rooms through special holes in the floors.

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I am planning to publish some posts on anarcho-mysticism. Its history, main ideas and modern state of affairs. First some history - and It is a sad story, as you may guess.
The term «anarcho-mysticism» was used in 1906 by a writer Chulkov. It was the first time. The term back then has almost nothing to do with anarchy. It was used in an article, that speculated with some purely philosophical ideas.
Everything changed in 1917, where a first founder of anarcho-mystical brotherhood Apolon Karelin returned from his exile to Russia. He spent most of his years fighting against tsarist regime during revolts, and mutinies. Writing revolutionary articles, helping workers etc, but in 1905 was arrested and pressured by the state so bad that he had to run to Europe. In Europe, specifically in France, he “created” (though anarcho-mystics probably would use the word he was “given”) his new theory. Karelin’s was quite a famous anarchist theorist back then. He was an intellectual and scholar, and wrote some books on anarchism including “state and anarchy”, knew Kropotkin personally. He created anarcho-mystical brotherhood and called it the “Order of light”. Members of the order considered themselves as knights. After Kropotkin’s death, its main base of operations situated in Kropotkin museum in Moscow.
After Karelin’s death in 1926, Solonovich became a main figure in the brotherhood. At his time, several branches were created. A lot of connections were made – including communist officials, scientists and different artists and occultists. He wrote books, read lectures and perform experiments a long side with other members of the brotherhood and all the people, who want to be involved, sometimes even with famous soviet scientists, like Vasilev. An influence of brotherhood was growing especially in a sphere of culture. Why it was so attractive? Brotherhood created its own mythology, that was based on Christian Gnosticism and Occultism. Unlike the original systems, it has a lot of similarities to modern fantasy, like Tolkien Silmalirion, but the ideas, that translated through these myths were daring and risky, it is daring even now, and in Stalin’s USSR, knights of the order were doomed to become martyrs for their dream. Despite the fact that legends (that is how stories from this mythology were called) were spread only orally – it didn’t help during mass terror. Why legends worked for soviet people? Imagine that you have entire fantasy epic, that actually have a secret meaning and is spreading by a secret society. Surely soviet citizens were attracted by such daring endeavor. But, the price was ultimate. In 1930-s the pressure of the state on the brotherhood ramped up. Active members were arrested. Hostilities between any leftist ideologies and Stalinists had risen up. During the peak of mass terror campaign, when most active members had been already arrested, the Moscow branch of occultists Ashem redivivous, which were indirectly connected to order even made a desperate attempt to telepathically influence Stalin and were caught in the process. You may think – it is like a movie, why no one has ever written about this? – Even in 1990-s the ideas of anarcho-mysticism was somewhat scary for FSB, and they still are trying to hide this story from public.
During 1930-s Solonovich and his wife were killed. Solonovich was tortured so bad, that he didn’t manage to survive long enough to get officially shot. He knew in advance, that he will be arrested and killed, it is no surprise to anyone who is studying anarcho-mysticism, that Solonovich could see the future. His last words before arrest were “at least some small roots will remain”. I decided to write a little bit about their story. And just put a link to Nalimov’s “farewell” English article about them. Nalimov was a member of Order during his student years, not very active – but he spent most of his life in prison camps for it. He knew the members and in the 1990s, as a very old man, tried to find out at least something about his brothers and sisters from the order. Rest in Peace, knights! Roots indeed remained! Ордену слава в веках и мирах!
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1283&context=ijts-transpersonalstudies

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Štramberk - Zahájení hradní sezóny 2024

Wszystkie 56 zdjęć (all 56 photos):
https://www.mason.org.pl/fotoblog/wydarzenia/rekografia/stramberk-zahajeni-hradni-sezony-2024

#rekonstruktorzy #ŠtramberskáTrúba #FujiFilm #reenactment #rycerze #Czechy #MoravskoslezskýKraj #szlachta #Cesko #ViltroxAF75mm #wojownicy #CzechRepublic #Viltrox #knights #Morawy #nobles #Morava #Štramberk #warriors #FujiFilmXT100 #Sztramberk #RekonstrukcjaHistoryczna #FujiFilmX #Stramberg #HistoricalReenactmentGroups #rekografia #Strahlenberg #ReenactmentGroups #rekonstrukcje #HradŠtramberk