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"The promoter of this model was Mr. Malinowski- he knew that I'm busy on doing modelling, so he proposed me to do the model of castle in Wąbrzeźno. I was thinking about it and I decided that I can do it if only I would have suitable drawings and information. At that time Mr. Baciński's book and monography of Wąbrzeźno were published, so it was possible to use them in working on the model, but mainly it's modeled on Mr. Baciński's drawings. Information were collected from about thirty books and the construction was talked over with, between others, prof. Czajowski, Mr. Baciński and many amateurs, who knew the castle in Wąbrzeźno well. The construction went on for lasted six months and from the beginning of planning passed two years.
The castle in Wąbrzeźno had evacuation tunnels. In case of danger messenger could leave the castle and go for some help. The model is built with the plywood and German model-making paper. As I was working on the construction I had some problems due to the deficite of materials. The element of the model, which was built as the first was the front paty of the castle- in fact it had walls, which were 8 meters high. The main castle was made next- the first elements of this part were wings: south and west. Later I made a chapel. It had cellar and the tower, which in fact had to notify about the danger from enemies and about disasters about making a fire. On the castle area there were economic buildings, such as bakerys and distilleries, too. The model has 4 towers- squary and round. In fact the moat of the castle was big and hard to get and the walls were 2 meters wide.
All Teutonic castles stay on the square base. It was taken from the Ancient Romans- it made castles easy to defend. The castle in Wąbrzeźno was breaking fast. In the middle ages was a group of people whose specialization was to explore the place where castle would be built. The place chosen for the castle in Wąbrzeźno wasn't good. The specialists made bad choice and the castle was still subject to destruction. Everything started with breaking of the tower. As the result of washing over the castle by water from the lake. Castle started to be built, when the palisade made of dirt and wood, which was on so-called Swedish hill, finished making its defensing functions.
The difference between a fortified town and the castle is big, namely the fortified town was the obstruction for the attacker and place to stay for civil population in dangerous situation. The castle was a closed building, which wasn't the place to stay for civil population, but for rich owners of the castle. We can find castles all around the world and every castle has its own style. The castle in Wąbrzeźno has Teutonic style, which main building materials are burnt-out red brick and stone. In spite of that castles have one common quality- they're closed and they have defensive functions. The Knight of Teutonic Order used roof tilling which was hard to light and which made it difficult to the enemy to get the castle. The destruction of the castle was reasoned by pulling it down in order to extend the town too. The main result of that activity was that castle didn't meet its functions.
I plan to make objects which were important in some time too- Prussion palisade and Swedish hill. I've got some materials to build it, models of Wąbrzeźno and the church dedicated to Saint Szymon and Juda Tadeusz- all of those projects are stopped for some time because of the lack of money.
After the conversation we thanked Mr. Sarnowski for spending time with us and talking about the model of the castle and said goodbye.