Below: Aerial views from pre-WWII postcards of Riesenburg, looking west past the Schloss See (Lake of the Castle) to farm fields beyond. Left: A view of the south part of town. The tall building in the middle of the photo is the "Polish Church", also known as the "Bishop's Chapel". It was located outside the town walls with a medieval cemetery for the clergy and members of their households.
Right: The north part of town. St. Adalbert's Cathedral, where several members of the Lewandowski family married, is near the middle of the photo. The solitary tower to the left of the cathedral is the Kwidzyn gate, which was one of the entrances into the old walled city. The covered water tank shown here that is on top of the tower was used from 1908 until the early 1960s to provide water pressure for the town water supply. The water tank was removed during a restoration in the late 1960s, and a peaked roof put in its place.
Above: An old postcard dated 1899 with a view of Riesenburg, looking east out across the Schloss See. The three prominent buidings from left to right are St. Adalbert's Cathedral, the Kwidzyn Gate before it became a water tower, and the Polish Church.
History of Riesenburg, West Prussia and the lay of the land
Riesenberg is the historic name of a Polish town that for much of its history was part of Germany. But it was renamed to Prabuty in 1945, when it was captured near the end of WWII by the Russians, and incoporated into the communist state of Poland. The town sits about 40 miles southeast of Danzig, which was once a German port on the Baltic Sea, but today is the Polish city of Gdansk (see map at left).
Although Riesenburg is now Polish, it has a long history with many rulers. The town is first mentioned in 1250 as the seat of the Bishops of Pomesania, a Catholic diocese founded in 1243 by the crusader kingdom of the Teutonic Knights. When Lutheran bishops during the Reformation replaced the ruling Catholic clergy, Riesenburg became part of Prussia, which was subject at first to the Polish crown, but became increasingly independant. The bishops built a fortified wall around their town during these turbulant times, and lived within its walls in the co-called Bishop's Castle.
Riesenburg was included in 1701 in the Kingdom of Prussia, then from 1793 to 1918 it was part of the German Empire that grew out of Prussia. With Germany's defeat in WWI, Riesenburg became part of the Free State of Prussia that was isolated from Germany in 1920 by a strip of land called "Polish corridor". Nazi Germany briefly took this corridor back in 1939, along with Prussia, to re-establish the pre-WWI boundaries of the Empire. However, when the Nazi regime collapsed six years later, Prussia was occupied by the Soviets and annexed to Communist Poland. The Prussian inhabitants were subsequently expelled, and the area resettled by Poles who live there today.
The town sits on an ancient flood plain, across which the Vistula River and its tributaries have wandered back and forth over millenia, leaving behind numerous lakes, some quite large, that represent abandoned meander channels of the river. Riesenburg occupies the east shore of the Schloss See (Lake of the Castle), which is one of these lakes. It is known today by its Polish name of Jezioro Liwieniec, which translates to Lake Liwieniec. A much larger lake, another abandoned meander channel, is the Sorgen See, which lies about a mile north of Riesenburg. It is better known by its modern Polish name of Jezioro Dzierzgoń (Lake Dzierzgoń). These features are shown on the map above and right.
Below: An engraving of old Riesenburg, as seen from the south, published in 1628 by historian Abraham Boots. The Bishop's Castle is to the left, with the tower of St. Adalbert's Cathedral in the middle, and the tower of the Kwidzyn Gate on the right. The town hall is also visible just in front of the cathedral. The Schloss See (Lake of the Castle) is out of view to the far left.
Left: A sketch of Riesenburg, as seen from the north, published in 1684 by historian Christoph Hartknoch. It shows the cathedral on the left, and the Bishop's Castle on the right, with the town walls in the foreground. The Schloss See is out of view to the right. A fire in 1688 damaged parts of the castle, and another fire in 1787 destroyed most of what was left. Right: A painting dated 1820 that looks out across the Schloss See to the town sitting on the east shore of the lake. Only the cathedral still stands in this view, the castle and town walls having been largely dismantled by this time. The smaller building to the right of the cathedral is the Polish Church.
Monuments of Riesenburg, West Prussia from old postcards
Above are old postcards with views of the Kwidzyn Gate, also known as the Hospital Gate, which was the southern entrance into the medieval walled town. Little else remains of the old fortifications. All three views are from the south side of the gate, which leads north into the interior of the old walled town. Left: A card dated 1919 showing the gate a few years after the addition of a water tank to the top of the tower to create pressure for the town water supply. Center: An 1882 photo of the gate taken when some members of the Lewandowski family may have still lived in nearby Klein Rohdau (Ilawa u Rodowo). Right: A view of the tower in the late 1960s, after the water tank was removed and replaced with a peaked roof.
Below: Two views (Left dated 1898, Right dated 1916) looking down from the cathedral tower to the north side of the gate (i.e., from within the walls).
Left: A postcard view of the "Polish Church" (Chapel of the Virgin Mary). It was formerly the Bishops Chapel, which was associated with a cemetery outside the city walls for the members of the clergy and their households. Center: A postcard from 1910 to the 1920s showing the medieval Cathedral of St. Adalbert where several members of the Lewandowski family were married. This view looks out from atop the tower of the Kwidzyn Gate. Right: A card date 1955 to 1958 showing damage done to the cathedral when the invading Soviet Red Army occupied Riesenburg at the end of WWII. The building has since been restored, and is still in use today.
Construction of a castle at Resisenburg (Prabuty) by the crusader "Order of the Teutonic Knights" began in 1276 or 1277 on a low hill between the Schloss See (Lake Liwieniec) to the west, and another lake to the east that is now gone. The keep and inner walls were built over sixty years or more on the site of an Old Prussian hill fort called Reisen (Rezija) that the Order destroyed in 1236, when they conquered the pagan Old Prussians, and made them Christians. Outer defensive walls appeared early in the 14th century, and the town within came to be called Riesenburg. When a cathedral was built here in the mid-14th century, the bishops installed there by the Order lived in the fortress, which became known as "the Bishop's Castle".
The castle was plundered in 1414 during a war between the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland. Then it was ransacked again in 1422, and attacked in 1520 by Polish troops, but each time the bishops rebuilt the walls. When Hartknoch (1684) included a sketch of Riesenburg in a series of engavings, the castle was at its greatest glory. However, a fire in 1688 severely damaged both the castle and cathedral, resulting in demolition of parts of the walls. Then another fire in 1787 destroyed most of what was left of the castle. Final dismantling of any remaining walls took place in 1945, when Soviet troops occupied the town. Fortunately, old engravings by Boots (1628) and others survive, as well as an 1811 map of the foundations. A scale model based on these is on display today to show what the Bishop's Castle once looked like.
The map on the left, made in 1811, shows the foundations of the castle and walled town. Shown in red: 1) Castle, 2) Cathedral, 3) Town Hall, 4) Mill, 5) Kwidzyn Gate (Hospital Gate), 6) Schloss See (modern lake), 7) former lake (now drained), 8) North Gate (Royal Gate), and 9) East Gate (High Gate). Note the moat on the north side connecting the two lakes. Another moat on the east side of the castle, but within the outer walls, separated the castle from the town. Drawbridges crossed both moats. There was also a narrow door, called a "wicket gate", on the west side that opened to the Schloss See, but probably admited one person at a time. This is sometimes called the "Pot Gate".
A 1904 view of an old fortified wall torn down in 1945 by the Russians.
The district of Rosenberg in old postcards
from the collection of Christa Mühleisen (2010)
Views of Riesenburg, West Prussia 
