źródło: Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku
After three years of construction work and various education and training initiatives, the project ‘Altering the Historic Utility Buildings in the Outer Bailey of Malbork Castle and Adapting Them to Cultural and Education Purposes’, partially financed as part of the Culture Programme (EEA Financial Mechanism), is finally complete. As what we call the castle summer season begins, we open the newly reconstructed Outer Bailey area to the public.
The ribbon was cut by Marta Cienkowska – Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and Dr Janusz Trupinda, Director of the Malbork Castle Museum.
The castle library’s new education room debuted as an event venue, as that is where the opening ceremony took place.
The autumn of 2021 saw the commencement of the reconstruction of two utility buildings destroyed in 1945. The project involved restoring the historical buildings, while preserving all surviving mediaeval wall fragments and supporting them using a modern reinforced concrete structure. The construction and conservation work cost nearly PLN 21.5 million, around 12 million of which was granted via the Culture Programme of the EEA Financial Mechanism and by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
After the ceremony, the long-awaited tour of the new interiors began. The staff of the departments that will be making the move to the Outer Bailey showed the attendees their workshops, discussed their work and presented their new specialist equipment. The new buildings will house our research library, which will finally have ample space for its book collection of around 40,000 volumes, and will be able to expand its education efforts. The new Outer Bailey offers 2500 m2 of space across its basements and two storeys. These will house seven conservation workshops, the castle archives and certain completely new departments established in relation to the reconstruction: a collection digitisation workshop and the Centre for Post-Teutonic Heritage Research, which will focus on architecture and artefacts.
The cutting-edge workshops were available to local residents, visitors and anyone else who came to see the Outer Bailey that day, making for a unique opportunity to explore places which are usually inaccessible and talk to the research staff who work there.
The entire Outer Bailey offered a wealth of attractions, including handicraft workshops, games, contests, plays and a concert.
We would like to thank all our partners and today’s guests – it was important for us to have you here on such a momentous occasion.
