Dzierzgoń

Dzierzgoń grew on the river of the same name in the old Prussian land of Pomesania. The Teutonic Knights founded a castle called Christburg in 1247; two years later a treaty with Prussian leaders was concluded there in the presence of a papal legate. The settlement below the castle gained town rights by 1288 and became the seat of an Order commander.

After Grunwald in 1410, Władysław Jagiełło stayed at the abandoned castle and received envoys from Elbląg. The Teutonic Knights recovered it, but Dzierzgoń sided with Poland in the Thirteen Years' War. It later became a Polish royal town and remained so until Prussia annexed it in 1772. Its early history was shaped by the conquest and negotiation that accompanied the Order's rule.