Kwidzyn

Kwidzyn stands on the Liwa in the old Prussian land of Pomesania. The Teutonic Knights founded a castle in 1232 and the town of Marienwerder the following year. In 1243 it became the seat of the bishops of Pomesania. Their great brick cathedral and castle rose together above the settlement, creating a powerful ecclesiastical centre among the towns of the lower Vistula.

Dorothea of Montau lived here from 1391 until her death in 1394, and pilgrims later visited her shrine. In 1440 the Prussian Confederation was founded at Kwidzyn to oppose the Order's rule. The ensuing Thirteen Years' War changed the town's allegiance; after the peace of 1466 it remained under the Order as a fief of Poland, before passing to the secular Duchy of Prussia in 1525.