Nibork

Nibork grew around a Teutonic castle in southern Prussia, near the Masovian frontier. The Order fortified an earlier Prussian settlement in the fourteenth century and granted it town law after 1381, encouraging a settlement beneath the fortress. During the Thirteen Years' War the town sided with the Prussian Confederation; after the peace of 1466 it eventually returned to the Order under Polish suzerainty.

After the creation of ducal Prussia in 1525, Nibork became a district centre. Czech Brethren settled here in 1549, and Polish pastors published works and translations in the town and at Königsberg. The surrounding countryside had many Polish farmers. Fire and the plague of 1708–1711 brought heavy losses, but a Polish school later attracted students from towns as distant as Gdańsk and Königsberg.