O orientalnych motywach w architekturze zamku malborskiego, czyli powrót do dawnej hipotezy
On Oriental Motifs in the Architecture of the Malbork Castle, or, a Return of an Old Hypothesis

Summary/Abstract: The northern gate of the High Castle in Malbork, which is its main entrance, is decorated with arcades with ogee arches. Erected in the first phase of construction, it dates from around 1280. Malbork’s ogee arches are thus among the earliest to be found in Europe; in the Middle East, however, these forms had been known since the early Middle Ages. Considering that early Western European works featuring ogee arches carried symbolism related to the Orient or Jerusalem, it may be assumed that the fact that this form of a portal was used in Malbork may have had the nature of an ideological declaration. In this portal, the first seat of the Teutonic Order and its Holy Land origins were recalled in the language of architecture.

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