Lokalizacja infirmerii w topografii krzyżackich zamków komturskich w Prusach w późnym średniowieczu

Abstract

The location of infirmaries in Teutonic Order castles topography in late Medieval Prussia In the primary Rule of the Teutonic Order, written in the middle of the 13th century, maintaining hospitals by the organisation is in its content, yet the generality of the normative provisions contained in that source bears a number of questions which are difficult to answer in a satisfactory way. From the main paragraphs referring to that issue it is impossible to conclude whether those hospitals/infirmaries were intended for secular persons or the brother friars of the Order. Detailed regulations on the subject were additionally provided in Statutes written around the same time. In accordance with those provisions, if a friar knight fell ill, then he should stay in bed for a few days. In case of prolongation of this state, he was to be moved to a common chamber for the sick – the infirmary. Only the Grand Master and his deputy had the right to be treated in their own chambers. However, it must be remembered that those regulations were formulated mostly in reference to the main convent of the Teutonic Order in the Holy Land. This institution was subordinate to the Great Commander and it was him who provided for medical care and medicines for the sick through his appointed subordinate official (“firmariemeister”). From the 13th century normative sources it cannot be concluded where the infirmaries were supposed to be located in the castle grounds. What does this issue look like in reference to the state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in the 14th and 15th centuries? Unfortunately, in the current literature of the subject it has been attempted to identify the locations of castle infirmaries exclusively on the basis of architectural data of preserved commander castles (still enerally sparse). Meanwhile, the problem is that limiting only to that sort of sources when examining the issue does not provide any evidential basis to indicate the location of infirmaries in the spatial configuration of the Teutonic strongholds. Only the analysis of written sources of the époque (starting with the end of the 14th century) allows to state that nearly all infirmaries of commander castles of the time in Prussia intended both for the members of the Teutonic Order (brothers, priests) and secular servants‑dieners were locate within the bailey. Sparse exceptions from that rule would only apply to the capital castle in Malbork, where one of the infirmaries might have been located in the area of the proper convent of the high castle and to the one in Konigsberg, where the infirmary for servant‑dieners of the Order was located outside the defensive walls of the bailey.