Grunwald

Today I will share with you another highlight of the military history of Poland - the battle of Grunwald. Yes, you remember right, this is the one for which king Władysław Jagiełło crossed the Vistula river in Kozienice.

The battle of Grunwald was one of the major battles fought in Europe in the medieval era, with around 50 thousand knights and infantrymen involved. It took place on 15 July 1410 and was a major victory of the troops of Poland and Lithuania in their war against the Teutonic Order. Here you can see the battlefield.

The major element of the place is the monument, with 11 metal structures that are symbols of the flags of the troops.

What surprised me a bit is that there are also real flags there. The Polish and the Lithuanian are not a surprise (both countries formed a union at that time). But why did they put there the flag of the European Union? Is the EU a kind of successor of the Teutonic Knights? Pretty scary idea.

But there are some other strange monuments present. Like this one - don't you have a feeling it is devoted to some ancient slavic gods?

This one is formed of rocks that seem to have no special idea behind but it is not true.

These rocks are the remainings of an old monument commemorating the battle of Grunwald that was originally in Kraków. it was destroyed by the Germans at the beginning of World War II. No surprise, after all Teutonic Knights were mainly German.

If you want to see the battlefield in more details, I encourage you to take this virtual tour. Or even better, come in July to watch the live reconstruction of the battle itself. You can then compare it to the most famous picture of the battle, painted by Jan Matejko.

So come on my friends, the road is wide open and waiting for you.