| Address:
Arsenalo Str. 3A, LT-01100, Vilnius. Tel.:
(8-5) 2628080, (8-5) 2121813. E-mail:
tdm[at]takas.lt
600 Year
Commemoration of the Battle of Grunwald
Programme
Iconographic Exhibition
"IN
MEMORY OF THE VICTORY AT GRUNWALD"
6 July
– 25 October, 2010
Opening – 4 p. m.
 |
|
Tadeusz Papiel ir Zygmunt
Rozwadowski "Battle of Grunwald“ (fragment).1910. Property
of Lviv History Museum.
Photographer Riotr Kùosek |
In 2010 we
commemorate 600 years since one of the
greatest battles to have occured in medieval
Europe – the Battle of Grunwald. On July 15,
1410 the allied forces of the Kingdom of
Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
defeated the army of the German (Teutonic)
Order. The iconographic exhibition marking
this event, “In Memory of the Victory at
Grunwald”, aims to reveal the sequence of
events leading up to the battle and the
battle itself, the historical significance
of the event and its reasons, as well as to
present the most important Lithuanian
Grunwald cultural projects and
representations of Grunwald in the arts.
The knights of the Teutonic Order and the
Livonian Brothers of the Sword reached the
Baltic Sea region in the beginning of the
13th century. Soon after having enslaved the
divided the Baltic tribes, the two orders
united in 1237, and by 1283 they had
approached the recently established border
of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The primary
mission of the Order was to wage war against
pagans and orthodox believers, known as
schismatics in Western Europe, who lived in
the territories of present day Russia and
Belarus. The Order received many willing
soldiers for this mission from Western
Europe. The Crusaders ventured far into
Eastern Europe because they were firm
believers and devotees of Catholicism. At
the same time, such journeys were filled
with adventures, the thirst for glory,
honour, and success, the pursuit of
valuables, and were a means of furthering
their knightly careers. The younger sons of
German nobility who had missed out on their
inheritances would often become Crusaders,
while free burghers and farmers would become
colonists of the newly acquired territories
in Prussia.
1385 was a fateful year for Lithuania,
Poland, and the Teutonic Order. That year
Lithuania and Poland signed the Union of
Krëva, according to which the Lithuanian
ruler (1377–1381, 1382–1392) Jogaila wed the
hier to the Polish throne, Jadwiga, and thus
became the King of Poland. After a decade of
internal unrest in the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, Jogaila reconciled with his
cousin Vytautas and left the ruling of
Lithuania in his hands.
At that time, Lithuania was one of the
largest states in Europe. Despite the fact
that Slavs made up the majority of the
population of the Lithuanian state,
Lithuania’s ethnic lands took precedence,
that is, Vilnius, Trakai, and Samogitia.
It was precisely Samogitia over which the
conflict lasting 140 years arose with the
Teutonic Order. Samogitia was in a very
strategically important position, lying
between the two branches of the Order.
Therefore the Teutonic Knights, wanting to
join their territories together, were
deathly determined to conquer this middle
ground. Grand Duke of Lithuania (1392–1430)
Vytautas had drawn Samogitia into his
political plans on more than one occassion.
Several times he had even donated this land
to the Order in exchange for its support in
his foreseen war in the East against the
Tatars and the duchies of Rus'. Yet in fact,
the Lithuanian ruler Vytautas never intended
to seriously forsake Samogitia.
In 1409–1410 a new war began – its
conclusion, the Battle of Grunwald. The
rulers of Poland and Lithuania, cousins
Jogaila and Vytautas, joined forces in this
fateful battle and crushed the Teutonic
Order. The allies’ victory on the
battlefield at Grunwald, not far from the
Crusaders’ capital Marienburg, determined
the return of Samogitia to Lithuania. The
Battle of Grunwald was catastrophic for the
Order, and signalled the end of its
expansion and the start of its decline. The
battle changed the balance of power in
Central and Eastern Europe. The Roman Pope
and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, as
universal powers in Europe, foresaw the
further expansion of Catholic Europe to the
East via the Polish and Lithuanian states.
|
)