Ryn

Ryn

Coat of arms

Ryn

Coordinates: 53°56′16″N 21°32′53″E / 53.93778°N 21.54806°E

Country

Poland

Area

• Total

4.09 km² (1.58 sq mi)

Population (2006)

• Total

3,006

• Density

730/km² (1,900/sq mi)

Postal code

11-520

Website

http://www.miastoryn.pl/

Ryn [rɨn] is a town in Poland located 19 km southwest of Giżycko, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Until the reorganization of 1999 it had been assigned to Suwałki Voivodeship. It had a population of 3,062 inhabitants as of December 31, 2004.

Ryn is located between Lake Ryn and Lake Ołów. Among the notable landmarks of the town are a former Ordensburg castle of the Teutonic Knights (erected ca. 1337) and a 19th-century Dutch windmill. Below the castle in the center of the town, a subterranean channel connects the Matussek pond, a shoaled bay of Lake Ołów, with Lake Ryn and the pond of a mill built by the Teutonic Knights.

Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode of the Teutonic Knights built a fortress on the site of a former Old Prussian fortification in 1337. A settlement near the castle was first mentioned in documents in 1405. It was known as Ryne after the Rhine River, and was included within the komturship of Balga. Ryne later became known in Standard German as Rhein.

The Komtur Haus zur Ryne was established in 1393, after which Rhein was the seat of a Komtur first until 1422; the Komturship was re-established in 1468, following the Second Peace of Toruń. The first Komtur of Rhein was Friedrich von Wallenrode (), brother of Teutonic Grand Master Konrad von Wallenrode, while the best-known one was Rudolf von Tippelskirch, who was also involved in the colonisation of East Prussia. After the secularisation of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights as the Duchy of Prussia in 1525, an "Amtshauptmann" office was established in Rhein, which remained in use until 1775.

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Wikipedia