Stębark

Stębark
Village
Holy Trinity Church
Stębark
Coordinates: 53°30′N 20°8′E / 53.500°N 20.133°E / 53.500; 20.133
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Warmian-Masurian
County	Ostróda
Gmina	Grunwald
Population	630
Website	http://olsztynek.com.pl/

Stębark [ˈstɛmbark] (German: Tannenberg) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Grunwald, within Ostróda County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. The village is chiefly known for two historic battles which took place there: the 1410 Battle of Grunwald and the (Second) Battle of Tannenberg in World War I.

It is situated on the western edge of the historic Masuria region, southeast of the Dylewska Góra range. It lies approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) south-east of Ostróda and 40 km (25 mi) south-west of the regional capital Olsztyn. The village has a population of 630. From 1975 to 1998 it belonged to Olsztyn Voivodeship.

The settlement was first mentioned as Tannenberge about 1335, when the area was part of the State of the Teutonic Order. The Old Polish name Sztambark was already documented in 1426.

On 15 July 1410 a united army of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania led by King Władysław II Jagiełło and Grand Prince Vytautas, with additional mercenary troops from Bohemia, defeated the Teutonic Knights under Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen in the Battle of Grunwald. The site of the cavalry battle, one of the largest in the whole Middle Ages, was actually the heath between the villages of Tannenberg and neighbouring Grünfelde, mentioned by King Władysław as "loco conflictus nostri ... dicto Grunenvelt". Adopted as Grunwald by the Polish chronicler Jan Długosz (1415–1480), the battle was called Bitwa pod Grunwaldem in Polish, while German historiography named it Schlacht bei Tannenberg, after the deployment area of the Teutonic troops.