Ryn

Ryn ryn (Rhein) is a town in northeastern Poland located 19 km southwest of Giżycko, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in Masuria. 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 and in Polish as Ryn. Since the 15th century the population was mostly Polish. After the outbreak of the Thirteen Years’ War the castle was captured by the Prussian Confederation, at the request of which in 1454 King Casimir IV Jagiellon signed the act of incorporation of the region to the Kingdom of Poland. Later on, it was captured by the Teutonic Knights and was repeatedly besieged by the Confederation troops. After the Second Peace of Toruń in 1466 it became part of Poland as a fief held by the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. 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. From 1466 The first Komtur of Rhein was de, 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 Prussia.