I work on the world’s largest citadel – here is a glimpse into my day

Secret passages, rooms that German Shepherd safety canines are too scared to enter and mysterious doorways 10ft off the bottom.

Welcome to Poland‘s Malbork Castle, the world’s largest – and meet your tour information, Reddit person ‘ArdArt’, who works on the blockbuster Gothic behemoth as an exhibition supervisor and ran a Q&A session on life on the citadel on Reddit.

Malbork Castle is unfold throughout 52 acres (2.27million sq. toes) on the east financial institution of the River Nogat in Malbork, round 25 miles south of the coast. 

The show-stopping medieval leviathan – a Unesco World Heritage Site – took 132 years to construct, accommodates 30million bricks and is round double the dimensions of Buckingham Palace and 4 occasions larger than Windsor Castle.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the supervisor admitted that ‘there are numerous, many [rooms] that I have never seen’ and ‘doubt I ever will’ among the many citadel’s ‘nooks and crannies’. 

He revealed that he as soon as discovered 5 little kittens, ‘that stared at me virtually with out blinking, as they in all probability noticed a human for the primary time of their lives’. 

They later added: ‘There are just a few doorways which can be all the time locked and I do not know what’s on the opposite facet.’

When it involves selecting their favorite room, the supervisor mentioned they don’t have one.

‘But if I had been to decide on a spot by which I’d spend many hours, I’d select the moat as a result of it surrounds the citadel so you may see it from each angle,’ they added. ‘Today there isn’t any water within the moat and you may stroll there freely.’

Asked if they’ve any ghost tales from their time working on the historical fortress, the supervisor recalled rumours that the guards’ German Shepherds ‘are scared to enter some areas when checking the citadel within the evening’.

There are no-go areas for vacationers, too.

They continued. ‘There is an attention-grabbing passage above the principle gate that’s off limits.

‘The door to that passage is all the time open, nonetheless the doorways are about 2m (6.5ft) to 3m (9.8ft) above the bottom and a few form of a ladder can be wanted to get there.’ 

And legend has it there’s a hidden passage rumoured to attach the citadel with two cities 20km (12.5 miles) away, the supervisor mentioned.

‘I haven’t got my very own opinion about its existence,’ they commented. ‘I heard some individuals saying it is solely a legend and a few individuals saying that they’ve seen its collapsed half within the woods.’

‘What precisely do you do there?’ was one other query, posed by a fellow Redditor. 

The employee shared their key tasks when working on the citadel, from managing guests on the courtyard to standing watch on the observational tower and taking care of the chapter home – for as much as eight hours at a time. 

They mentioned: ‘Number one – I stand within the courtyard, close to the principle gate, for seven hours and make it possible for individuals do not smoke, kids are supervised, and other people go away the museum with the exit, not the doorway. I additionally reply questions and possibly typically assist with audio guides.

‘Number two – I stand on the observational tower for eight hours and make it possible for individuals don’t lean an excessive amount of and they don’t fall.

‘Number three – I stand within the chapterhouse for eight hours and make it possible for individuals behave in the case of the exhibition. Also, I cease vacationers from going up the slim stairs to the tower from that room, because the stairs are one-way.’

User ‘nited_contrarians’ requested if the stairways had been one-way again in Medieval occasions.

Responding, the supervisor defined why this was not needed a whole bunch of years in the past.

‘In medieval occasions there weren’t 10 individuals going up and down the tower each minute,’ they penned. ‘Also individuals had been about 160cm to 165cm excessive at finest. They did not carry any weapons or armour with them day by day.’

Another person requested how the citadel was heated in days of yore, to which the supervisor replied: ‘There was a large room that was full of red-hot stones once in a while.

‘The room was linked with vents to an important rooms within the citadel, so they’d flooring heating. Now the citadel is heated with electrical energy.’

When requested by ‘reddititty69’ what number of armed males it might take to defend the citadel from an assault in Medieval occasions, the supervisor guessed ‘lower than 100’.

The employee mentioned that the citadel has ‘by no means been conquered militarily, solely bought’ and highlighted the benefits of its place, situated between a river and wetlands.

‘Additionally it is surrounded by a moat, so the enemy is pressured to enter by the principle gate,’ they defined.

‘To get to the gate, the enemy has to undergo the drawbridge. The gate is in reality a collection of 5 gates, every with programs that stop enemies from getting into.’

This consists of ‘particular rooms for guards with crossbows’ and ‘little doorways that pressure the passing individual to reveal their neck, even when they’ve full armour on’, they revealed.

When requested for his or her favorite reality in regards to the citadel, the supervisor revealed that the Gdanisko bathroom tower is known as after the close by metropolis of Gdansk.

‘If I had been a citizen of that metropolis, I would not be proud,’ they commented.

And ‘the weirdest factor?’ requested person ‘inthebenefitofmrkite’.

It’s the ‘stunning’ quantity of cables operating by the partitions and ceilings, the supervisor mentioned, including: ‘After all, it is a medieval citadel and it was bizarre for me that individuals simply determined to drill holes by a monument.’