The early Middle Ages: dense, mist-shrouded forests, somewhere between the Great Masurian Lakes and the Middle Neman, and armed warriors on horseback striking fear into the hearts of their neighbours. We present to you the Yotvingians, the easternmost branch of the Prussians.
They aroused extreme emotions among their contemporaries
In his chronicles, the Teutonic knight Peter of Dusburg wrote of them: “The noble Sudovians, just as they surpassed others in the nobility of their customs, so too did they tower above others in wealth and strength. For they had six thousand horsemen and an almost innumerable number of warriors.”
Wincety Kadłubeg, however, in describing the expedition of Casimir the Just in 1193, writes of them rather unfavourably: “They know nothing of the use of strongholds, and their city walls are like those of wild beasts.”

Who were the Yotvingians really? Why did they suffer defeat and fall into oblivion?
If you wish to learn the history of this fascinating tribe, be sure to visit our museum!