Important locations in Copernicus’ life

Malbork (population 2023: 36,709) is a district town in the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the north of Poland. Its development began in 1274 with the construction of the name-giving Marienburg (the Polish name is derived from it), which was the seat of the Teutonic Order from 1280. The same-named town was granted city rights in 1286. From 1309-1457, Marienburg was the capital of the Order's state. In 1454 the town belonged to Poland, and in 1772 it was annexed to Prussia. Malbork only became Polish again in 1945.

The city of Elbląg (historically Elbing; population in 2023: 112,923) is located in the northern Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, just a few kilometers south of the Vistula Lagoon and around 50 kilometers southeast of Gdansk. In the Middle Ages, Elbląg was one of the leading Hanseatic cities and one of the headquarters of the Teutonic Order. Its importance as one of the leading ports on Baltic Sea was lost in the 15th century, partly due to silting.
In the early modern period, Elbing was predominantly under Polish sovereignty as part of the so-called "Royal Prussia" oder "Polish Prussia". As a result of the First Partition of Poland in 1772 the city came to the newly founded Prussian province of West Prussia, in 1945 to the then People's Republic of Poland.

Located in the Polish voivodeship of Kujawsko-Pomorskie about 100 km south of Gdańsk (Gdansk), the city of Grudziądz, German Graudenz, today has about 96,000 inhabitants. The history of the city, located on the Vistula River, dates back to the 10th century AD. In 1231 the Teutonic Order built a castle with a commandery here, and in 1291 the town was granted city rights. As part of the Kulm Land, Graudenz was subordinated to the Polish Crown in 1466, and in the course of the first partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1772, the town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Since the First World War the town has belonged to Poland, interrupted only by the German occupation between 1939 and 1945.