Ryn

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This article is about a town in Poland. For information on the Star Wars race of the same name, see the list of Star Wars races.

Ryn (IPA: [rɨn]; until 1946 German: Rhein in Ostpreußen) is a town in Poland located 19 km southwest of Giżycko, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. 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.

1 History
2 Population
3 Notes and references
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

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.

The Komtur Haus zur Ryne was established in 1393 and disappeared after 1468. The best-known Komtur of Rhein was Rudolf von Tippelskirch, who was also involved in the colonisation of East Prussia. After the secularisation of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights as the Duchy of Prussia in 1525, an "Amtshauptmann" office was established in Rhein, which remained in use until 1775.

During Tatar attacks in eastern Prussia, the village was burned down on 7 February 1657, and many inhabitants were kidnapped. Between 1709-1711, Rhein suffered from plague. Despite these setbacks, King Frederick William I of Prussia granted the town its town charter in 1723. The decisive reason for this was the role of Rhein as an administration center for a larger rural area.

During the Napoleonic Wars, soldiers took up quarters in Rhein. The development of the town largely stagnated during the 19th and 20th centuries. It was not until 1902 that Rhein received a railroad connection, though it was only a one-track link of a light railway with a narrow gauge.

Rhein was administered by Landkreis Lötzen within East Prussia from 1818-1945. The town became part of the German Empire after the unification of Germany by Prussia in 1871. After the defeat of Germany in World War II, Rhein was placed under Polish administration in 1945 and officially renamed Ryn.