Text The medieval episode
Glappo, Steynow and an unnamed castle belong to the thirteenth-century narrative preserved by Dusburg and Jeroschin.
A doubtful name, a real earthwork, a long historical tradition
Schloss
Connowedit
A fortified earthwork once stood on the Haff shore west of Margen, near Caporn. Whether it was the unnamed castle attacked by Glappo in the thirteenth century—and whether its medieval name was truly Connowedit—remains unproved.
The evidence is strongest when its separate strands remain separate: an unnamed medieval castle, a later and unstable place-name, a real coastal earthwork, and a much younger legend joining Martin Golin to the Vierbrüdersäule.
Current best-supported assessment
- The physical site is real. Crome reports that Guise recorded it in the 1820s; Crome surveyed the surviving banks in 1940; modern photographs show substantial wooded relief and an embanked approach through the shore vegetation.
- The earliest narrative does not name the castle. Peter of Dusburg describes Glappo attacking a castle in Samland near the Haff and almost opposite Brandenburg. Nikolaus von Jeroschin also leaves it unnamed.
- The late-fifteenth-century name is now better anchored. The Vienna “author’s copy” of the Utrecht Chronicle of the Teutonic Order explicitly says that the castle “was called Cenauwe”. Later witnesses preserve related forms including Conouwe, Cerauwe and Conouwedit. Hirsch’s derivation from the personal name Steynow remains plausible but unproved.
- The complete Golin story is late and composite. Schütz supplies an older Pelusa raid and several names. Jester’s 1784 account joins this material to Connowedit, four slain companions and the Vierbrüdersäule through an unidentified “old manuscript”.
The central conclusion
One landscape, three histories
Place The Margen earthwork
A coastal enclosure west of Margen was physically recorded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its date and builders remain uncertain.
Tradition The later legend
Conowedit, Martin Golin and the Vierbrüdersäule became increasingly entangled in antiquarian and popular retellings.
A defensible formulation: a genuine earthwork survives or survived at the traditional Conowedit site; an unnamed medieval castle existed in approximately the same geographical setting; the identity of the two is possible, but not demonstrated.
The site today
The landscape can now be followed on maps and photographs
The provisional location is approximately 54.6908° N, 20.3003° E, on the Haff shore west of the former Margen estate. The Russian field report describes an approach through allotments and across the old Königsberg wastewater channel before reaching the banks and shoreline.
The photographs do not by themselves date the earthworks. They are valuable because they place Crome’s abstract plan back into a difficult, overgrown coastal landscape.
Development of the evidence and tradition
A brief chronology
- Glappo’s final campaign.
Dusburg describes the attack on an unnamed Samland castle, Glappo’s betrayal by Steynow, his capture and execution.
- Dusburg completes his chronicle.
The earliest narrative source used in this investigation.
- Jeroschin renders Dusburg into German verse.
The castle remains unnamed.
- The Utrecht Chronicle supplies a name.
Its Vienna “author’s copy”, produced in direct cooperation with the original author, says that the castle was called Cenauwe. Later witnesses preserve related variant forms.
- Hennenberger places Conowedit near Capurn.
His wording is cautious: a castle “is said” to have stood in the district.
- Schütz prints the Pelusa raid.
Martin Galin and two recognisable companions appear, but no Connowedit residence is named.
- Huhn and Rohde survey explanations of the Vierbrüdersäule.
Their dissertation contains no Golin–Connowedit account.
- Jester publishes the complete joined legend.
Connowedit, Golin, four companions, the 1295 ambush and the monument are combined.
- Guise is reported to record the earthwork.
Crome later describes five drawings, including a circular ground plan; the originals are now the subject of an archive enquiry.
- Voigt accepts the identification.
He argues chiefly from the location near Caporn and opposite Brandenburg.
- The story enters illustrated juvenile literature.
The Jugend-Album turns Golin’s career and the fall of his companions into an energetic historical romance.
- Crome publishes the surviving ramparts.
The Margen Schloßberg is documented physically; its historical identification remains traditional.
- Russian local researchers visit the site.
Photographs and maps reconnect the historical records with the surviving landscape.
Research status
What has changed since the first draft
Forum material and permission
The relevant photographs, provisional coordinate, Russian map crop and modern book references have been examined. Vasiliy has kindly permitted reuse of his 2011 field photographs with a link to the original thread.
Cenauwe reassessed
Rombert Stapel’s modern edition identifies Vienna Hs. 392 as an “author’s copy”. Its text already gives the castle the name Cenauwe, narrowing the textual problem to where the Utrecht compiler obtained that name.
Guise enquiry sent
The Berlin Prussia-Fundarchiv has been asked about the five drawings and Crome’s associated notes. A response can be incorporated as a later research update.
Continue through the dossier
Four ways into the problem
The name and the chronicles
Follow the unnamed castle from Dusburg through the unstable readings of the Younger Hochmeisterchronik, Hennenberger, Voigt, Töppen and Hirsch.
The Margen site and its maps
Compare Jester’s topography, Guise and Crome, Messtischblatt states, modern field photographs and the provisional location.
Martin Golin and the Vierbrüdersäule
Separate Schütz’s older narrative from Jester’s synthesis, the 1717 silence, the 1853 romance and modern Russian retellings.
Sources and unresolved leads
Open the annotated bibliography, image credits, research status and publication checklist.