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Photo: Archive Fundacja Dom Kultury

Photo: Archive Fundacja Dom Kultury

Graphics: Aleksandra Głowacka

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The Battle of Grunwald – A Prison Strategy Game

Can history become a tool for education, creativity and social change? At the Dom Kultury Foundation, we believe it can. That is why we carried out “The Battle of Grunwald – A Prison Strategy Game”, a project combining history education, art history, model-making, visual arts and strategy games with the social reintegration of people serving prison sentences.

The project was carried out simultaneously at the Warsaw-Białołęka and Warsaw-Służewiec Remand Centres. Forty men serving prison sentences took part.

From Matejko to a strategy game

We began by introducing participants to the history of the Battle of Grunwald and the world of strategy games. The first workshop was led by Grażyna Bastek – an art historian, curator at the National Museum in Warsaw and one of Poland’s leading popularisers of art history. The starting point was an analysis of Jan Matejko’s “The Battle of Grunwald”, a painting that for more than a century has shaped the way Poles imagine one of the most important events in the history of Central Europe.

Participants then worked under the guidance of artist Waldemar Petryk to create three-dimensional models of the battlefield. These were not conventional historical reconstructions. The models were designed as strategy game boards, with a structure inspired by a chessboard and created specifically for playing battles.

The next stage involved preparing miniatures of the Polish-Lithuanian and Teutonic armies and developing the rules for an original strategy game inspired by tabletop wargames. The workshops were led by Krzysztof Nessel, who holds a Master’s degree in social rehabilitation and has many years of experience in model-making and strategy games. Participants learned the principles of tabletop wargaming, painted miniatures representing the different units and, during test games, learned how the units could move and attack. A rulebook and cards describing the abilities of individual units were also created.

Culture as a tool for social inclusion

People in prison are among the groups particularly vulnerable to social and cultural exclusion. Long-term isolation means limited access to culture, education and new social developments. It also makes it more difficult to develop interests, acquire new skills and maintain contact with life outside prison.

This is why activities that enable active participation in culture are so important. The project was not limited to providing historical knowledge. Participants became co-creators of the entire process: they built and painted the game boards, prepared the miniatures, learned the rules, planned the actions of their units and made decisions during the games. They worked together on a task whose final outcome depended on the involvement of the whole group.

The project also helped counteract the effects of social and digital exclusion that often accompany long-term imprisonment. Participants were introduced to contemporary activities enjoyed by millions of people around the world: model-making, strategy games, historical re-enactment and creative design. They gained skills and knowledge about cultural activities that are widely accessible outside prison but remain difficult to access while incarcerated.

New interests and new possibilities

In our work, we have repeatedly seen that engagement with culture can become the beginning of new interests. For some participants, the project was their first encounter with art history; for others, it was an opportunity to explore history, model-making, miniature painting or strategy games in greater depth.

“The Battle of Grunwald – A Prison Strategy Game” demonstrated that history education does not have to be limited to textbooks. Over several weeks, participants moved from Matejko’s painting and the history of the battle to building game boards, painting armies, learning the rules and playing their first test games.

Everything led up to the finale – an online battle between the two remand centres.

The Teutonic Knights in Białołęka, the Poles and Lithuanians in Służewiec

On 3 October, the two remand centres connected online. From the morning, the game boards, cards and miniatures were prepared and the units took their positions. Only immediately before the game began were the two sides drawn.

The draw decided: Białołęka would command the Teutonic Knights, while Służewiec would lead the Polish and Lithuanian forces.

On the Teutonic side in Białołęka, the game was led by Marcin Miros, while in Służewiec Krzysztof Nessel, the game’s creator, led the Polish and Lithuanian forces.

From the perspective of the Teutonic Knights in Białołęka, things looked very promising for quite some time. By around midday, they had the advantage. The participants had to follow what was happening on both boards carefully, anticipate their opponents’ moves, communicate each move online and keep an accurate score. They calculated, discussed and made decisions together. But then – somewhat like in 1410 – the situation began to change. The Teutonic advantage diminished and ultimately they lost the battle.

On the other side of the screen, the Poles and Lithuanians in Służewiec had to make up for their earlier losses. They looked for weaknesses in their opponents’ positions, planned their next moves and gradually took the initiative. In the end, victory went to the Polish-Lithuanian forces.

The game lasted a long time and generated plenty of excitement. There was anticipation of the opponent’s moves, point counting, planning attacks and keeping a close eye on the rules. And because the battle was, after all, taking place in prisons, its official part was eventually brought to an end by an opponent that is rather difficult to negotiate with – lunchtime.

In Białołęka, however, this did not mean the end of the game. After the workshop, participants took the game back to their cell to continue playing among themselves.

The finale also included a short lecture by Marcin Miros, a historian and teacher at the Stefan Batory No. 2 Secondary School with Bilingual Departments in Warsaw, who discussed the Battle of Grunwald in its historical context and considered the political, economic and cultural consequences that a Teutonic victory might have had for Poland and Europe.

The project therefore ended exactly as it had been developing over the previous weeks: from history and Matejko’s painting, through game boards and armies made by the participants themselves, to a real strategy game played between two prisons. Connecting participants from two remand centres online and enabling them to fight one shared battle was a pioneering element of the project – it created an opportunity for cooperation and competition between groups that would normally have no possibility of direct contact.

For the participants, the project meant more than gaining historical knowledge and discovering model-making and strategy games. Several weeks of working together required concentration, patience, precision, planning, anticipating the consequences of decisions and teamwork. During the final game, communication, following agreed rules, keeping an accurate score, making decisions as a team and responding to a changing situation became particularly important.

Participants were also able to see the tangible result of their own work – from the first unpainted miniatures and empty game boards to a complete game that they were finally able to play themselves.

And the game has remained in both prisons. So the Battle of Grunwald can begin all over again – and this time, the Teutonic Knights have a chance for revenge. We would also like to thank the incarcerated participants for their patience, commitment and for allowing themselves to get truly drawn into the Battle of Grunwald.

The project was coordinated by Klaudia Kuba and Katarzyna Sabak, under the supervision of Małgorzata Brus from the Dom Kultury Foundation. We would like to thank the Warsaw-Białołęka and Warsaw-Służewiec Remand Centres, as well as their educators and officers, for their cooperation and commitment. As always, we would also like to thank the Warsaw District Inspectorate of the Polish Prison Service for its support and cooperation in carrying out our activities.

Graphics: Aleksandra Głowacka

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Photos: Archive Fundacja Dom Kultury

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The project is implemented by Fundacja Dom Kultury thanks to funding provided by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the National Centre for Culture programme “Culture Interventions 2026.”

 

 

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Fundacja Dom Kultury is preparing an exhibition summarising ten years of W Kratkę magazine, created since 2013 by women incarcerated in the Warsaw-Grochów Remand Centre in collaboration with visual artists.

At the end of 2026, Fundacja Dom Kultury will present an exhibition marking the tenth anniversary of W Kratkę – a unique project that has been developed since 2013 in the Warsaw-Grochów Remand Centre.

W Kratkę is one of the most interesting initiatives combining contemporary art, cultural education and socially engaged activities carried out in Polish prisons. The magazine is created by women serving prison sentences in collaboration with visual artists, designers, educators and editors. Each issue brings together two worlds: the experiences of incarcerated people and the language of contemporary culture and art.

In 2026, the tenth anniversary issue of the magazine will be published. To celebrate this occasion, we are preparing an exhibition presenting the achievements of the project and the story of a collaboration that, for more than a decade, has connected incarcerated people with renowned contemporary artists and a younger generation of creators.

What will be on display?

The exhibition will feature original artworks published in W Kratkę, including drawings, prints, illustrations, objects and projects created specifically for individual issues of the magazine. These will be accompanied by selected editorial materials, photographs and documentation of the magazine’s development.

The exhibition will present not only finished artworks but also the collaborative process between incarcerated participants and artists. Visitors will be able to see how successive issues of the magazine were created, how relationships developed between participants, and what role art played in fostering dialogue, agency and participation.

Artists

Over the past ten years, the magazine has brought together both established figures of Polish contemporary art and emerging artists. The exhibition may include works by Paweł Althamer, Artur Żmijewski, Daniel Rycharski, Małgorzata Jabłońska, Piotr Szewczyk, Dorota Podlaska, Dariusz Vasina, Beata Sosnowska, Agnieszka Dybowska, Agnieszka Gójska, Magda Byczewska, Anna Tyczyńska, Agnieszka Semaniszyn-Konat, Justyna Kabala, Darren Kruk and Paweł Dunal.

An important part of the exhibition will also be works by students of the Graphic Design Department at SWPS University, who have contributed illustrations and graphic designs to the magazine for several years.

Venue

The exhibition will be presented in the foyer of Komuna Warszawa Theatre, one of Poland’s leading independent cultural institutions. The open nature of the foyer will make the exhibition accessible both to visitors coming specifically to see it and to audiences attending performances and other events organised by the theatre.

Publication and accompanying activities

An integral part of the project will be a publication containing a curatorial text and a selection of materials documenting the history of W Kratkę and the activities developed around it since 2013. The publication will serve as a lasting record of the project and a tool for disseminating its results.

Why is it important?

W Kratkę is more than a magazine. It is a long-term process of cultural education, empowerment, self-advocacy and increasing the visibility of incarcerated people in public life. The project demonstrates that culture can be a tool for communication, cooperation and social inclusion, while art can create a space for encounters between people who normally live on opposite sides of prison walls.

The exhibition will provide an opportunity to look back at ten years of this extraordinary collaboration and at art created in places where it is not usually expected to be found.

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The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state special-purpose fund, under the Cultural Education Programme

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