Kwidzyn, Poland ? The Teutonic Knights have long been reviled in Poland, where the Germanic warriors swept in during the Middle Ages and converted pagans to Christianity at the point of a sword.

Modern-day actors perform as ancient knights July 17 to re-enact the Battle of Grunwald in which Poles and Lithuanians, helped by Russians and Czech forces, repulsed a German force of Teutonic knights, on July 15, 1410, in Grunwald, northern Poland. The massive ancient ramparts, with tales of bloody cruelty, torture and the Teutonic Knights, are being used by the modern authorities in Poland to attract international travelers to the region.

Many here see them as an early incarnation of a Germany that has attacked Poland over the centuries, most recently in World War II.

But now one Polish town is putting all grudges aside and celebrating the memory of the Teutonic Knights in an attempt to highlight the rich history of this once-German municipality and stimulate tourism in a region still catching up with Western Europe economically.

In an elaborate ceremony Saturday that drew hundreds of people, Roman Catholic priests consecrated the newly discovered remains of three of the order’s 14th- and 15th-century leaders — or “grand masters” — with a Mass in the city’s St. John the Evangelist Cathedral.

The cathedral is part of a massive red-brick fortress that was once a base for the knights’ notorious raids, an imposing reminder to the town’s 40,000 inhabitants of its German past.

“This history belongs to this city,” said Wojciech Weryk, who leads a drive to promote Kwidzyn. “It is a very good product from the point of view of history and tourists.”

The ceremony was celebrated by priests and modern-day representatives of the Teutonic order, which today exists as a religious order in Austria and six other European countries, and is devoted to helping the poor, elderly and orphans, and doing educational and pastoral work. It was led by the Rev. Bruno Platter, who holds the title of “Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.” For part of the ceremony he was clad in the order’s trademark white coat with a black cross.

“Looking at this monumental cathedral which our order built in the 13th century, we feel a strong link with this place and we draw strength from it,” Platter said.

Kwidzyn was once the German town of Marienwerder and one of key fortresses of the Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages. But the city fell to Poland in 1945 when Hitler’s defeat forced Germany to relinquish a swath of territory to the eastern neighbor on whom it inflicted six years of occupation and death.

Weryk says there are some people in the town who object to honoring the Teutonic Knights, but he argues that such feelings have no place in the European Union.

Many of the local people also feel proud that their historic town has something new to boast of.

“We are happy that something so significant was found here and that we will have something of interest in our cathedral,” said Janusz Urbanowicz, a 64-year-old retired carpenter. “We know that this was the cathedral of the Teutonic Knights and that this was Prussia before the war. But we are glad this historical finding was made and that it will bring more tourists.”