Top Historic Sights in Kaliningrad, Russia
Explore the historic highlights of Kaliningrad
Königsberg Cathedral
Königsberg Cathedral (Königsberger Dom) is a Brick Gothic-style cathedral in Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg. Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945, and the easternmost large German city until it was conquered by the Soviet Union near the end of World War II. In 1946 the city was renamed Kaliningrad. The construction of the cathedral is considered to have begun in 1333. The ...
Founded: 1333 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Rossgarten Gate
The Rossgarten Gate is one of seven surviving city gates of Kaliningrad. Named after the district Rossgarten, the current gate replaced a previous version of the gate from the beginning of the 17th century. It was constructed between 1852-1855 under the supervision of Wilhelm Ludwig Stürmer. The gate was damaged after the war, but restored afterwards and currently houses a café-restaurant called Solnetsnyy Kamen ('Solar ...
Founded: 1852-1855 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
House of Soviets
The House of Soviets is a building located in the city of Kaliningrad and was built on the original territory of Königsberg Castle. The castle was severely damaged during the bombing of Königsberg in World War II. Following the war, as the city came under the control of the USSR, the site of the castle was redeveloped as part of the reconstruction of the city. Construction began on the House of Soviets in 1960, ...
Founded: 1960 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Bunker Museum
This bunker was the underground command post of the German general Otto von Lasch during the Battle of Königsberg in 1945. A museum of the city"s German past (which lasted 689 years) and Soviet 'liberation' of the city, including several interesting dioramas of events during the days of the battle.
Founded: 1945 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Wrangel Tower
Wrangel Tower is named after Field Marshal F. E. H. von Wrangel. He arrived in Königsberg in 1809 as commander of the privileged Cuirassier Regiment. Wrangel Tower was built in 1843 as part of a defensive bastion of the ring of Königsberg. Water tower is surrounded by a moat, thick brick walls and ceiling to within three meters. Within 30 years, in connection with the development of long-range artillery, the con ...
Founded: 1843 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
King's Gate
The King"s Gate is one of the former six gates that were built during the 19th century around Kaliningrad. It was originally the Gumbinnen Gate, built in 1765 at the edge of the district Neue Sorge. In 1811 it was renamed the King"s Gate and was the terminus of the Königstraße boulevard. The gate was redesigned by Friedrich August Stüler in 1850. The west facade has three sandstone statues, made ...
Founded: 1765 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Grolman Bastion
Grolman Bastion was part of the Königsberg fortification system. Named after General Karl Wilhelm von Grolman, it was finished in 1851. It was strengthened with casemates and caponniers inside its wall and consists of lesser Oberteich and Kupferteich Bastions. The Bastion was considerably damaged by Soviet Army in the World War II. There was a vegetable storehouse in the Bastion during the Soviet time. Nowadays this fort ...
Founded: 1851 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate is one of few surviving city gates in Kaliningrad. It was built in the south-western part of Königsberg in 1657, with the strengthening of the city walls at the intersection with the road leading to the castle of Brandenburg (now the village of Ushakovo). Due to lack of funds a mere wooden gate was erected. Some hundred years later the gate was torn down and replaced by a brick structure by order of ...
Founded: 1657 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Astronomical Bastion
The so-called Astronomical Bastion was part of the Königsberg fortification system. It was built between 1855-1860. The name was inherited from the adjacent observatory built by F. Bessil in the 1813. After the construction of the railway station in the 1910, the part of the bastion was destroyed.
Founded: 1855-1860 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Kreuzkirche
The Kreuzkirche was designed by architect Arthur Kickton and built between 1930 and 1933 for the evangelical community of Königsberg. Between the two towers a monumental cross from Kadyny maiolica is situated. The church was only lightly damaged in World War II and became a garage and a factory for fishing equipment thereafter. After a fire it was decided in 1988 to use the building as a church again, now for the Kalinin ...
Founded: 1930-1933 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Fort Friedrichsburg Gate
Construction of the Fort Friedrichsburg or Feste Friedrichsburg began in 1657 during the Second Northern War by the order of Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia. The only remnant of the former fort is the Friedrichsburg Gate. The fort was built in place of a tollhouse on the southern shore of the Pregel River at the western edge of Königsberg. It was included within the new ring of Königsberg fortifications ...
Founded: 1657 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Juditten Church
Juditten Church is an originally Roman Catholic, later Protestant, and currently Russian Orthodox church in the Mendeleyevo district of Kaliningrad. Juditten was the name of Mendeleyevo when it was a quarter of Königsberg, Germany. One of the oldest churches of Sambia, the fortified church of was built in the Catholic state of the Teutonic Order between 1276 and 1294-1298 or c. 1287-1288. In 1402 it was mentioned in ...
Founded: 1276-1298 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
King Friedrich Wilhelm I Fort
The King Friedrich Wilhelm I Fort (Fort Nr. 3), originally known as Quednau, was the largest fort of Königsberg fortification system. The fort was situated at the top of a height and surrounded by dry ditch. There were embrasures for defensive fire. In time of Kongsberg Storm the Fort was of severe resistance. Garrison remains was captured on the 9th of April 1945. After the WWII there was the army division in the Fo ...
Founded: 1872-1884 |
Location:
Kaliningrad, Russia
Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Photo from Flickr, copyright alancowper
Historic Site of the week
Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle
Easter Aquhorthies stone circle, located near Inverurie, is one of the best-preserved examples of a recumbent stone circle, and one of the few that still have their full complement of stones. It consists of a ring of nine stones, eight of which are grey granite and one red jasper. Two more grey granite stones flank a recumbent of red granite flecked with crystals and lines of quartz. The circle is particularly notable for its builders' use of polychromy in the stones, with the reddish ones situated on the SSW side and the grey ones opposite.
The placename Aquhorthies derives from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning 'field of prayer', and may indicate a 'long continuity of sanctity' between the Stone or Bronze Age circle builders and their much later Gaelic successors millennia later. The circle's surroundings were landscaped in the late 19th century, and it sits within a small fenced and walled enclosure. A stone dyke, known as a roundel, was built around the circle some time between 1847 and 1866–7.