Konigsberg Castle

The most popular of former Konigsberg –now Kaliningrad, castles was Konigsberg castle. The Konigsberg castle may also be named as the Royal castle, the Schloss.

Teutonic knights started to build castle in 1255 of Goth fortress named Tuwangste and located on the Pregel river on the Prussian Baltic territory. The name of the castle “Konigsberg” honored the king (“konig”-germ.) Ottocar II and also showed geographical location of the castle on the hill, mountain (“berg”-germ.). Bohemian king Ottocar II leaded and supported invasion of Teutonic knights, who represented and extended control of Catholic Church and Pop power on the new land.

People lived on the Prussian Baltic territory before being conquering by Teutonic knights believed in Percuns, God of the Thunder. They had especial relations with nature and honored the oak as a symbol of Percuns. They called the place Tuwangste from the gothic word “wangus” and mean as cutting down trees in an acorn forest.

The Konigsberg castle was built by break and had rectangle form with Gothic tower 277 ft. high and 284 steps to the top. Teutonic order used the castle as a residence of the Grand Master.

After 1525, when the Order state was transformed into Hohenzollern Duchy, Konigsberg became a capital and residence of the Duke. At that time the beautiful chapel with palace church was added to the west wing of the castle in 1592. In that chapel several hundred years later were crowned kings of Prussia.

In 1701 in the castle church was coronation of Prussian first king Frederic I. Paintings and chronicles keep details of this grant event. King and queen were wearied celebratory dresses. 24 trumpeters, drummers and 60 aristocrats took part in the coronation ceremony. What is interesting is that queen was rebuked by her royal husband that she took a pinch of snuff during ceremony.

In the chapel also located famous Moscowiter –Saal, named in honor of Russian delegation.  It was one of the biggest halls in the 19 century Germany - 83 m long and 18 m wide. The Saal was famous with its collection of trophies.

The castle walls and columns were decorated with arms with Oder symbolic black eagle.  The mechanical elevators transported barrels of wine into the cellar. The old castle also had perfectly constructed heating system.

In the basement of the castle was located wine tavern “Blutgericht”. The restaurant was decorated by wood and metal in the knight’s style. In translation it means “Bloody justice”. The story of the Blutgerichtis is interesting and goes to the old legend about the clever Konegsberger who escaped the death execution drinking red wine together with his security in the tavern. The sort of red wine what was sold there had the same name.

In the north wing was Prussian Museum, opened for the public till World War II, as well as apartments of the Hohenzollerns. Museum collected 240,000 exhibits. There were Prussian collection, university and state library, collections of art.

The castle keeps the one of the most interesting secrets of 20th century – amber room secret. The room was a gift of Prussian king Friedrich Wilghelm I to the Tsar Peter the Great of Russian Imperia. It was extended by Russians, who added it, so it was more than 6000 kg weight of amber. Amber panels with gold and mirrors - “eighth wonder of the world”.

The room was looted it from St. Petersburg during the World War II, when Nazi Germany  moved it packed in the wooden containers to Konigsberg, part of Nazi Germany. Some information showed that wooden containers with amber room were located in the basement of Konigsberg castle. The boxes with the eight world`s wonder disappeared, when Konigsberg was bombed and during all chaos of the war. It`s a one of the biggest secret, where is the room now and did it leave castle and city Konigsberg.

Some people believe that amber room is steel in the ruins of the castle Konigsberg basement. Many of archeology expeditions and research were made. Nearly the biggest excavation started is in the progress on the territory of the ruined castle basement, looking for the treasures, including amber room. The excavation is funded by Spiegel magazine and is made by Russian archeology group. If the Amber room will be found it may have price near 250 millions of dollars, if the treasures could have the cost.

Many interesting thing were found by the archeologist during the excavation. One of the most attractive is a small silver case filled with eleven items - amulets, medallions and ring all marked with magic symbols. The ring was attached to the silver case with an iron lock. According to the chairmen of the Baltic expedition of the Archeology Institute of Russian academy of sciences Vladimir Kulakov, ring had a ghost-protecting use and finding may be dated the 16^th century. At that time famous Paul Skaliha was an advisor of the Prussian duke Albrecht. Also collection of old wine was found as was a secret underground tunnel.

All items are displayed on the museum exhibitions of Kaliningrad, including open air museum of archeology on the place of excavation on the Konigsberg castle.