Fort 3

Fort 3

Indeed, that is an impressive and grandiose construction of Koenigsberg, even compared to today which many locals call it Fort Friedrich I. After taking the royal throne and having been there for only a few months, he began to implement the parliamentary reforms by building a building that still strikes us with its inaccessibility and greatness today.

The building is surrounded by a dry moat, has well-fortified and protected firing points, a battle shaft, soldiers’ and officers’ barracks, an ammunition depot, a dining room and an infirmary. All the individual sections in the fort are linked together with stairs, underground tunnels and passages. To absorb lightning discharges and circulating currents, along the perimeter, the site is surrounded by deep-rooted galvanised pipes connected with cables under the ground and wires above the ground.

Underground installations are protected by the brick vaults and multi-metre thick earth separated by sand and concrete interlayers. In April 1945, Fort 3 was blocked by Rifle Regiment 557. With the powerful fire support and obscuring smoke, Soviet soldiers got there and kept fighting inside the building for another 24 hours. More than 120 Germans surrendered. At the end of the XX century, unique exhibits from the collections of the Prussia Museum were also found there, which were subsequently transferred to the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art.

In the post-war period, the facility was used as the main warehouse with ammunition and other military equipment. Later, the fort was transferred to the city administration.

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