Friedrichsburg Gate
Friedrichsburg Gate
The Friedrichsburg Gate is the only historical gate in Kaliningrad that used to lead not to the city of Koenigsberg but to the fortress of the same name, which was built in 1657 under the instruction of the great elector Frederick Wilhelm on the southern bank of the Pregel River. The fortress was built following the design of Christian Otter, and in the topographical plan it had the shape of a square. At its corners, there were four bastions with such remarkable names as Ruby, Emerald, Diamond and Pearl.
In a quadrangular courtyard surrounded by earthen ramparts, various buildings were located, such as the commandant’s office, barracks, the Zeighaus, barns, guardhouse, prison and church.
During the stay in 1697 of the Russian Grand Embassy in Koenigsberg under the name of the sergeant Pyotr Mikhailov, the Russian tsar Peter I studied the artillery science in the Friedrichsburg and Pillau Fortresses.
Training was conducted by the Brandenburg specialist in the field, Colonel von Sternfeld who noted the abilities of his 25-year-old student. Upon his return to Moscow, Peter I received a certificate stating that ‘Pyotr Mikhailov is to be recognised and honoured for the bombs committed in a throwing, cautious and skilful firearm artist’. And Peter, representing a part of the Grand Embassy used to repeat more than once, ‘I am going to Europe to learn how to build ships’.
In the middle of the 19th century, when the new fortifications were built around Koenigsberg, the fortress of Friedrichsburg was rebuilt into the fort of the same name. In 1852, a brick gate was erected in Fort Friedrichsburg. The author of the gate design was August Stueler, the court architect of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
On 23 August 1910, Fort Friedrichsburg was excluded from the fortifications of Koenigsberg and sold to the Imperial Railways. The ramparts were razed, the ditches of Fort Friedrichsburg were covered. The bulk of its facilities are dismantled. In the area formerly occupied by the fort, some railway tracks were laid. From the fort buildings, only the gate and barracks at the eastern defensive wall of the southeast bastion are preserved.
During the assault of Koenigsberg in April 1945, the Friedrichsburg Gate was destroyed. It lost the south-east tower and the southern part of the eastern wall of the guardhouse. In the post-war period, a field military printing plant, and then a convoy were located at the gate. In 1960, the Friedrichsburg Gate was taken under the state protection as a monument of architecture; in 2002 it was granted the status of a cultural heritage site of federal significance; and in March 2007 it was transferred to the Museum of the World Ocean.
The restoration work was carried out by using modern masonry and material, which today makes it possible for us to clearly assess the amount of losses incurred, a unique historical object was destroyed by almost a quarter. In 2011, an unusual architectural building with towers, a coat of arms on the facade, a massive iron gate and a cobbled courtyard regained its pristine appearance. Restorers from Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad have done everything in order to preserve for the descendants all the charm of the ‘old times’.
The information obtained from the official site of the Museum of the World Ocean - world-ocean.ru