Castle of Insterburg

Castle of Insterburg

The Castle of Insterburg was founded in 1336 on the site of the Prussian fortress of Unzetrapis which was destroyed in 1256 during the military campaign of the Order in Nadrovia. The place was chosen on a steep hill towering above the spacious river valley at the confluence of the rivers Angerapp, Pissa and Inster, which was quite successful taking into account the natural security and strategic importance. The name of the river gave the name to the castle.

Originally, a spacious blockhouse of oak logs was constructed, which was surrounded by a rampart and a moat. Later, the wooden buildings were replaced with stone ones. The castle was built as the residence of the Komtur of the Insterburg District, but this status was later cancelled. In the medieval period the castle was rebuilt many times.

The Castle of Insterburg in the preserved late form had the characteristic features of the East Prussian type of medieval defensive structures. It had the functions of both a fortress and a monastery combined in a single complex which consisted of a citadel (convent house) and vorburg. A closed square two-storeyed building of the citadel (with powerful and dead outer walls and a courtyard with a well) served as the residence of the Order brothers and for the activities of the county convention. The basement of the walls at the cellar level was laid out of quarry stone according to the system of the Gothic masonry. Above it there was a masonry made of burnt medieval brick with narrow loopholes in the outer walls. The top of the walls was completed with a roundabout martial passage-vergangue covered by a steep pitched roof.

The citadel had the only entrance of the arch shape in the west wing.

The vorburg was an extended space enclosed by defensive walls copying the contour of the site on the hill. Defensive walls of a broken outline were flanked at the corners with two tall watch towers with loopholes.

The castle served as an order outpost to fight against Lithuania. During the XVI century the Order carried out 11 military campaigns against Lithuania, and all of them began from Insterburg. The castle was also subjected to retaliatory attacks. In 1376 the Lithuanian prince Sverdeik captured and burnt the castle to ashes, but it was rebuilt with an even more powerful strengthening of the outer walls. In 1457, the castle was again burnt, that time by Poles, and again rebuilt.

After the secularization of the Order, the castle was turned into the residence of the Main Department of the Insterburg District.

In 1500 the castle's vorburg was enlarged due to the extension of the utility rooms to the defensive walls on the inside.

In the stormy XVII century, the Castle of Insterburg was in the centre of events. During the Swedish-Russian-Polish war in 1655, the city was occupied by the Russian army but they could not seize the castle. However, in 1679 the castle still could not resist the onslaught of Swedish troops and was taken by storm on January 1.

In the XVII-XIX centuries the court alternately housed a resident court, a warehouse for military fodder and food and an infirmary for 200 beds. All this resulted in numerous restructuring and reconstruction of the complex's buildings.

After the First World War, the Local History Museum of the Insterburg Antiquities Society was opened in the castle citadel.

After the Great Patriotic War, the castle housed the repair and construction department.

Currently, the castle is used as a cultural and service centre.

The information has been taken from the reference book Cultural Heritage Sites of the Kaliningrad Region. Compiled and edited by A.M. Tarunov (2013-2015)