Cultural heritage of Kaliningrad Oblast

The cultural heritage of Kaliningrad Oblast is a mixture of the pre-World War II German, Lithuanian and Polish heritage, dating back to the Ducal Prussian and East Prussian periods, and the Soviet and Russian designs constructed since then.

History[edit]

Many heritage sites in Kaliningrad Oblast were damaged during World War II, or willfully destroyed in the postwar period by Soviet authorities.^[1] A number of landmarks did survive, such as the gothic Königsberg Cathedral containing the tomb of Kant, or the Königsberg Stock Exchange building.^[2] Already in the 1960s, a group of local architects and intellectuals began to campaign for the preservation of the region's German heritage, albeit unsuccessfully.^[3]

The first Soviet housing blocks were built only in 1966.^[4] The spread of Soviet-style prefabricated panel buildings eventually changed the appearance of Kaliningrad. The 1970s House of Soviets is another part of the local Soviet architectural period.^[2]

Mirroring the rediscovery of pre-revolutionary history in the rest of Russia, since 1991 there have been many efforts to recover the prewar heritage sites of Kaliningrad.^[1] Preservation and reconstruction efforts are hampered by a complicated property ownership situation, as during the 1990s the city administration raised cash by selling land for construction without regard for central planning.^[5]

Old buildings are being restored, and new ones built in conscious imitation of the old Königsberg architecture.^[3] Some local architects are cautious about the reconstruction efforts, worried that the result may end up looking too kitsch and unauthentic.^[5]

Königsberg Cathedral was successfully restored from 1992 to 1998, in a joint Russian-German project.^[3] The Fischerdorf development, while being a new development, is a city quarter that intentionally mirrors the prewar architectural styles.^[3] A project to restore Kant's House in Veselovka was announced in 2013, and should be completed in time for the 2018 World Cup.^[6]

The ruins of Königsberg Castle are being excavated, with a plan to preserve them under a transparent enclosure.^[7]

Lithuanian heritage[edit]

The Lithuanian Church in Sovetsk, traditional capital of Lithuania Minor,^[8] was destroyed by the Soviets in 1951–1952. Preserved Lithuanian heritage is mostly in the eastern part of the province, within the historic Lithuania Minor region. In Chistye Prudy, there is a Memorial Museum of Kristijonas Donelaitis, author of The Seasons, the first Lithuanian poem. Several churches, which hosted Lithuanian services for the region's Lithuanian population in the past, are located in the province, including the preserved churches in Slavsk and Saranskoe and ruins in Chernyshevskoye, Kalinino, Ozyorsk and Ulyanovo.

Polish heritage[edit]

The former Polish Church at Steindamm, the main Polish Church of Königsberg and the city's oldest church, where Jan Seklucjan, publisher of the oldest Polish translation of the New Testament, was a pastor in the mid-16th century,^[9] was demolished by the Soviet administration in 1950. In 1972, the Soviets destroyed the main church of Chernyakhovsk, which also hosted Polish services in the past. The Königsberg Cathedral was historically also a place of worship for local Poles with Polish-language services held there until the 18th century. It contains the epitaph of 17th-century Polish princely magnate Bogusław Radziwiłł and his wife Anna Maria, renovated in 2007–2008 with funds from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.^[10]

In 2011, a Polish-built monument with Polish and Russian inscriptions was unveiled at the site of the former Hohenbruch concentration camp [de] at Gromovo where Nazi Germany imprisoned mostly Poles, especially intelligentsia.^[11]