In secret to the whole world: Kaliningrad city

Today I want to tell you about the Russian city located between Poland and Lithuania, this is the city of Kaliningrad (until 1946 the German Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia). Located on the Pregolya river.

Medieval European streets and Soviet 5-storey buildings, provincial warmth and metropolitan monumentality, this city combines opposites: past and present. Welcome to Kaliningrad!

During the war, the city was almost completely destroyed, and in the Soviet period it was rebuilt. However, there is something German ancient and mysterious in everything here. Kaliningrad is the birthplace of the famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Thanks to the grave of Kant, the main attraction of the city, the 13th century Cathedral, has survived.

Also in Kaliningrad there are a lot of German churches that have now been converted into Orthodox churches.

Kaliningrad is undoubtedly famous for the sun stone Amber, which is mined there. I will tell you about the Amber Museum separately in the next issue.

While in Kaliningrad, you should also visit the famous Kaliningrad Zoo. During the war, Soviet soldiers fought fierce battles with the Nazis on the territory of the zoo, as evidenced by a commemorative plaque and installation.

Next stop is the Museum of the World Ocean. This museum was opened in 1990. The Museum of the World Ocean is a republican center for scientific research and scientific and methodological work in the field of studying the history of research and the nature of the ocean. Today, the museum has been partially moved to a new modern building, the second wing of which will open in 2021. The museum is divided into the following expositions: ships SRT-129, R / V Vityaz, submarine B-413, icebreaker Krasin, as well as the exposition “World of the Ocean. A touch …”, Aquarium and much more.

Top 5 interesting facts about Kaliningrad:

1) On the Kaliningrad beaches you can often find amber, which is carried to the shore by sea waves.

2) Kaliningrad Oblast is the westernmost region of Russia, the only region that does not have a land border with its own country, but has a border with Poland and Lithuania.

3) The Cathedral, founded on September 13, 1333, was built for half a century.

4) Eminent German scientific and cultural figures worked here: composer Wagner, philosophers Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Immanuel Kant.

5)  In the city of Tilsit (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad region), the Peace of Tilsit was concluded between Alexander I and Napoleon.

If you ask Kaliningraders what it means to live in Kaliningrad. Of course, this is philosophizing while sitting with a cup of coffee on the embankment, admiring the sea and trying fate in search of amber, going to Europe for the weekend, loving marzipans. And as the locals say: “Whoever has not been to the Baltic has not discovered the secret of happiness!”

And while now everyone’s usual life due to the coronavirus remains limited, why not spy on the lives of others!