Koenigsberg Cathedral in Kaliningrad, HD photos. Kant's grave in Kaliningrad

Cathedral in Kaliningrad (Russia) - description, history, location. The exact address and website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.

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The Cathedral (aka Königsberg Cathedral) is one of the main attractions of Kaliningrad, it is from it that everyone starts tourist routes, is the oldest church in the city and its business card. Today, services are not held here, but organ concerts are regularly held, the concert hall of the cathedral with excellent acoustics is the largest in the region.

The Königsberg Cathedral houses the Immanuel Kant Museum and his grave.

A bit of history

The cathedral was first mentioned in documents in 1333. By 1380, it was decorated with frescoes and officially opened to parishioners, but the appearance was supplemented with various details until the 1640s. At the beginning of the 16th century, the temple was converted into a Lutheran one, and then the Königsberg University was founded, and the cathedral became a university church. Then the Wallenrod Library and the "professor's tomb" settled here, where Immanuel Kant, the most famous resident of the city in its entire history, was buried.

Cathedral today

During the Great Patriotic War, the cathedral burned down, the new look in the German Gothic style is the result of restoration. Only a few stone epitaphs survived from the pre-war interior decoration. The famous clock on the tower, bells, and the inner hall were restored. A colonnade was erected over the dark granite sarcophagus of Kant, and the main hall of the church was turned into a concert hall.

Several rooms are occupied by the Immanuel Kant Museum. In other rooms there is an exposition telling about the history of the cathedral and the island of Kneiphof, as well as about famous citizens. Here you can see a collection of coins and banknotes, a carved wooden library and a mini-organ.

Inside the tower clock is a modern mechanism that sets exact time by satellite.

Practical Information

Address: Kaliningrad, st. Kanta, 1. Website.

Opening hours: daily, except January 1; from October to April - from 10:00 to 18:00, from May to September - from 10:00 to 19:00.

Entrance: to the Kant Museum - 250 RUB for adults and 100 RUB for schoolchildren and students, organ Hall- 100 RUB for adults and 50 RUB for schoolchildren and students, a concert - from 350 RUB, a guided tour of the museum and concert complex of the Cathedral - 500 RUB for adults and 300 RUB for schoolchildren and students. Prices on the page are for February 2019.

A story with a photo about the very "heart" of old Kaliningrad - Kant Island, formed by the branches of the Pregol River, and the recently restored Cathedral of the city.

The fact that we have the opportunity to admire Cathedral of Kaliningrad, we owe first of all to Kant - or rather, to his grave, located right there on the island of Kant next to the cathedral. Or, more precisely, the respect that the leader of the world proletariat had for the famous Konigsberg thinker. Do not mention Lenin Kant so complimentary in your speeches and writings, the heart of Old Kaliningrad is Kant Island, which is Kneiphof would look completely different today, and for good reason. On August 20, 1944, the British began a three-day bombardment of Königsberg, which resulted in the complete destruction of Kneiphof: Royal Zamo k, and the triple Old Town - Alstadt, Lebenicht And Kneiphof- and from the famous Cathedral by May 1945, only a charred skeleton remained. And the victors would have blown it up - at home we and completely entire churches were blown up - but someone remembered Lenin and Kant in time. So the fate of the other buildings of Kaliningrad, which were dismantled for building materials, and then quite rightly sent by barges to long-suffering Leningrad to be used in its restoration, did not suffer: it was decided to leave it as it is - they say, let the descendants deal with all these talkers Kant , the Soviet occupation authorities at that time had their worries through the roof. Then, immediately after the victory over Germany, there was still no final decision on the further ownership of East Prussia and Kaliningrad-Koenigsberg, and the winners sought to take to the USSR absolutely everything that could be useful in the restoration of Soviet cities destroyed by the Germans. After the end of the war until the beginning of perestroika, the Cathedral was a huge and gradually crumbling ruins, the authorities of Kaliningrad considered it a “symbol of Prussian militarism” and had absolutely no desire to restore it. The restoration of the Cathedral began only in the 90s of the last century, and about Most of the work was carried out with German money, which was not approved by everyone in Kaliningrad: it was widely believed that this was only the first step towards “creeping Germanization”.

Old Kaliningrad: Kant Island

Currently a small island formed by branches of the river Pregolya, bears the name of Immanuel Kant, the founder and one of the most prominent representatives of German classical philosophy, although until recently the island in the very center of old Kaliningrad was officially called Central. The name of Kant was given to him because of the grave of the great thinker located on it.

Once this place was called Kneiphof and one half of it belonged to the bishop, and ordinary citizens were allowed to settle in the second. And this division is associated interesting story. East Prussia in those days was the edge of the "civilized world" and all the news from Europe was brought here by messengers. So, in order to get to the castle or to the bishop, they had to pass that half of Kneiphof, where the townspeople lived. And they came up with the idea of ​​intercepting them on the way, feeding them (and, most importantly, giving them a good drink - so that the messenger would only be able to crawl to their destination the next day) and thus learn important news before the authorities. For example, if a messenger brought news of a crop failure to the castle, the townspeople, having learned about it in advance, sharply raised the price of grain and flour, and so on. So already in those days information ruled the world.

In addition to the Cathedral and big park, today there is nothing on the island, but this was far from always the case: once the island was a district of Koenigsberg named Kneiphof and had a very dense residential development - as of 1939, there were 304 houses and 28 streets on the island, and lived there 20 thousand people - completely destroyed by British bombers.

The main attraction of Kant Island, in addition to the recently restored Cathedral, is, of course, the grave of the famous philosopher:

Kant's grave

Officially, “the restless old man Immanuel” (by Bulgakov’s definition) is considered the last to be buried in the “professor’s tomb” of the Kaliningrad Cathedral in 1804 - but the philosopher’s grave is located not inside the building, but near it. Apparently, this is a reflection of the difficult relationship between the great Koenigsberger and the church: on the one hand, Kant’s independent views and judgments did not allow him to be buried inside the cathedral, and on the other hand, the same Kant argued that religion without a church is unthinkable. Again, it was Kant who, from the standpoint of reason and logic, "destroyed" the five proofs of the Existence of God - but he also formulated the sixth "Kant's proof".

Kant, the son of a simple saddler and housewife, who was born on April 22, 1724 and later became a world-famous philosopher, was not destined to find peace even after his death: his grave was either destroyed (for example, by Napoleon's soldiers), then restored, or simply transferred from place to place . The Museum of the Cathedral has an interesting picture illustrating the "acquisition" of Kant's skull during regular excavations.

In 1880, a neo-Gothic chapel was erected over Kant's grave, which in 1924, on the 200th anniversary of Kant, was replaced by a colonnade with thirteen pink porphyry columns; moreover, the new building contrasts strikingly in its appearance with the Cathedral itself.


Inside the colonnade, a stone tombstone is installed, which is a cenotaph - that is, there are no remains of Kant under it, they lie deeper.

A bronze statue looks down on the last refuge of the great philosopher. Duke Albrecht, the founder of the Albertina University (by the way, Martin Luther advised the Duke to establish the university), whose tomb was less fortunate than the cathedral - what was left of it after the battles for the city is now exhibited inside the Cathedral.

Statue of Duke Albrecht

Actually, the statue of the duke is not original: it was installed in 2005 in honor of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad. The original version of the work of the sculptor Johann Friedrich Reusch could not be saved from being melted down, which is a pity: it was remarkable at least by the hands of the duke - as you know, Reusch found the sitter for the statue of Albrecht in the port of Koenigsberg. As a result, the statue of an aristocrat who rarely lifted anything heavier than a china cup in his life had the powerful arms of a longshoreman.

Between the Cathedral and Honey Bridge you can find Monument to Julius Rupp, theologian and university lecturer:

And Kant, and Adalbert, and Rupp united Königsberg University, the oldest university in Prussia - which, unfortunately, did not save him from death under British bombs in the summer of 1944.

By the way, there is another statue nearby, erected in honor of an aristocrat who had considerable growth and did not shy away from physical labor. Meaning Peter I, whose monument flaunts near the main entrance to the Cathedral.

Statue of Peter the Great

Peter's on the island of Kant was installed in memory of the visit by the Russian emperor to the house of the local governor of Negelein. The autocrat visited the latter twice: first incognito, as part of the Great Embassy of 1697, and in 1709 Peter and his wife Catherine visited an old acquaintance already openly, returning from the city of Torgau, where the marriage of Tsarevich Alexei and the German princess Charlotte of Wolfenbüttel took place. In the same Torgau, where, after 236 years, the “meeting on the Elbe” of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition took place.

By the way, about the allies and their contribution to the destruction of the old Kaliningrad-Koenigsberg. The vengeful British couldn't let Germany be defeated by the Soviet Union before they razed several German cities to dust in retaliation for the Luftwaffe's bombing of London. And so, at the very end of the war, about two hundred British Lancasters tried to grind the then capital of East Prussia into brick chips, and at the same time show the Soviet authorities (still allies, but it was already clear that we would soon become irreconcilable rivals) all the power of aviation " Her Majesty." Both goals have been achieved: Old city the future of Kaliningrad was seriously destroyed, and the “soviets” took such a warning with all due seriousness and tried to speed up the development of Soviet atomic weapons and their means of delivery as much as possible. And very soon, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it became clear how right they were.

There is another version of the reasons for such a fierce bombardment of Koenigsberg by the British Air Force - let's say, conspiracy theories. According to it, even before the war on Kant Island, in the heart of today's old Kaliningrad, the Nazis created the secret laboratory "Kenigsberg-13", where the German "rune warriors" conducted mystical experiments to create a new terrible superweapon capable of bringing victory to the "race of demigods" in war with the undermens. Well, they conjured there - and let them conjure, the master's business, but once Winston Churchill was informed that Nazi mystics had created his voodoo doll at the mentioned laboratory with the most obvious bad intentions towards the British prime minister. Sir Churchill did not take this news as nonsense, but ordered the Royal Air Force to stop such outrages - which resulted in a devastating bombardment of the Prussian capital by the aforementioned Lancasters. Whether the British bombs got that laboratory remains unknown, but the complete destruction of the governor's house (the one where Tsar Peter once visited), the city hall and many more is clearly documented. unique buildings old Koenigsberg-Kaliningrad.

Cathedral of Kaliningrad

It is generally accepted that the construction of the Cathedral, dedicated to the Highly Sacred Body of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, All Saints and Saint Adalbert, began in 1333 - and this is the figure that flaunts on the weather vane of the North Tower. When it turned out that the parishioners no longer fit into the old Lutheran church, the Teutonic Order allowed the local bishop to build a new cathedral on Kneiphof. However, five years after the start of construction (in total it lasted eighty years), the master of the order summoned the bishop and asked why he was building “another fortress” on the island. The fact is that the original project provided for the construction of a cathedral-fortress, because the territory had just been conquered by the order and was located on the very border. However, the grand master of the order, Luther of Brunswick, considered that "there is no need to build another fortress at an arrow's flight distance from the castle of the order." Thus, it was necessary to make changes to the project and in the future the cathedral was erected exclusively as a religious building. However, this was not without complications: the soil on Kant Island is very unstable and about a thousand oak piles were driven under the foundation of the church (according to other sources, the piles were made of Norwegian larch - the only tree hardening from water and which does not eat bark beetle). During the construction there was a shrinkage of the soil, a wall cracked on the main nave of the cathedral, and now the axes of the two cathedral towers diverge by one and a half meters. To hide this defect, another “camouflage” turret was installed on the roof of the cathedral.

Cathedral of Kaliningrad

IN late XIX century inspector by architectural monuments East Prussia examined the cathedral and with German scrupulousness reported to his superiors about his deplorable state. By that time, builders in Europe were already using concrete with might and main, and it was from this material that a special “substrate” was made, which in 1902 was placed under the foundation of the building so that it would no longer sink into the loose earth of Kneiphof (by the time the inspector checked the Cathedral, the shrinkage was 1, 2 meters). If not for this substrate, it is unlikely that the cathedral survived the English raid and its skeleton stood until the end of the last century.

After its restoration, the Kaliningrad Cathedral, built in the brick (Baltic) Gothic style, is one of the most famous Gothic buildings in Russia. Currently, the temple is not functioning and services are held only in the Orthodox and Evangelical chapels located inside. The rest of the area of ​​the Cathedral is used as a museum and a concert hall.

Entering the huge concert hall on the ground floor, you can see one of the largest organs in Europe, on which the composer and storyteller Hoffmann once played music. It makes sense to climb the spiral staircase higher and see the unique exposition of the museum dedicated to Kant. During its inspection, you can see the famous restored stained-glass windows, the font in which Kant and his death mask were baptized, as well as tombstones and epitaphs of the most respected citizens buried in the walls of the cathedral.

A ticket to the museum costs 150 rubles, another 50 rubles will have to be paid for permission to take pictures. When visiting the museum, I recommend taking a guide (it will cost an additional 150 rubles to the main ticket price) - without his explanation, the purpose and history of many exhibits will be completely incomprehensible. But with a guide, everything falls into place and a 30-minute visit to the museum turns into a memorable event. The guide tells in detail and interestingly from the life of Kant, the creation of the "Albertina state" and much more.

After the war, Kaliningrad was the only place in the Soviet Union where filmmakers could find "real Germany" - albeit thoroughly destroyed. Therefore, many films, primarily about the war, were filmed here. For example, the Cathedral flashed in one of the episodes of the film "Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha" - against its background, a soldier overturns a canister of fuel.

Official website of the Kaliningrad Cathedral Schedule of organ music concerts

Old Kaliningrad: Sculpture Park on Kant Island

As I already wrote, until the beginning of the 90s of the last century, there was nothing on Kant Island except the ruins of the cathedral and trees, which were planted specially to correct this gloomy picture at least a little - after all, the very center of the city. At some point, the authorities tried to change this situation, and in the 1980s, by decision of the Kaliningrad Executive Committee, sculptures were sent to Kaliningrad from the Art Fund of the USSR, which were then installed in the park. Right now in sculpture park presented 23 works, united common theme"Man and the World", among which two can be distinguished:

"World without war", 1981

"Creation", 1982

Kant Island: Honey Bridge

Once upon a time there were several bridges on Kneiphof: Blacksmith, Lavochny, Trebukhovy, Green. Honey, along which today you can walk from the Cathedral to the Fish Village, was built later than all - in 1542.

honey bridge

View of the Cathedral and the Honey Bridge from the Fish Village:

Fish village, view from the Honey Bridge:

Kaliningrad, Kant Island - how to get there

By car: in the navigator you need to type the address Oktyabrskaya street house 2.
By public transport:
1. To the stop Fish Village: by bus 45, minibus t72, t80, t92
2. To the stop of SK Yunost, located on Moskovsky Prospekt: ​​bus: 45, 49; trolleybus: 2, 7; minibus t65, t72, t75, t77, t80, t87, t93.
3. To the stop House of Culture of Sailors on Leninsky Prospekt: ​​bus 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 27, 30, 36, 37, 44, 49, 159, 106, 108; trolleybus 1, 5; tram 3, 5; minibus t62, t63, t64, t66, t67, t69, t70, t71, t77, t83, t84, t85, t87, t88, t89, t90, t93, t86.

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Unforgettable walks in the old Kaliningrad!
Your Roman Mironenko

Kneiphof Island, Grosser Domplatz 58
there is no official name now; applied by Kneiphof
In the western part (tower) today: an Orthodox chapel, an Evangelical chapel, the Cathedral Museum and the Kant Museum.
After restoration, the nave is to be used in a multicultural way.

Construction history:

The predecessor building was erected after the founding of the Samland Cathedral Chapter in 1286 on the outskirts of the Altstadt between Pregel and Löbenicht (sometime between 1297 and 1302). Bishop Johannes Clare (1322-44), for whom this church seemed too small, began around 1327 on the eastern half of Kneiphof transferred to him, the construction of a walled episcopal courtyard, to which later a covered gallery and a shelter building were added in the southern part. Further towards Pregel, the episcopal chamber and, to the east of it, a school (later becoming a university), as well as a hospital, grew up. It is impossible to establish the exact date of the beginning of the construction of the Cathedral; in 1320, there is mention of the intention to build, probably the Bishop of Claret started the work sometime in 1332, at the latest in 1333. His original intention to make the Cathedral in the form of a fortified church is evidenced by the eastern wall of the choir built first of all, having a thickness of 3 m. A wide passage for the defenders was also to be built on top of this massive wall, and corner towers were to be attached to it. And the construction of the northern wall was initially carried out up to a height of 2.75 meters with the same thickness. But further construction in such a massive manner failed due to the protest of the owner of the territory, Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Duke Ludger von Braunschweig. Therefore, the upper part of the northern wall, as well as the south wall, which had not yet been erected at that time, had a thickness of only 1.28 m.

Between 1335 and 1340 the church choir was closed with a "half-timbered" wall as a temporary measure. After that, the temple of God began to be used as such. At this time, high up in the choir stalls, the famous frieze arose, starting at the north wall, passing further along the east and ending on the north (it also disappeared completely, you can read about it in Seidel's book).

Presumably only at that moment were erected western towers(it is this explanation that lends itself to a slight displacement / breakage of the main axis, visible in the plan). Both towers were built in 1344. Images of their appearance have not been preserved. They most likely arose on the model of Kulm or Kulmsee. At the same time, work on the longitudinal nave, laid out in the form of a basilica, progressed so much that it was possible to begin the construction of a wooden ceiling and roof (the roof was completed in 1351). But before the Cathedral was rebuilt, under the Grand Master Winrich von Kniprod (1351-82) perestroika had already begun: it was decided to build a hall church with three naves. Rebuilding with the construction of vaults lasted until 1382. At the same time, the windows in the middle nave disappeared, and the windows of the side aisles increased in height.

In 1544, both towers burned to the ground. Their re-erection took place during the Renaissance; a superstructure with 12 corners was added to the south tower, in which bells were hung. The north tower remained in a subordinate position with simple gables on the western and eastern sides. The designs for both were carried out by the former court joiner Hans Wagener. These works were completed in 1552.

In 1564 (or 1568) a charming little tower was erected on the roof of the longitudinal nave - a horse rider.

In 1650, the library, founded already in 1629 by chancellor Martin von Wallenrodt, was moved to a still unused room in the south tower under the bells.

In 1901-07, the Cathedral was restored under the leadership of the provincial conservator Richard Detlefsen. The purpose of this restoration was to restore the previous state before 1400. Following the dictates of the times, they used all their imagination; for example, on the southeast corner of the choir, a small fortified turret was re-created on the basis of the remains of a foundation in the wall. Inside, old frescoes were released from under the plaster. In addition, an attempt was made to counteract the poor building foundation and the lack of foundation (then a subsidence of 1.67 m deep was found under the south tower).

The bombings of August 1944 caused heavy damage. The church was completely burned out. The pediment of the north tower and parts of the vault collapsed. The remaining vaults could have been saved if conservation work and the erection of a temporary roof had been carried out in a timely manner. But for 20 years nothing happened, during which time the Cathedral was exposed to atmospheric influences, and given over to marauders; disappeared, first of all, including the remains of the monument untouched by the fire; and in general, the ruin was in a disconsolate state.

In 1972, the first maintenance work began on the structure. However, in 1975, the last span in the longitudinal nave collapsed. And only since 1976, certain conservation work began, for example, overlapping and additional laying of walls. Recovery, as such, began only in 1990.

Construction description

Western towers.

The western front is divided into three parts into the southern and northern towers and the middle building. Both lower floors form a through basement. So on the entrance floor, three simple rooms with cross vaults appeared, connected to each other and a longitudinal nave. The middle room serves as a vestibule. It has a round, very original turret with a staircase leading to the upper floors. The middle room on the second floor was covered with a now reconstructed ribbed star-shaped vault. One floor above was the Wallenrodt Library in the south tower (directly under the belfry) and in the middle room. One of the rooms was painted, while in the other baroque figures and wood carvings were made. The room in the north tower was not previously used. All three rooms now house the Kant Museum.

The aforementioned three-part division into two towers and the middle structure has almost no effect on the facade. Rather, the façade is divided up to the bases of the towers by two narrow but noticeable decorative strips into horizontal fragments, which partially deprive the Gothic windows of the possibility of giving the impression of aspiration upwards. Below, in the basement passing under two floors, a closed brick wall prevails, which is somewhat enlivened by 11 axes of Gothic forms similar to the walls of the longitudinal nave, of which only three are real windows, and the rest are made in the form of blind arcades (of which later two were half covered with buttresses) . The second (or middle) fragment lying above is more interesting. Between two plaster belts, 18 very high and slender decorative arches are built close to each other, overlapped by lancet arches. In these high decorative arches on the second, distant level, other small decorative openings are arranged, divided into three floors. The forms vary in an exquisite way: on the sides of the towers, for example, internal decorative arches protrude over two "floors", while elongated forms, to increase the scope, stand above the short ones. And only upon closer examination it turns out that some of the decorative arches are made in the form of window openings. This shows that decorative arches were primarily a form of decoration and not meant to imitate windows.

And only above the second decorative belt is the tower zone with its middle pediment divided into five parts, two pilasters of which begin already between the decorative arches and are located in opposition to the horizontal decorative belts. Both towers could not be built to great heights due to poor building foundations. They remained tower stumps with stepped gables with gable roofs between them. These gables were demolished after a fire in 1544. On the square base of the south tower, a two-story superstructure with 12 corners was erected, on which a spire covered with flat tiles was built only in 1552. Interestingly, Gothic windows were replaced by Renaissance forms, supplemented by semicircular arches with small keystones. Yes, and the northern tower, restored with a simple pediment, shows typical forms of the Renaissance.

Longitudinal nave. By the nature of its plan, the Cathedral follows the scheme of order churches with a three-nave parish church and a single-nave choir with a direct ending, but without a crypt (underground chapel). According to the original concept, the parish church was made in the form of a basilica with high windows in the middle nave. Above it was built a simple wooden ceiling. Buttresses were not initially provided for, they were added only after the appearance of vaults.

The church, with three naves and five bays, gave the impression of space, although it did not have that upward aspiration that took place in the South and West German late Gothic. But with a height of 17 m, the width-to-height ratio of almost 1:1.5 deserves attention. The lower side aisles allow one only to guess the history of their origin from the former forms of the basilica. When the outer walls were raised, the windows were extended, and the existing decorative row was continued in the south in a vertical direction, and doubled in the north. As in the lower part of the western front, only one window was made in each span. For a more satisfactory design of the spaces between the two buttresses, decorative arches were added to the side of the windows (which had been painted over earlier, and during the restoration in 1907 were supplemented with decorated openwork ornamental forms). During the rebuilding for the parish church, new, richly profiled columns were erected, which were slightly elongated at the base. And only their sandstone plinths remained from the time of the original basilica. The columns passed without heels into arches, carrying a star-shaped dome of 12 parts. The domes of the side aisles had a peculiar shape: The middle rib in the form of a pear-shaped rib (*) crossed the entire space, on both sides segmental vaults adjoined it along the vaults. After 1500, the eastern span of the northern nave collapsed. During the re-erection, the star vault was again preferred. The inner surfaces of the fired brick wall and column were plastered and partly decorated. Already in 1833, wall paintings were discovered in the choir stalls and in 1863 in the parish church, others were found during restoration in 1907.

On the western end of the middle nave, an organ platform was built in 1717, which was expanded in 1833 to a singing empora. Being a little over 3 m high, at first it blocked the incoming full view of the church nave. The organ itself was made in 1721 by Joshua Mozengel.

To the east, the middle nave ended with a triumphal arch, the height of which roughly corresponds to the height of the lowest choir. Initially, a 4 m high lettner stood here, which had two passages. Later, the opening was enlarged, and in this place a renaissance altar was built, which was enlarged with the addition of baroque elements.

Choir section. Section along the longitudinal nave.

On the reverse side of the tomb to Duke Albrecht. As of 1350 (about)

Condition 1340-1944 (tombs from 1571)

The single-nave choir, five bays long, shows, especially today, when its powerful brick structure is not covered by anything, its character of a defensive structure. Its “defensive” function was used by the French during the occupation in 1807, when they abused it for a short time, adapting it to a military prison. After the transformation into a normal church, which the Grand Master demanded shortly after the start of construction, the southern wall probably became 2.60 m higher than the northern one. Because of this, the truss truss, which is located misaligned above the choirs, turned out to be uneven. From the very beginning, the construction of vaulted ceilings over the choirs was envisaged, as evidenced by the buttresses made together with the outer walls. The heel stones of the stellated vaults in the form of thin columns adjoined the wall for a length of 2.80 meters.

Inside, the choirs were separated by a lattice: two eastern spans formed a high choir; since the burial of Duke Albrecht, a princely crypt has appeared here. The three remaining bays were accessible to all and formed the lower choir, there were also seats for the choirs.

Externally, the south side of the choir was made with less decoration, most likely, there used to be a covered gallery here. But the north side, overlooking the Altstadt, was made using large funds with profiled windows and buttresses. The upper completion of the side walls in its division corresponded to the originally planned covered gallery. In the north, these were semi-circular, in the south, decorative lancet rows. Together with a new roof structure, they were restored in 1997 and 1998.

a common part

Lengthwise cut.

Status for 1907 - 1944

Königsberg Cathedral is hardly a building structure that could impress with its particularly successful proportions or uniform decoration. The significance of the Cathedral is more apparent as a powerful order church, which - in accordance with the requirements of the time - was constantly rebuilt and shaped in a new way from the Gothic to the Baroque, until at the beginning of the 20th century it underwent a thorough restoration in the manner appropriate to that time.

The great length of 98 m is striking, which was best observed in 1994, when the towers again reached their former height, and the longitudinal nave and choirs joined them in the form of a “low” ruin, which stretched and stretched in length. Due to the newly restored very high roof, this impression of “infinity” is blunted, and the power of the building can now be perceived in its entirety. In particular, the southern tower with its spire, which until 1997, due to its height, was presented in a certain sense even in a more favorable light, gives the impression of being crushed, subordinating to the long church nave.

In the fantasy-filled times of rebuilding and new design at the end of the 19th century, there were projects for the erection of both towers in the “Gothic” sense, that is, higher (which has already happened in other places, but fortunately not in Königsberg). It is impossible to imagine that tall towers were able to create balance with a very elongated nave. So the tower side with the spire and the trench is just a showcase in the best sense of the word: starting with the Gothic aspiration to the sky with high rows of windows and narrow decorative arches above them presented at the top in the Renaissance, this aspiration is calmed by the wide pediment of the north tower and compact semi-circular windows. south tower. Well, then, as a dot above the “i”, everything is dodecagonal superstructure of the southern tower with its sharp pyramidal roof - elements that are once again tied to the Gothic aspiration to the sky.

Outbuildings

Like all medieval churches, the cathedral in Königsberg acquired several outbuildings:

The baptismal chapel was added in 1595. The two buttresses of the northern wall of the longitudinal nave were connected to each other, and the entire room was covered with a wooden vault. As a dividing wall from the side nave, a form typical of the Renaissance was taken: on the parapet, eleven slender Ionic columns with an ancient system of beams were placed in two rows. The opening in the middle was crowned with a semicircular arch.

The sacristy was built in the corner between south wall side nave and choir stalls. It consisted of the sacristy itself with a vault and an auxiliary room, access to which was possible only from the outside. An auxiliary room for technical devices, made of another type of brick, has now appeared on the walls of the base of both rooms.

Professor's tomb. Since 1558, all professors of the university standing opposite had the right to be buried in open gallery along the north wall of the choir. Immanuel Kant was in 1804 the last one who solemnly found his eternal rest here. In 1809 an open promenade gallery was erected, but due to poor condition it was demolished in 1880. A small hall with two pediments in the Gothic style was erected over the burial place of Kant, which, however, soon also fell into disrepair. And only on the great anniversary of Kant in 1924, a new worthy building was erected on the same place.

Today's state

The appearance of the cathedral was mostly restored with the help of restoration work (if we do not take into account the condition of the brick wall, the unsatisfactory work to improve it, and the not always correctly chosen shape and material for covering the buttresses, the roof, the spire of the tower and the sacristy). The final restoration of the outer part of the wall began in 1999, while the places that were not well executed during the early restorations should also be updated.

In the inner part of the choirs and the parish church (both covered with a roof of a light metal structure, the side walls are fixed with a steel structure) one could see the horrific state in which the Cathedral was back in 1976 at the beginning of conservation work or in 1990, the beginning of the actual restoration.

All the very rich interior decoration burned down in 1944, the vaults collapsed one after another, the baked brick walls appear bare without plaster, the side walls, although they still exist, stand crookedly and, at a height of 17.7 m, deviated from the vertical up to 42 cm Even the initially preserved floor was destroyed during the first conservation work. The epitaphs on the walls, which came out of the war relatively intact, were destroyed beyond recognition only in subsequent years.

But the curvature of the interior walls is not due to a lack of maintenance work, it is a problem that has been troublesome since the beginning of the cathedral's construction in the 14th century. The building soil of the island on Pregel consists of an earth embankment, a 3-4 meter layer of peat, and under them there is sludge and quicksand. These layers are by no means load-bearing. The outer walls stand on arched devices, and only the columns most likely stand on stilts.

Interior

Monument to Duke Albrecht as of 1945

It's me.))) This is how our generation remembered him............

The mentioned rich interior, which was constantly enriched from the 14th to the 19th century, was in 1944 and in the first post-war years it was almost completely destroyed. Only parts of individual epitaphs and crypts in the wall remained.

Almost the entire eastern wall is still occupied by a monument to Duke Albrecht (it remained almost undamaged after the bombing, but then all the figures, coats of arms, columns and other decorations were taken away, today only a bare architectural frame remains - 11 m high, 12.5 m width). This monument is considered one of the main works of the sculptor Cornelis Floris of Antwerp (1513 - 1575) and was made in Antwerp. Duke Albrecht died in 1568, the year 1570 is on the monument, and it was erected in 1571. The Italian graves of the heyday of the Renaissance served as a model, which in turn are rooted in ancient Rome.

The middle part is formed by a large semi-circular niche, surrounded on the sides by four small niches, in front of which there are Corinthian columns with a ceiling structure. A luxurious sarcophagus stood in a large niche, on its slab the duke knelt, praying in front of the altar. Allegorical figures stood in the side niches. Under the pediment that completed everything was a very realistic image of the Last Judgment. The figures were made of white alabaster, the architectural parts were made of Belgian limestone.

Of the more than 100 epitaphs formerly located on the outer and inner walls, only a few have survived. Inside, in addition to the monument to Albrecht, only the remains of two epitaphs can be seen on the choirs on the south wall. Plate for the epitaph to Prince Bogislav Radziwill (died in 1669) and his wife Anna Maria, nee. Princess Radziwill (two large wreaths with inscriptions and two full-size busts are missing); then the architectural framework of the epitaph to Duchess Anna Maria, second wife of Duke Albrecht (died 1568); and there is a lack of inscriptions and figurative decorations.

The round stair tower shown below in the entrance hall has already been mentioned. Square columns make it possible to see a spiral staircase. In the lower part and under the roof, semicircular vaults are so intertwined with each other that they form small lancet vaults. Boetticher wrote: “The turret is so original that it is impossible to put anything similar next to it.” Arches intertwined in the form of lancet vaults are one of the inventions of Norman architecture in Sicily in the 11th and 13th centuries.

epitaphs

better preserved on the outer walls, since they mostly do not contain any luxurious architectural details and no figured decorations, but are simply set into the wall in the form of slabs. They were restored and mothballed in 1995/96.

Let's start from the south side of the cathedral:

Outside, on the last, eastern span of the longitudinal nave, in the lower part of the decorative window, there is a simple tablet in honor of Sarah Bregelia; it consists only of an inscription framed in a frame.

Further, already on the outer wall of the choirs in the second span (to the east of the extension of the former sacristy) there is a well-preserved (although in three places broken) epitaph of Suzanne von Kalkstein. Above the inscription are two coats of arms; the slab is framed by a saying in the form of a frame on all four.

At the fifth and last bay of the choirs is the epitaph of Chancellor Johann von Kreutzen and his wife Jeofemia, née Damerau; above the inscription, the couple itself is visible, he is wearing knightly armor, and she is wearing a long dress and a necklace around her neck; above a row of coats of arms.

Now let's move on to the eastern wall of the choirs: there hangs, near the Kant portico, a well-preserved epitaph of Ursula von Pudlitz, nee von Grünberg, wife of the noble Mr. Wedigo Raymar zu Pudlitz, year of death - 1612. Both coats of arms are set above the inscription in the recess.

Other epitaphs are located on the northern side of the Cathedral facing the city. In the penultimate bay (next to Kant's tomb) on the outer wall is a heavily blurred epitaph of Albrecht Baron von Kittelitz, regent and landhofmeister (you can hardly recognize the figures with folded hands).

The next epitaph is located on the wall of the choir and is better preserved; it is dedicated to Koelestin Kowalewski (the medallion located above the inscription is now missing).

Well, in the end, in the second span, we see the well-preserved epitaph of Andreas Fabricius. It is decorated richer with a coat of arms in the middle, framed by a vault of the Renaissance. There is also a saying on it, which encloses the entire slab like a frame on four sides.

On the northern wall of the longitudinal nave on the fifth eastern span, there are two epitaphs at once: the first is not identified and consists only of a frame. The second row, richly decorated, is dedicated to Matthias Stoius. This one is reminiscent of its division into two parts and a small pediment on top of the epitaph in the church premises.

The last epitaph is located to the left of the window of the 4th bay (the bay east of the baptismal chapel) and is dedicated to Christopher Preuss and his wife Jeofemia Stolpiana. It is framed by an eye-catching frame.

Inside the choirs on the floor there was a tombstone of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Luther von Braunschweig (at first it was temporarily surrounded by boards). This plate with inscriptions is broken in several places. In 1998, she was photographed for restoration.

Cathedral at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates : 54°42′22.87″ N sh. 20°30′42.4″ E d. /  54.706353° N. sh. 20.511778° E d.(G) (O) (I)54.706353 , 20.511778

Cathedral of Königsberg(German Konigsberger Dom- "Königsberg Cathedral") - an inactive cathedral located in the former historical district of Kaliningrad Kneiphof, is a historical and cultural monument. Before the reformation of the 16th century, it was the main Catholic church of the city (it was dedicated to the Highly Sacred Body of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, All Saints and Saint Adalbert), and then the main Lutheran church of Prussia. It is one of the symbols of the city.

Currently, services are not held in the cathedral, the building is used to host museum exhibitions and concerts.

History

The first cathedral was built between and 1302 in the southwestern part of the Altstadt. After the death of Bishop Siegfried, under whom the construction of the cathedral began, Johann became the new bishop. He considered the already built cathedral too small. At his request, in 1327 the Master of the Teutonic Order provided a new site for the construction of the city's main church on the island of Kneiphof.

The exact date of the beginning of the construction of the cathedral at the new location is unknown. Formally, September 13, 1333 is considered his “birthday” (first mention in documents). On this day, the master of the Teutonic Order gave the go-ahead for the continuation of the construction of the cathedral. Initially, the project involved the construction of a cathedral-fortress, because the territory had just been conquered, but the Grand Master of the Order, Luther of Brunswick, did not give permission for this, saying that " there is no need to build a second fortress just an arrow's flight distance from the Order's castle». Thus, the suspended construction was resumed, but now the cathedral was erected exclusively as a religious building. Due to the unreliable soil of the island, more than a thousand oak piles were driven under the foundation of the temple.

The material for the new cathedral was the bricks of the old cathedral (in Altstadt), which was demolished. Especially for delivering them to the island through the Pregel, a bridge was built, called the Cathedral, and in the city wall of Altstadt, gates were cut, also called the Cathedral. Both structures were temporary; but if the bridge was indeed later dismantled (it lasted only fifty years), then the gate stood for another six hundred years and died during the bombardment of the city by Anglo-American aircraft in August 1944. Interestingly, if the Cathedral Bridge had not been dismantled, then the famous problem about the seven bridges of Koenigsberg would not have appeared, which became the reason for the creation of graph theory.

Formally, the date of completion of construction is considered to be 1380, but work in the cathedral continued later. And not only in terms of interior design (for example, between 1380 and 1400, the naves of the cathedral were painted with frescoes). In 1553, towers were added to the facades of the cathedral (a weather vane-mermaid was installed on the spire of one of them).

Initially, the cathedral was single-nave, but then a three-nave building was added to its western part. In order times, these two parts of the church were divided: in the one-nave part, known as the High Choirs, the knights prayed, in the three-nave (Low Choirs) - ordinary parishioners.

During its long "German" history, the cathedral had to be not only a religious building. In 1344, Count William IV of Holland asked the bishop for permission to spend the winter in the unfinished cathedral along with his horses, and he was not refused. And in 1807, part of the cathedral (more precisely, the family tomb of Albrecht) was turned by the French into a military prison.

Interior and decoration

Epitaph of Albrecht Hohenzollern by Cornelis Floris (pre-war state)

The rich decoration of the cathedral was almost completely destroyed (burnt down) during the Second World War. Only a few stone epitaphs have survived. The most remarkable of them is the epitaph - the tombstone of Duke Albrecht of Hohenzollern by the Flemish architect and sculptor Cornelis Floris (architect of the Antwerp City Hall). The epitaph is made in the style of the Flemish Renaissance (Mannerism). The dimensions of the epitaph are 11 meters high and 12.5 meters wide. Initially, the epiatphia was richly decorated with sculptures, columns, coats of arms, etc., but after the war only a bare frame remained from it (it has been restored since 2009). The epitaph is located at the end of the eastern wall of the cathedral.

In addition to the monumental epitaph of Albrecht, several more modest epitaphs of the 16th-17th centuries have survived. Now they are fixed on the walls of the cathedral, both from the outside and from the inside.

In 2008, the epitaph of the Radziwills was restored.

Also of interest is the inner turret, which contains a spiral staircase leading to the upper tiers of the cathedral tower. The turret consists of intertwined lancet arches, which first appeared in the Norman architecture of Sicily in the 11th-13th centuries.

Cathedral after World War II

Cathedral ruins in 1982

Chronicle of the restoration of the cathedral

However, the current restoration causes a lot of criticism. It is enough to compare the modern view of the cathedral with pre-war photographs to make sure that the restorers do not always restore the cathedral in exact accordance with the pre-war state. The restoration of the interior decoration is out of the question (however, the cost of restoring the decoration would be too high).

Cathedral in 2002

Kant's grave

Modern view of the grave of Immanuel Kant, 2007.

The first post - war service near the walls of the restored cathedral took place on Easter Sunday 1992 . Solemn services were held later. In 1994, the service was dedicated to the 450th anniversary of the University of Albertina. On May 7, 1995, a common service was held for representatives of three Christian denominations: Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants.

The cathedral also regularly hosts concerts of classical and religious music, including those using two organs, and international organ competitions.

Cathedral as a trademark

In 2002, the architectural appearance of the cathedral was registered with the Ministry of Culture as a trademark. Thus, the GUK "Cathedral" should receive 0.5% of the income received from commercial activities related to the operation of the image of the cathedral, for example, from the sale of postcards and any goods bearing the image of the cathedral (the latter include, in particular, packs of cigarettes "Sobornye" and vodka "Vostochno-Prusskaya" According to the director of the GUK "Cathedral Cathedral", the proceeds from this will go to the restoration of the cathedral.

Cathedral in cinema

After the war, Kaliningrad was the only place USSR, where it was possible to film the "real Germany". Naturally, first of all, films about the war were shot here. In some films, the cathedral was also included in the frame.

• "Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha. Against the backdrop of the cathedral, a soldier knocks over a canister of gasoline.
• "The Kerosene Man's Wife". In one fragment, a priest (a former front-line soldier) is sitting in the ruins of the cathedral, and behind him in one of the window openings are shoved two angels - Russian and German.

Cathedral in philately and numismatics

see also

Notes

1. Cathedral history
2. Manfred Gerner, Igor A Odinzow: Der Konigsberger Dom. Zentrum Handwerk und Denkmalpflege, 1998, (German)
3. August Rudolph Gebser: Geschichte der Domkirche zu Königsberg und des Bisthums Samland, mit einer ausführlichen Beschreibung der Reformation im Herzogthum Preußen. Königsberg 1835, (Digitalisat Google History of Königsberg Cathedral (German))
4. Historical information on the website of the administration of Kaliningrad
5. Kaliningrad region in the encyclopedia "Krugosvet"
6. Baldur Koester. Koenigsberg. Today's Kaliningrad. German time architecture
7. Official website of the cathedral
8. Karamzin in East Prussia
9. text
10. Duke Albrecht to return epitaph
11. Restoration of the epitaph of the Radziwills completed in the Cathedral
12. Baldur Köster Koenigsberg. Today's Kaliningrad. German architecture.
13. Koenigsberg Kaliningrad, 1255-2005: illustrated encyclopedic reference book / ed. A. S. Przhezdomsky. - Kaliningrad: Amber Tale, 2006.
14. Koenigsberg and the cathedral. The symbol of the ancient city was saved from destruction by the grave of Immanuel Kant
15. Thing is not in itself
16. Mark Kabakov. Colonel Odintsov restores the Kaliningrad Cathedral// Newspaper "Culture"
17. The interior of the famous Wallenrod Library has been recreated in the Kaliningrad Cathedral, Information Agency"Regnum"
18. Baldur Köster "Königsberg. Today's Kaliningrad. The architecture of the German time". Translation from German (text). Original German edition data: Baldur Köster, Husum Druck; 2000
19. Cathedral on the site "Wonders of Russia"
20. The Cathedral on the website of the Regional Ministry of Culture
21. International competition of organists named after M.Tariverdiev
22. Kaliningrad. The Directorate of the Cathedral intends to sue because of the illegal use of the image of the cathedral. Information agency "Regnum"