Königsberg Castle
Russia · Europe
About
Königsberg Castle (Russian: Кёнигсбергский замок, romanized: Kyonigsbergskiy zamok, German: Königsberger Schloss) was the seat of the grand masters of the Teutonic Order and of the dukes and kings of Prussia in the city of Königsberg (since 1946 Kaliningrad, Russia). The original fortress on the site was built by the Teutonic Knights in the 1250s, then enlarged and rebuilt into a castle over the following centuries. The castle was severely damaged during World War II, although its exterior walls remained structurally intact. After the war, the remains of the castle were periodically demolished by the Soviet government, with the last section being destroyed in 1968. Königsberg and the surrounding territories of East Prussia had become Kaliningrad Oblast, a part of the Soviet Union, in 1946.
The House of Soviets was built where the castle had stood, but the building was never completed and remained unused for decades before it was torn down in 2024.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.