Königsberg Cathedral, located on the island of Knipawa amid the waters of the River Pregolese, is one of the few witnesses of old Königsberg that have survived the turbulent turmoil of the mid-20th century. Built of brick in the Gothic style, it served as the seat of the Sambian bishops for centuries. Today, it is a valuable monument and a very meaningful symbol of the city’s lost heritage, almost completely destroyed during the Second World War and “beaten back” in the post-war years.
Königsberg Cathedral – the beginnings of history
The history of the Cathedral of Our Lady and St. Adalbert in Königsberg dates back to the 14th century, when Bishop Johann Clare received part of the island of Kneiphof (Knipawy) from the Teutonic Order and began building a new church. The temple was to replace the existing church in the Altstadt. As the chosen site was waterlogged, hundreds of oak piles were driven under the foundations to stabilise the ground. Construction work began around 1330 and lasted nearly 50 years. The interior of the church was decorated with numerous wall paintings and sculptures, mainly made of wood. A special place was occupied by the Renaissance statue of Prince Albrecht of Prussia, by the Dutch sculptor Cornelis Floris. In 1544, with the founding of the Protestant Albrecht University, the temple became an academic church. It was at this time that Lutheran services began to be held, as well as masses in Polish – a tradition that lasted until the 18th century. Originally, the cathedral had two towers, but only one was rebuilt after a fire in the 16th century. In time, it was enriched with a clock and also housed the famous Wallenrod Library. In 1695, a powerful organ was installed in the church, which underwent extensive renovation in the 19th century.
Air raids on the city during World War II
In August 1944, the British Air Force carried out air raids on Königsberg. The first was off-target, but the second had disastrous consequences. The historic city centre, including the island of Kneiphof, was almost completely destroyed. The town hall, the Teutonic castle (we wrote about it HERE), numerous townhouses and university buildings were reduced to rubble. The Gothic cathedral was somewhat more fortunate and despite the fire, its walls survived. A group of about 40 inhabitants then took refuge in its vaults and miraculously survived the destruction. Hundreds of people died throughout Königsberg. To this day, the raids are still referred to as the “cultural execution of the city”.
Battles for Königsberg
In 1945, after a fierce four-day battle, the Red Army captured Königsberg, sealing the fate of the German city. More civilians died as a result of the fighting and shelling. After the war, the borders of Poland and its neighbours were redrawn. Königsberg, despite its approx. 700 years as part of the German states, found itself in the then Kaliningrad Oblast, which belonged to the USSR. For this reason, no attempt was made to rebuild the old city after 1945. On the contrary. Remnants of the historical buildings of German origin were systematically removed and Kneiphof was transformed into a park. Only the brick ruins of the cathedral were left on the formerly densely built-up island. In the 1950s, there were ideas of completely demolishing the remains of the temple, but this step was ultimately rejected.
New hope for the cathedral
The breakthrough came only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, Königsberg was opened to the world, which created the conditions for the restoration of the cathedral. Although the city bore clear traces of socialist urbanism, interest in the region’s past began to grow in Russian society. The temple, despite its Germanic origins, began to be seen as local heritage. In 1992, the Cathedral Foundation (Russian: Фонд “Собор”) was registered with the aim of restoring the monument. Over time, German communities joined the venture, as well as Protestants from Germany and Scandinavian countries. The new spire was set on the tower by helicopter in 1994, and in the following years the roof structure was reconstructed, new clocks and bells were installed, stained glass windows were reconstructed and external architectural details, including maswerki, blends and buttresses, were restored. The interior of the cathedral was fitted out for a mainly museum and concert function. During the work, problems with subsidence of the building were encountered. This is a phenomenon still known from German times. Mass graves were also discovered – hundreds of skeletons, mainly of children, were found under the rubble. It was originally thought that these were victims of bombing, but some witnesses linked the remains to the evacuation of the labour camps subordinate to Stutthof in January 1945. The origin of the graves has still not been fully established.
Königsberg Cathedral in 1982 and 2014. photo by Huhu Uet, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons and Зандер виктор, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Königsberg Cathedral today
Today, the restored cathedral serves a variety of functions: it houses a Lutheran chapel, an Orthodox chapel, a museum and a concert hall with one of the largest organs in Europe. Its most treasured site remains the tomb of Immanuel Kant, the great philosopher known as the ‘sage of Königsberg’. He rests in a modernist mausoleum adjacent to the north-east corner of the building. The mausoleum, designed by Friedrich Lahrs, was completed in 1924 to mark the 200th anniversary of the philosopher’s birth. Prior to that, his remains had been moved from inside the church to the neo-Gothic chapel, which had deteriorated over time.
Königsberg or Kaliningrad?
After the war, the city was given the new ideological name of Kaliningrad. It was given in honour of the Soviet activist Mikhail Kalinin, whose name is controversial due to, among other things, his co-responsibility for the Katyn massacre. In 2023, the Commission for the Standardisation of Geographical Names recommended that the historical name of Königsberg (and Königsberg Oblast) should again be used in Polish, which refers to the rich, centuries-old tradition of the city that was once a fief of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom.
Source: sobor39.ru, visitrussia.com
Read also: Architecture | History | Russia | Interesting facts | Sacred architecture
The centre of Königsberg in the 1920s and the present Königsberg. Photo: bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de and Google Earth
The cathedral in 1992 and 2020. Photo by Jonn Leffmann, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons and Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
