Now it's time to explain why the title of the post mentions the gate.
In 1626-1634, a rampart fortification was erected, which surrounded Königsberg from all sides. The fortification consisted of several bastions and half-bastions, as well as 9 gates. In addition, from the side of the sea in 1657, the powerful fort of Friedrichsburg was laid.
And already two centuries later, King Frederick William IV issued a decree on the beginning of the construction of the Second rampart, generally repeating the contours of the previous one. The powerful towers of Don and Wrangel, the Kronprinz defensive barracks and the Astronomical Bastion are being built, and new fortified gates are being erected in place of the previous ones. The first in 1843 began to build the Royal Gate, and the construction was completed with the construction of the Friedland Gate in 1862.
We did not manage to visit all the gates: (But I will show you some of them :)
Brandenburg Gate
There is a commemorative plaque on the wall.
And here are the doors themselves. A tram line runs through them.
The Brandenburg Gate was built around 1860. The facade was designed by the architect August Stühler. On the side facing the city, two portrait medallions of the sculptor Wilhelm Ludwig Stümler have survived: on the left - the military engineer Field Marshal Hermann von Boyen, on the left - General Ernst Ludwig von Aster, a participant in the Napoleonic wars and the author of the second rampart fortification of the Konigsberg fortress. The name of the gate can be interpreted in two ways: first, the road to the Order's castle Brandenburg (now the village of Ushakovo) goes through them; second, the same road leads to the German state of Brandenburg. But they have nothing to do with the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
which of them is a field marshal, and who is a general, I'm confused)) 
This is a view of the gate from the other side. By the way, pay attention to the tram line - it's a narrow gauge railway. And the trams run of quite ordinary dimensions. According to my feelings, it shakes on the way twice as much as in Moscow :)
A bit of the history of the Koenigsber tram. In the 19th century, due to the growth of the city, there was a need for public transport. In May 1881, the first horse tram route was opened in Königsberg (in the same year, an electric tram was launched in Berlin). The owners of the horse tram were joint stock companies. Compared to a droshky, the cost of a horse car ride was much more democratic: from 10 to 20 pfennigs (depending on distance) versus 60 pfennigs for one passenger, 70 pfennigs for two, 80 for three, and marks for four passengers in a droshky.
And in May 1895, the first trams entered the streets of Königsberg. In 1901, the city bought all the horse tram lines (with the exception of the lines in Hufen) and began to electrify them.
The strange structure ahead is the bridge.
The next gate is Friedrichsburg. 
Friedrichsburg Gate is the only historical gate in Kaliningrad, which led not to the city of Konigsberg, but to the fortress of the same name. In 1657, at the direction of the great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, the Friedrichsburg fortress was built on the southern bank of the Pregolya River. It was built according to the project of Christian Otter and in topographic plan had the shape of a square. On its corners there were four bastions with euphonic names - Ruby, Emerald, Diamond and Pearl. In a quadrangular courtyard, surrounded by earthen ramparts, there were various buildings: the commandant's office, barracks, a zeighaus, barns, a guardhouse, a prison and a church.
During the stay in 1697 of the Great Russian Embassy in Königsberg under the name of the sergeant Peter Mikhailov, the Russian Tsar Peter I underwent artillery science in the Friedrichsburg and Pillau fortresses. The training was conducted by the Brandenburg specialist in this field, Colonel von Sternfeld. He noted the abilities of his 25-year-old student. Upon his return to Moscow, Peter I received a certificate, which said: "Peter Mikhailov should be recognized and honored for a careful and skillful firearms artist who is perfect in throwing bombs."
In the middle of the 19th century, with the construction of new rampart fortifications around Königsberg, the Friedrichsburg fortress was rebuilt into the fort of the same name. In 1852, a brick gate was erected in the Friedrichsburg fort. The author of the project of this gate was August Stühler, the court architect of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV. On August 23, 1910, the Friedrichsburg fort was excluded from the Königsberg defensive fortifications and sold to the Imperial Railway. The ramparts were dug down, the ditches of the Friedrichsburg fort were filled up. Most of its structures have been dismantled. Railroad tracks were laid through the territory previously occupied by this fort. Only the gate and the barracks at the eastern defensive wall of the southeastern bastion have survived from the fort buildings.
Now the Friedrichsburg Gate has been transferred to the Museum of the World Ocean.
Some tiny hatches))
Bridge. This strange design is a spreading mechanism, or rather a lifting one :) The new railway bridge was built in 1926. Its structure was rotatable, the upper part of the bridge was intended for trains, the lower one for pedestrians and cars. The turning part was 57 meters and weighed 1225 tons, while the bridge could be turned within 2-3 minutes. It was blown up during the retreat of German troops and rebuilt in 1949. The bridge design was changed to a lifting one. The lifting height of the bridge is about 50 meters.
The bridge is in such a ... neglected and picturesque state. My friends were even afraid to cross it over rusted metal. And I remembered my home and the stairs on the Embankment)) 
The views from the bridge are very even! 
Maybe some old bridge piles?
The Cathedral is visible in the distance.
Kotya somehow looks unkindly at the guests of the city :)
"Rock Garden" in one of the courtyards :)
Here I am most pleased with the pink "toy" house)
The building on the right is also very interesting. 
This is the JI Ministry of Internal Affairs - a police university. Constructed building approx. 1931, in German times there was a labor exchange here.
Railway gate 
1866-1869 The Railway Gate was designed by the architect Ludwig von Astaire.
The railway leading to Pillau (now - Baltiysk) passed through these gates. After the defenses of the city center were removed, a street was built along the former rampart. Thus, since then, the gate is hardly noticeable, and rather resembles a tunnel through a road embankment.
There is an unexpected sign on the gate)))
Outside the gate is a beautiful park with ponds. 
And this is the Ausfal Gate.
The first gates were built approximately on the site of the present ones in the 1720s, during the construction of a defensive rampart around the city. Later, in 1866, the gate was rebuilt in the brick Gothic style. Built in the 19th century, the Ausfal Gate allowed only pedestrians to pass, and was less significant in relation to the rest of the city gates (as evidenced, for example, by the poorer architectural design). The new Ausfal Gate was designed by the architect Ludwig von Astaire.
The gate from the very beginning crashed into the rampart and was actually below ground level. In the XX century, the only passage of the gate was laid. Like all other city gates, in 1910 the Ausfal gate was sold to the city by the military.
During the war, the Ausfal Gate was converted into a command post for military units. The vast interior gates were divided into separate compartments by concrete walls. The passages between the compartments were closed by sealed protective doors.
After the war, the gate was used as a warehouse, later as a bomb shelter for a nearby police school, and later it housed a sewage collector.
In 1993, on the upper covering of the gate, which is located flush with the level of the carriageway of Gvardeisky Prospekt, the Orthodox chapel of St. George was built, dedicated to the Soviet soldiers who died in the storming of Konigsberg.
Königsberg was surrounded by seven bastion fronts, i.e. faces of a polygonal fortress belt, with the inclusion of bastions with an earthen rampart connecting them. Lunettes, cavaliers, redoubts and individual reduits, built into the rampart and carried out beyond it, were supposed to become auxiliary defensive structures. The system also included water-fed ditches, both Pregel branches and other reservoirs. The separate elements of the defensive bypass were the gates.
All the city gates of Koenigsberg were locked at night and a guard was posted. Entry into the city from dusk to dawn was prohibited. The only exceptions were doctors and priests.
Gate construction history
On April 5, 1843, the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm the fourth, ordered the creation of a Second rampart fortification around Konigsberg. The project was commissioned by the head of the engineering corps, Lieutenant General Ernest Ludwig von Astaire.
Ludwig von Astaire, developing the project of the Second rampart for the city of Konigsberg, took into account not only the military purpose of the gate, but also the aesthetic one. All city gates were made in one of the directions of the English neo-Gothic - the Tudor style. Special attention was paid to the sculptures that adorned them.
Construction of the city gate began on August 30, 1843 from the bookmark of the Royal Gate. King Frederick William the Fourth himself took part in this event. The construction was completed with the consecration of the Friedland Gate in 1862.
At the end of the 19th century, the construction of the fort belt "Konigsberg's Night Feather" began, which was carried out at a considerable distance from the city boundaries.
The second rampart fortification of the city of Konigsberg lost its military significance.
A decree of August 25, 1910 ordered to exclude from the fortification system a number of defensive structures, including the city gates of Konigsberg.
During World War II, many city \u200b\u200bgates of Konigsberg (Kaliningrad), were partially damaged.
In the post-war years, they were not even considered as a monument of architecture and vegetated in abandonment and oblivion. Some were given for a vegetable warehouse, others for workshops. This continued until 1960, when by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR they were still declared to be under state protection.
But the main revival of the city gate of Königsberg took place in 2004. Then for the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad, the Royal Palaces were restored.
Now these are seven sights of the city. In some gates there are museum expositions, in others there are cozy cafes.
Royal
King's Gate (German Königstor) located at the intersection of Frunze Street and Litovskiy Val. Originally, this place was the Kalthof gate.
In 1717, they were demolished, and during the entry of Konigsberg into Russia, they were rebuilt on this place by Russian engineers.
These gates were originally called Gumbinnenskie, since it was to Gumbinnen (Gusev) that the road leading through them led. In 1811, the gate was renamed Königstrasse after the street on which it was located.
At the end of the first half of the 19th century, modernization of city fortifications began in Königsberg. Then the old gates were demolished, and in their place were built new ones that have survived to this day.
Solemn the laying of the new Royal Gate took place on August 30, 1843 in the presence of King Friedrich-Wilhelm 4, and the construction was completed in 1850.
Koenigsberg built in a pseudo-gothic style and outwardly resemble a small castle. The author of the gate project is General Ernst Ludwig von Aster, the architect Friedrich August Stüler was responsible for the decoration of the facades, the bas-reliefs were created by the sculptor Wilhelm Ludwig Stürmer.
Royal gate consist of one passageway 4.5 meters wide, on either side of which there are casemates. From the side of the city, the casemates had windows and doors, and from the outside there were embrasures.
The edges of the roof are framed by battlements. In the corners of the building there are four octahedral turrets (in the old drawings the turrets are round), and four more octahedral turrets are located on the high central part of the Royal Gate.
The facade from the side of the city is decorated with bas-reliefs of the King of Bohemia Ottokar 2 (left), King of Prussia Frederick 1 (middle) and Duke of Prussia Albrecht 1 (right). Their family coats of arms are placed under the figures. Above the niches are the coats of arms of the Prussian lands - Samland and Natangia.
At the end of the 19th century, gross fortifications lost their defensive functions, and at the beginning of the 20th century Royal gate were sold by the Ministry of War to the city government.
Later, in the 20th century, the ramparts adjoining the side of the gate were torn down as they obstructed the increased traffic. Thus, they became a free-standing, island structure. Now they serve as a kind of triumphal arch.
During the Great Patriotic War, during the bombing of the city, the gates were slightly damaged.
After the war, the Royal Gate was used as the No. 6 bookstore, which closed in the nineties of the last century. After they were used as a warehouse.
In 2004, restoration work began, during which the building of the Royal Gate was completely restored, and their lost heads were returned to the bas-reliefs of Friedrich 1, Duke Albrecht 1 and Ottokar 2.
In 2005, the Royal Gates became a symbol of the celebration of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad.
On November 10, 2005, a message to descendants was embedded in the wall of the Royal Gate - a glass case with the book "City of My Dreams". One of the entries in the book was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 2.
Since 2005, the Royal Gate has been a branch of the Museum of the World Ocean. There is an exposition dedicated to the visit of Konigsberg by Peter 1.
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| From the city side | main facade |
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| bas-reliefs | From the outside s |
Rosgarten
Rossgärter Torare located at the intersection of Chernyakhovsky (Wrangels) and Alexander Nevsky (Cranzer Allee) streets, next to Vasilevsky square and the Amber Museum.
The first gates, which were located on this site, were built at the beginning of the 17th century during the construction of the first rampart fortification of Konigsberg. 
In 1852-1855, according to the project of the director of the fortification Irfügelbrecht and the engineer-lieutenant von Heil, new, more modern ones were built on the site of the first city gate.
The facade of the gate was designed by the secret supreme building councilor August Stühler, head of the Technical Building Deputation in Berlin. Stühler himself worked out the project of the facade, giving it pronounced Gothic forms. The author of the sculptural decorations is Wilhelm Ludwig Sturmer.
Rossgarten gate have only one passage four meters wide. There are three casemates on both sides of the passage. In this way facade of the Rossgarten gate consists of seven openings. From the side of the city casemates have windows, from the outside of the city embrasures. Above the facade of the gate, there is a row of battlements, divided into two halves by an elevated central part.
On the sides, the central part is framed by two high octahedral turrets. Above the entrance there is an observation deck, fenced with battlements. To the right and left of the entrance there are arcades consisting of arches resting on columns. On the sides of the main arch are two medallion-portraits depicting the Prussian generals Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
From the outside, the passage is covered with a blockhouse, from which it is possible to conduct circular rifle and artillery fire and a guardhouse, from the embrasures of which it was possible to conduct frontal and flanking fire. The guardhouse had swing gates. In front of the guardhouse there is a moat, across which a drawbridge is thrown.
After the war Rossgarten gate were restored and began to be used as a cafe-restaurant "Sun Stone".
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| From the outside | From the city side |
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| Rossgarten gate | scharnhorst portrait medallion | medallion-portrait of Gneisenau |
Zachheim
Sackheim gate (German Sackheim tor) located at the intersection of Moskovsky Prospekt and Litovskiy Val Street. The first gate, which was located on this site, was built at the beginning of the 17th century during the construction of the first rampart fortification of Konigsberg. 
Construction Zakheim gate, which has survived to our time, was built in the middle of the 19th century.
They have one passage in the form of an arch, which served as a checkpoint at the entrance to the city.
The gate building was built in the neo-Gothic style of red bricks of varying degrees of fire. Walls and decorative details are also made of it. There are four towers at the corners of the gates: two round from the side of the city and two octahedral from the outside. From the side of the city they were decorated with bas-reliefs of Johann David Ludwig York and Friedrich Wilhelm Bülow, from the outside - the image of a black eagle.
At the end of the 19th century, gross fortifications lost their defensive functions, and at the beginning of the 20th century Zakheim gate were sold by the Ministry of War to the city administration, and they were left as an architectural monument, in the form of a triumphal arch. Some of the casemates were demolished and residential buildings were added to the gates. Transport, which was allowed near the gate, stopped walking through them, disrupting a significant part of the defensive rampart.
The gate was not damaged during the Second World War. After the war, they began to be used as a warehouse, which function they performed until 2006.
In 2006, the restoration of the gate began. The Zakheim Gate was supposed to house the federal state institution "Center for Standardization and Metrology", its laboratories and a small museum, where you can see scales and other ancient measuring devices.
At the moment (April 2011), no work is being done, and we can only dream of a museum.
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| From the city side | From the outside |
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| From the city side | From the outside |
Friedland
On the outskirts of the city, not far from the cattle yard, at the exit from Austrian Street (Kalinin Ave.), and at its intersection with Schönfisserallee Street (Dzerzhinsky St.), a rampart with a gate was built to cover the city from the south, along the road that led to the city Friedland (Pravdinsk). 
The first mention of Friedland Gate (German Friedländer Tor) refers to 1657, it was in this year that Prussia freed itself from vassal dependence on the part of Poland.
The defensive structures were well equipped with artillery, but these fortifications were seriously tested only during the Napoleonic wars. The attempt of the French to take Konigsberg outright failed, but this fact is an exception, since the first shaft ring proved to be ineffective when the enemy attacked.
And already in 1857-1862, the construction of a new second defensive ring around the city began. The old ones were dismantled and new ones were built in their place in 1862, and they were the most fortified in the system of the second shaft ring. The Friedland Gate was built under the direction of the architect F.A.Stühler (1800-1865).
The Friedland Gate is made in the neo-Gothic style of red bricks of varying degrees of firing. Walls and decorative details are also made of it. The gates had a large number of casemates with windows and embrasures. They had a scarp wall (the inner wall of the rampart) with a patrol path behind it. This wall runs along the park and has survived to this day.
The casemates of the gates had not only rifle embrasures, but also cannon embrasures. The gates had two passages with lancet-shaped portals, and the portals had platbands repeating their shapes. The front part of the gate from the side of the city is vertically dissected by five buttresses, ending at the level of the decorative crenellated parapet with pointed gable turrets - pinnacles with phials. There are only three such turrets on the outside of the gate.
The turrets and parapet teeth are decorated with decorative niches with multi-blade and two-center arches to create chiaroscuro and greater architectural expressiveness. Under the jagged parapet, there is an ornament of repeating crosses, which are called bezant in ancient architecture. 
From the side of the city, the gate was decorated with the figure of Friedrich von Zollern, who at the beginning of the 15th century was the commander of the Balga fortress. On the outside of the gate is the image of the fifteenth Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Siegfried von Feuchtwangen.
The author of the sculptures is Wilhelm Ludwig Sturmer (1812-1864). The date of creation of the sculptures, discovered during the restoration, is 1864.
Currently, the sculptures have been restored (sculpture by Feuchtwangen in 2005, sculpture by Zollern in 2008).
At the beginning of the 20th century, Friedland gate they wanted to demolish, but the gate, along with the entire second rampart, was sold by the Ministry of War in 1910 to the city administration, and they were left as an architectural monument.
After the First World War, the Friedland Gate is closed to traffic and becomes the entrance gate to the park, which was created on the site of the defensive structures of the southern front. And the road to Friedland (present-day Dzerzhinsky street) began to pass on the side of the gate, while part of the defensive wall was demolished.
During the Second World War, the Friedland Gate had to become a military target. Upstairs there are still traces of trenches and pits for artillery pieces. During the storming of the city in 1945, the gates were practically not damaged. That cannot be said about the Soviet period. In the post-war period, the gates were empty for a long time, then a warehouse was located in them. Unique ceramic bricks were repeatedly whitewashed, painted, trees sprouted on the roof of the gate and eventually the gate collapsed.
In 1988 Friedland gate were transferred to the park named after "40th anniversary of the Komsomol" (now the Yuzhny Park). Thanks to donations from individuals and public organizations, the Friedland Gate was restored and a museum of East Prussia was opened there. 
When cleaning the ponds in the park, various items were found, which made up the first exposition of the museum. Here is a collection of weapons of the 19th - 20th centuries, a collection of wine and beer bottles, blacksmith and carpentry tools, bricks with animal paw prints and the brands of craftsmen.
Museum at Friedland Gate founded by Alexander Georgievich Novik. The museum was originally actually private and had no official status. Only in 2002 was the museum officially established by order of the director of the South Park.
Now the Friedland Gate Museum is the only municipal museum in Kaliningrad, the exposition of which is dedicated to the history of pre-war Konigsberg.
Museum permanent exhibitions:
“Fortress city, garden city. A virtual walk through the streets of old Koenigsberg ": an opportunity to see what the city was like in the 1895-1910s, look into the shop windows.
"Konigsberg of the first half of the 20th century": the life of the townspeople in the first half of the 20th century, familiar things in an unusual look, famous trade marks.
"Civilization begins with sewerage": the history of water supply and sewerage from ancient times to the present.
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| From the city side | From the outside |
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| sculpture by Friedrich von Zollern | sculpture by Siegfried von Feuchtwangen |
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| the museum |
Brandenburg (Berlin)
Brandenburg (Berlin) gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) located at the intersection of Bagration Street (Alter Garten) and Yuzhny Lane. 
The first city gates were built on this site in 1657. Intended to protect the city in the southwestern section, and the road leading to the Brandenburg castle (now the village of Ushakovo).
Due to scarce funding, a wooden gate with a roof that rested against an earthen rampart was built. For safety, a ditch was dug in front of them and filled with water.
18th century, by order of the Prussian king Frederick II, Brandenburg Gate were demolished, and in their place, to cover the city from the south (now Suvorov Street), a massive brick building was built. 
They had two spacious passages, guardhouse garrison premises, service, utility and storage rooms.
In 1843, restoration work was carried out, the gate building was almost completely rebuilt.
The pediments became pointed, with cruciform sandstone flowers and stylized leaves.
On the gates there are sculptural portraits of Field Marshal Boyen (1771-1848), the Minister of War, a participant in reforms in the Prussian army, and Lieutenant General Ernst von Astaire (1778-1855), chief of the engineering corps, one of the authors of the Second Shaft Fortification.
Brandenburg Gate - the only of all the Konigsberg city gates that have survived to this day, performing their previous transport function. The structure of the Brandenburg Gate has been restored and is protected by the state as an architectural monument.
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| From the outside | From the city side |
Ausfal
Ausfal (Passage) gates (German Ausfalstor), located at the intersection of Gvardeisky Avenue (Deutschordenring) and Gornaya Street. 
The first gates on the site of the current ones were built in the twenties of the 17th century during the construction of the first rampart fortification of Konigsberg.
In 1866 Ausfalsk gatewere completely rebuilt in the brick Gothic style. Due to the fact that they were intended only for pedestrians and were less significant in relation to the rest of the city gates, the architectural design of the gates was an order of magnitude poorer than the rest of the city gates of Konigsberg.
Designed new Ausphalian Gatearchitect Ludwig von Astaire.
The Ausphalian Gate has only one passage, to which a staircase and a narrow bridge led from the outside of the city. On the sides of the passage there are casemates with embrasures of frontal and flanking fire. 
The passage is blocked along an arc by an arched arch, which is decorated with a casing with teeth. The lateral outer walls of the gate opening into the moat are faced with granite slabs.
Nothing is known about the appearance of the facade of the gate from the side of the city, since the facade of the gate is covered with earth, and his photographs or drawings have not survived. A battle platform with a toothed parapet is located above the passage. From the very beginning, the gates cut into the rampart and were actually below ground level.
At the end of the 19th century, the rampart fortifications of the city lost their defensive functions, and at the beginning of the 20th century, the Ausphalian Gate was sold by the Ministry of War to the city administration, and the only passageway was laid.
During the Second World War Ausfalsk gate were converted into a command post for military units. The vast interior gates were divided into separate compartments by concrete walls. The passages between the compartments were closed by sealed protective doors.
After the war in Ausphalian Gate were used as a warehouse, later as a bomb shelter for a nearby militia school, and even later they housed a sewage collector.
In 1993, on the upper covering of the gate, which is located flush with the level of the carriageway of Gvardeisky Prospekt, the Orthodox chapel of St. George was built, dedicated to the Soviet soldiers who died during the assault on Konigsberg.
Spring 2007 Ausfal and Railway Gates were transferred to the Kaliningrad History and Art Museum. It is planned to restore the gates and place museum expositions in their premises. Together with the monument to 1200 guardsmen and Victory Park, the gate should become part of the military-historical complex.
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| Ausfal | sewage collector |
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| orthodox chapel of St. George |
Steindamm
Steindammer thor, they were located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe present Victory Square. They were demolished in 1912, after the defensive structures of the second bypass became obsolete, lost their defensive significance and were sold to the city by the military department.
They had two wide passages for transport and two passages for pedestrians. Three barracks were located on the right and left.
Like most of the city gates of Königsberg, the building Steindamm gate was built in the Gothic style.
The platbands of the arched gate were arrow-shaped. The edges of the roof were completed with teeth. Towers towered at the edges of the pedestrian portals. In the center of the gate, in a niche, there was a statue of King Frederick Wilheim 4.
Hollanderbaum
Hollanderbaum thor were located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe intersection of General Butkov Street (Ausfalltorstr) and Marshal Baghramyan Embankment (Hollanderbaumstr), next to a two-level bridge over the Pregola River.
The gate was named after the area in which it was located (Hollanderbaum, "Dutch tree"). The gate was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century, after the defensive structures of the second bypass became obsolete, lost their defensive significance and were sold to the city by the military department.
Tragheim
Tragheim gate were located in the area of \u200b\u200bGorky Street (Waldburgstr). They were demolished in 1910, after the defensive structures of the second bypass became obsolete, lost their defensive significance and were sold to the city by the military department.
Railroad
Railway gate (German: Eisenbahnhof Tor) were built in 1866-1869 by the architect Ludwig von Astaire.
The railway gates had two spans (north and south), decorated with pointed arches. On the sides of the railway spans there are casemates with embrasures, and on the outside there is a guardhouse.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Deutschordenring Street (Deutschordenring, now Gvardeisky Prospect) was laid over the gate.
After the Second World War, traffic on the branch line passing through the gate ceased due to the construction of a new one. The old paths were finally dismantled only in the 1990s; now a pedestrian path has been laid in their place to Victory Park.
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| Railroad |
It was a huge project. Unfortunately, not everything has survived to our days.
"Unforgettable my father's city,
established in history for centuries,
i miss you day and night
and I know by heart your every stone ... "
(Horst Glass "Königsberg")
The old gates of Königsberg ... Like doors to the past, they invite us to travel back several centuries to the good old Königsberg - the capital of East Prussia.
Alas, not every modern Kaliningrad citizen will find today in the silent fragments of the once majestic city something interesting and exciting for himself. People, immersed in the bustle of their thoughts and the rhythm of a modern city, routinely rush past the ancient gates, not paying any attention to them. And only nostalgic groups of German tourists tirelessly click the shutters of their cameras to capture the history of Königsberg in pictures, which continues to this day ...
Back in 2011, I planned to publish a series of posts on all the remaining gates of our city, but I never realized this idea. Well, maybe the time has come now? The Königsberg gate has always been something special to me. For my work, I often visit the area of \u200b\u200bthe Royal and Rosgarten gates. And each time they again and again catch my eye, and the imagination draws a picture of the past centuries ...
Here is a mustachioed guard, hiding from the hot July sun in the shade of the gate, checking the documents of a merchant hurrying to the city. Nimble boys run through the gate with lightning, hurrying to plunge into the cool waters of a nearby pond, and an elegant lady under a snow-white umbrella is talking about something with a cheerful soldier ... Peace and tranquility reign everywhere, the warm sun is shining, birds are singing in the green of the trees, and the air is filled aroma from a nearby bakery ...
I want to start my story about the gates of Königsberg with a general story about when and why the city gates began to be built, and then I will introduce you to the first gates on our route - Ausfalskie and Railway.
It is logical that any gate should lead somewhere. So, for example, the very first gates of Koenigsberg were erected in the 13th century at the same time as the Royal Castle and led to its courtyard. A century later, when the city grew and was surrounded by a wall, the gate had already become an integral part of the fortress.
A more serious rampart was built in 1626-1634 and surrounded Königsberg from all sides. The fortification consisted of several bastions and half-bastions, as well as 9 gates. In addition, from the side of the sea, in 1657, the powerful fort of Friedrichsburg was laid.
And already two centuries later, King Frederick William IV issued a decree on the beginning of the construction of the Second rampart fortification, generally repeating the contours of the previous one. The powerful towers of Don and Wrangel, the Kronprinz defensive barracks and the Astronomical Bastion are being built, and new fortified gates are being erected in place of the previous ones. The first in 1843 began to build the Royal Gate, and the construction was completed with the construction of the Friedland Gate in 1862.
However, already at the beginning of the 20th century, the Second Shaft Fortification lost its military significance and was partially demolished, freeing up the rapidly developing Königsberg new areas for urban construction. So the most beautiful Steindamm and Tragheim gates disappeared from the face of the earth, and in their place was built the Hanza-platz square, now known as Victory square. Time did not spare the Hollanderbaum Gate either ...
02. Königsberg Steindamm Gate that has not survived.
But the remaining seven gates of the Second Shaft Circumference have survived to this day, and it is about them that my story will be.
Our route begins from Victory Square - the heart of modern Kaliningrad, where, perhaps the most beautiful, gates of the city were once located - Steindamm... We will return to these gates, but for now we will head along the Gvardeysky Prospect, which starts from Victory Square, to Victory Park and the memorial complex "1200 Soldiers-Guards".
It is here, across the street from the Astronomical Bastion and a hundred meters from the obelisk, that the most inconspicuous city gates are located - Ausfal... Now on their roof there is a small Orthodox chapel of St. George the Victorious, built in 1995, but the gates themselves can be seen by going down to a small lake in the park, formed from a former moat.
03. Chapel of St. George the Victorious on ... the roof of the gate.
Why are the gates below ground level and where do they lead? To do this, take a look at the history of the construction of these gates.
Ausfalsk gate (it. Ausfalltor), in translation meaning "Exit Gate", were designed in the 17th century and were part of the First rampart fortification of Koenigsberg. The author of the project is an unknown military engineer.
These gates were exclusively pedestrian and served as a passage through the earthen rampart. From the field side, a small bridge over the fortress moat adjoined the gate. The bridge itself is long gone ... only the preserved coastal pillars of brick and granite still remind us of the past. And if you look closely at the tree-covered slope, you can still see (especially in winter), not yet destroyed by time, the road leading to the bridge over the moat.
The Ausfal Gate is not distinguished by its bright pompous architecture and is more reminiscent of a powerful firing point, the casemates of which bristled with numerous embrasures for direct and side fire at the enemy. The high walls of the casemates are half lined with granite slabs, which protect the brickwork from water and snow. And the only decoration of the gate was only five brick battlements above the arched passage.
At the beginning of the 20th century, during the modernization of the rampart fortification, the Ausfal Gate turned out to be below ground level and was turned into a pedestrian tunnel, and a little later the city part of the gate was completely covered with earth.
During the Great Patriotic War, the gate was converted into a command post-dugout with hermetically sealed concrete rooms. During the hostilities, the Ausfal Gates practically did not suffer, and already in the post-war period, a warehouse and a bomb shelter for the Kaliningrad Police School (the modern Kaliningrad Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation), located next door, was arranged in them.
At the moment, it is not possible to get inside the gate, but in 2007 the Ausfal Gate was transferred to the Kaliningrad Museum of History and Art, which inspires some hope that this gate will someday be restored and become available for careful inspection by tourists. Although, already 10 years have passed, and things are still there ...
11. Once upon a time there was a bridge leading to the gate.
The second gate, with which we will get acquainted, is located next to the Ausfal gate. They are called - Railroad (it. Eisenbahnhof Tor). The old railway to Pillau (Baltiysk) ran through this gate, also designed in the second half of the 19th century by Ludwig von Aster.
In architectural terms, the gate has two separate arched spans with barrel vaults. And if from the outside everything was rather modest, then from the side of the city, the arches were made in the form of beautiful lancet portals.
On the sides of the gate there are classic casemates, and on the field side, the gate is equipped with a guard room - a guardroom and two gates that look like the claws of a giant crab.
Once upon a time, gate wings were installed on them, by closing which it was possible to turn this section of the gate into a small patio. It should be noted that this is the only gate with a similar architectural solution.
In addition, there was another interesting feature in the gate ... In the walls of the arches (from floor to ceiling) rectangular recesses were made - punishment... Rectangular beams or sleepers were horizontally laid in them like "blinds", so that it was possible to completely close the passage through the gate.
15. Notches are visible - marks. Archival photo of the author, 2011
Moreover, it was impossible to disassemble such an obstacle from the enemy's side, unless, of course, direct fire from a cannon was fired at it. Therefore, the effectiveness of this fortification fence in the 19th century was highly questionable ...
When the gates lost their defensive purpose, a road was laid along the top, which turned the gates into a real bridge, across the railway tracks, which were dismantled only in the early 90s of the XX century.
Currently, the gate partially fulfills its function. Cars sometimes pass through them, and mostly residents of nearby houses use the gates, since a pedestrian path to Victory Park passes through them - an excellent place for cultural recreation. Like the Ausfal Gates, in 2007 the Railway Gates were transferred to the Kaliningrad History and Art Museum.
And recently, the digital Planetarium of the Center for the Popularization of Sciences named after F.V. Bessel. In the future, in one of the arches of the monument building, the tenants intend to open a gallery, which will exhibit works by astrophoto artists, photographers, as well as children's creative works. And at 14.15 on December 21 and 22, the Festival of Scientific Films will be held at the gates, in which viewers will be shown full-length documentaries about science from around the world, created over the past five years.
Of the amusing curiosities associated with these gates, I would like to note a plaque from the series "do not believe your eyes", explaining to us that this is not a gate at all, but a church of the 19th century ... The plaque hung on the wall of the gate for a long time and only after the recent restoration it was removed and replaced to the modern correct one.
This concludes the first part of my story about the Königsberg gate, and in the second part we will get acquainted with the Friedrichsburg and Brandenburg gates.
To be continued...
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The historic center is surrounded by eight gates - initially there were ten, but people and time did not spare all the buildings. Urban gates of Kaliningrad were erected in the 19th century, as part of the Second rampart defensive circuit, encircling the city in the form of a ring. In addition to the gates, it includes towers, bastions, redoubts and the Kronprinz defense barracks.
The second rampart defensive circuit is fortifications, which together with the named "Konigsberg Night Feather" form a fortress city.
Brandenburg Gate of Kaliningrad
Friedrichsburg gate are not city gates, they were part of the Friedrichsburg fortress, which was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century. In architecture, they are similar to the city gates of Konigsberg and are also built in the neo-Gothic style from fired figured bricks.
During the construction work, not only the protective function was taken into account, but also the aesthetics of these buildings - they are all made of red brick in the neo-Gothic style and are very similar to medieval knight's castles. Their historical appearance has been preserved in the course of restoration work.
Each of the eight buildings is unique in its own way and has its own history, some of them are located. Having visited the majestic gates of Königsberg, you can sit in cozy cafes, visit museum exhibitions and truly immerse yourself in the spirit of the history of this beautiful ancient city.
Gate Map
Museum website: http://fvmuseum.ru The address: st. Dzerzhinsky, house 30. Opening hours: daily from 10.00 to 18.00, the first Friday of the month is a cleaning day. Ticket price: 200 rubles, students, schoolchildren, pensioners - 100 rubles, from 5 to 7 years old - 50 rubles, family ticket - 400 rubles.
The Friedland Gate is located on the outskirts of the historical center of Kaliningrad, it is from them that the acquaintance of city guests with the sights begins. They are made of red brick in the neo-gothic style. The gate has two large portals and five buttresses, which divide the facade of the building.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Friedland Gate of Kaliningrad was supposed to be demolished, but they were transferred to the ownership of the municipality - this saved them from destruction. The gate has been preserved as an architectural monument. In the period between the First and Second World Wars, the building was closed to traffic and served as an entrance to the park.
During the Second World War, the Friedland Gate was again returned to the status of a military facility. It must be said that during the hostilities in Konigsberg in 1945, the structure remained practically intact, which cannot be said about the post-war period. In Soviet times, the Friedland Gate was empty, the unique red brick was covered with lime in many layers, grass and even trees grew on the roof, and the facade was slowly crumbling. They were restored only at the end of the 80s of the XX century with funds raised by caring citizens.
Today
At this place is located friedland Gate Museum... The museum includes a collection of weapons of the XIX-XX centuries, ancient dishes, various craft tools and much more. Permanent exhibitions: "Knight's Hall", "Civilization begins with a sewer", "With faith in the heart", "Echo of War".
Exposition "Echo of War"
Ticket price: 50 rubles, schoolchildren, students, pensioners - 30 rubles. Opening hours: daily from 11.00 to 17.30. The first Friday of the month is a cleaning day. Site visit by session (at the beginning of each hour).
In the underground bunker, which the population of Königsberg used as a bomb shelter during the war, a permanent exhibition "Echo of War" was created. There are no objects here, except for photographs on the walls of the destroyed Konigsberg. Only the atmosphere of a cramped space, as well as sound and light effects: the howl of sirens, diving bombers and exploding shells against the background of flashing and turning off lights.
"Echo of War" - allows you to imagine a little what civilians felt during the Second World War.
Through the Brandenburg Gate of Kaliningrad, unlike the other gates, the movement of motor transport is still organized, and a tram line has also been laid here. Previously pedestrians could walk through the side parts of the gate, but today they are walled up with masonry.
This massive and stately old red brick building has two aisles. Initially, there were quarters for sentries, weapons depots and various utility rooms. However, during the restoration in 1843, the building was almost completely changed - pediments with sharp tops and cruciform sandstone flowers appeared, sculptures of Prussian military leaders were installed.
Some tourists, impressed by the beauty of this historic building, compare it with a folkloric "gingerbread house".
Today
The Brandenburg Gate has been completely restored and has the status of a state historical and architectural monument. There is a free marzipan museum from the Pomatti company, a manufacturer of marzipan and chocolate. Near the museum there is a Pomatti shop and a café.
Friedrichsburg gate
The Friedrichsburg Gate is all that remains of the once majestic Friedrichsburg Fortress. They still resemble the castle of a medieval knight - four towers at the corners, parapets-battlements and Gothic false windows.
It was here that the great Peter I was trained in artillery, and the drawings of this building formed the basis of the Peter and Paul Fortress. An interesting fact - the bastions at the corners of the once existed fort had very unusual names - Emerald, Ruby, Almaz, Pearl.
Fort Friedrichsburg was erected in 1657, and the gate was added to it only two centuries later - in 1852. The citadel was demolished after the First World War, the gate remained. They are very similar to other city gates of Königsberg.
Today
The Friedrichsburg Gate is a branch of the Museum of the World Ocean - historical and Cultural Center Ship Resurrection... Here you can get acquainted with the history of shipbuilding and shipbuilding. On the basis of the institution, the School of Navigational Sciences was created - lessons in it are available to anyone.
In addition, you can visit the study of Peter the Great. The open area of \u200b\u200bthe museum presents visitors with an exposition of traditional floating facilities of various peoples of the world - Lodeyny Dvor.
The railway gate was built in the 1860s. They have two arch-spans with pointed tops. On either side of them there are casemated rooms with embrasures, and on the outside there is a guard room.
It is noteworthy that today there is a roadway above these gates, and they themselves serve as an entrance to the park. The railway gates are more reminiscent of a short tunnel through which the railway tracks leading to modern Baltiysk were previously laid. The movement was stopped long ago, and the rails were removed.
Since 2007, the railway gate has been part of the city's historical and artistic complex. It is planned to restore the building and place museum expositions in it. The train gate is 240 meters from the Ausfal gate.
Today
Now in the Railway Gate is the Kaliningrad Planetarium named after Bessel.
The address: Gvardeisky Ave., 22A
The Ausfal Gates were not originally intended for traffic, therefore their external design is much more modest than the rest of the gates of Kaliningrad. They are called the most inconspicuous gates of Kaliningrad.
The gate has only one passage and is made entirely of brick in the Gothic style. The facade from the side of the city was destroyed, and the drawings and photographs, if any, were hardly preserved, so now nothing is known about what it looked like. Above the passage there is a battle platform and a parapet with battlements.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ausfal Gate became the property of the municipality, and the passage was walled up. The building was actively operated in 1939-1945. - then there was a command post here. After the war, there was a warehouse here, and during the years of the USSR it was a bomb shelter. After a while there were sewage treatment plants. In the early 90s, a small chapel was built in this place, which is still operating today.
Today
On the territory of the Ausfal Gate is located St. George chapel... There is a pond and Victory Park nearby.
Restaurant website:sun-stone.ru The address: Marshal Vasilevsky square, building 3A
The Rosgarten Gate is located at the intersection of Alexander Nevsky and Chernyakhovsky Streets, not far from Marshal Vasilevsky Square. The building dates back to the 50s of the 19th century. The gates have a wide arch-shaped central passage and six casemates - three on each side. Towers rise from both sides of the central arch.
Most likely, the Rossgarten Gate was never intended for pedestrian traffic, and the casemated rooms were assigned to guard the gate. In the second half of the last century, the building was restored, but it lost its original function, there is no passage through it.
Today
It is popular with tourists and locals alike. restaurant "Sunny stone", and the former casemates were turned into a kitchen and various utility rooms for staff.
These are the most beautiful and majestic gates of Kaliningrad, it is not for nothing that they received this name. For a long time, they were considered the main entrance to the city and were used for celebrations and various official events.
By the way, these gates were called Royal gates for a reason - since the end of the 18th century, the royal families went through them to see the parades and the formation of the troops of the Konigsberg garrison. It is also known that Emperor Napoleon entered the city through the Royal Gate.
History and time have spared this massive, completed and without additional outbuildings, an ancient building, but in different years there was a warehouse and a bookstore, and in the difficult and troubled 90s it stood in desolation. Only by the 750th anniversary of the city of Royal the gate has been completely restored.
Today
Now, as in the Friedrichsburg Gate, the Royal Gate is located branch of the Museum of the World Ocean - Historical and Cultural Center "Great Embassy"... There are exhibitions on the topic of international relations between Russia and European countries. Here you can find samples of amber from all over the world.
The Zakheim Gate has one vaulted passage with round Gothic towers at the edges. Perhaps, thanks to these towers, the building looks very majestic and massive.
Like other gates of Kaliningrad, this structure initially served as the protection of the city, but at the beginning of the 20th century it was transferred to the municipality, which did not attach much historical importance to this object. As a result, some of the casemates were demolished, and residential houses for the townspeople were added to the gates themselves.
From the post-war period until the beginning of the 21st century, a warehouse was located here. Only in 2006, its restoration started. The Zakheim Gate was awarded the status of a historical and architectural monument of the federal level.
Today
Here is located art platform "Gate"which organizes art exhibitions, conferences, concerts, exhibitions and much more.
Not preserved gate
In Konigsberg there were other gates, unfortunately, which have not survived to this day - Steindamm, considered at one time the most beautiful gate of all, Hollanderbaum and Tragheimgate. All gates were destroyed by order of the head of the city council at the beginning of the 20th century.
Every year millions of tourists from all over the world travel to Kaliningrad in order to get acquainted with another culture - mysterious, unfamiliar and so alluring. The city gates of Kaliningrad are a part of this culture, which endured and survived even in the most difficult and terrible times. Therefore, humanity is obliged to preserve it for posterity on a par with other attractions.
This section will tell about one of the sights of the Kaliningrad region - seven survivors and some information about the completely destroyed gates, which at one time served as entrances to the city of Konigsberg.
Zakheim gate
The Sackheimer Tor is one of the seven surviving city gates of Kaliningrad. Located at the intersection of Moskovsky Prospekt and Litovskiy Val.
The current building of the Zakheim Gate was built in the middle of the 19th century. However, the first gate on this site was built during the construction of the first rampart fortification of Königsberg at the beginning of the 17th century. Until the end of the 19th century, while the fortifications existed, the gates served as a checkpoint at the entrance to the city. After the ramparts were torn down, they lost their defensive function and became a kind of analogue of the triumphal arch. At the beginning of the 20th century, the gates were sold to the city by the military department. After that, part of the casemates was demolished and residential buildings were added to the gates.
After the Second World War, the gate was used as a warehouse, which function they performed until 2006. Moreover, the gate has the status of a historical monument of federal significance.
In 2006, the restoration of the gate began. After restoration, the gate will be transferred to the federal state institution "Center for Standardization and Metrology". There will be laboratories and a small museum where you can see scales and other ancient measuring instruments.
Architecture
The Zakheim Gate has one archway. In the past, there were also smaller arches on the sides, which may have been pedestrian walkways, but they have not survived to this day. There are four towers at the corners of the gates: two round from the side of the city and octagonal from the outside. From the side of the city, the gates were decorated with high reliefs of Johann David Ludwig York and Friedrich Wilhelm Bülow, from the outside - with the image of a black eagle (the Order of the Black Eagle was the highest award of Prussia).
Royal gate
The King's Voromta is one of the seven preserved city gates of Kaliningrad. Located at the intersection of Frunze Street and Litovskiy Val. In 2005, the Royal Gate was a symbol of the celebration of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad. Since the same year, the gate is a branch of the Museum of the World Ocean. They have an exposition dedicated to the visit of the Great Embassy of Peter the Great to Koenigsberg.
The gate is built in a pseudo-Gothic style and looks like a small castle.
German time
The current King's Gate inherited its name from an older gate located in the same place. These first gates were originally called Gumbinnen, since it was to Gumbinnen (now Gusev) that the road leading through them led. In 1811, the gate was renamed Royal, after the street on which it was located (Koenigstrasse). The name of the street is due to the fact that the Prussian kings followed it, heading from the Konigsberg castle to the military reviews in the suburb of Devau.
At the end of the first half of the 19th century, modernization of city fortifications began in Königsberg. Then the old gates were demolished, and in their place were built new ones that have survived to this day.
Royal gate in the 19th century
The ceremonial laying of the new Royal Gate took place on August 30, 1843 in the presence of King Frederick William IV, and the construction was completed in 1850.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the fortifications, which included the Royal Gate, became obsolete, lost their military significance and were sold to the city by the military department. In 1910, the ramparts adjacent to the gate on the sides were torn down. Thus, the gate became a free-standing, island structure. Now they served as a kind of triumphal arch.
It is not known whether the Royal Gate was used as a defensive structure during the assault on the city by Soviet troops during the Great Patriotic War. At least in the chronicles of military operations and in the memoir literature, they are not mentioned.
The gate was damaged by artillery and bombing, but this does not mean that they were the target, because the entire city was subjected to shelling and bombing.
Soviet time
Nothing is known about the history of the gate from 1945 to 1960. The first official post-war document related to the Royal Gate is the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 1327 of August 30, 1960. This document established the list of historical monuments of the city taken for state protection.
However, the only consequence of this decision was that the gate was decorated with a sign "The monument is registered and protected by the state." No restoration or even conservation work was carried out at that time.
By that time, there was no longer a through passage through the gate.
For another fifteen years nothing happened in the history of the gate. They have not been restored, they have not been written about. The gate gradually collapsed.
In 1975, the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR and the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments received the following letter, signed by the chairman of the Kaliningrad City Executive Committee V.V.Denisov:
The Kaliningrad City Executive Committee informs that the repair and conservation work at the "Royal Gate", located on the street Frunze - Litovskiy Val and which is an architectural monument of national importance, will be carried out in the coming years. In the future, this building will be adapted for the cultural needs of the city.
However, in reality, these good intentions did not cause any consequences. On the contrary, a new threat soon loomed over the gate:
“... We ask your permission, as they do not represent either historical or national value, to demolish the following sculptural images, high reliefs, bas-reliefs and medallions: a) sculptural images of Frederick I, Duke of Albrecht and Ottokar II from the Royal Gate, b) medallions with images of generals from the Brandenburg Gate Astaire and Boyen and the coat of arms of Prussia ... ".
The author of this letter, sent to the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments in 1976, was a person who, according to his position, was supposed not to destroy, but to preserve cultural monuments, namely the head of the Culture Department of the Kaliningrad Regional Executive Committee V. K. Glushkov.
However, Moscow experts did not give the go-ahead for the "cutting" of the gate.
In the same year, for the first time since the end of the war, the gates began to be used: they housed a bookstore.
In subsequent years, attempts by local authorities to destroy the gate did not stop. In its issue of January 8, 1978, the Kaliningradskaya Pravda newspaper wrote that the gate should have been demolished. It is unlikely that this article was an accident, since at about the same time the Kaliningrad City Executive Committee sent an official request to the Ministry of Culture and the Central Council of the All-Union Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments to remove state protection from the Royal Gate.
Fortunately, this time too, the initiative of the Kaliningrad authorities to destroy evidence of the pre-war history of the city did not meet with support in Moscow. The article from "Kaliningradka" caught the eye of the head of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR A. N. Kopylov, who sharply criticized the initiative.
In order to resolve the issue of the value of the Royal Gate, a special commission was sent to Kaliningrad by the Ministry of Culture. She worked in the city from 10 to 16 September 1978. As a result, the protected status of the gate was confirmed, and a letter came from the Ministry of Culture to Kaliningrad, which substantiated the historical and cultural significance of the gate, and a request to remove the status of a protected monument from them was refused.
By the beginning of perestroika, the bookstore at the gate ceased to exist. They again became an ownerless structure, which no one looked after, and which gradually collapsed. For some time the gate was used as a warehouse.
As noted above, by 1991, the gate was abandoned. Over the next ten years, this situation did not change, despite the fact that there were many options for their restoration and further use.
A turning point in the history of the gate was the celebration of the 750th anniversary of the city, which was celebrated in 2005. The Royal Gate became not only one of the many objects restored for the anniversary, it was this structure that became the main symbol of the anniversary.
The jubilee symbol was a silhouette of the gate against the background of the Russian flag with the words "Kaliningrad" and "750".
In the fall of 2004, 20 million rubles were allocated from the federal budget for the restoration of the gates, but then the cost more than doubled, to 49 million rubles.
The restoration work began in November 2004. By this time, the state of the gate left much to be desired, because they were damaged during the war and stood without maintenance for almost sixty years. The bas-reliefs were damaged: Frederick I, Duke Albrecht and Ottokar II had their heads beaten off
The progress of the gate restoration was supervised at the highest level, since the organizing committee for the preparation of the celebration of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad was headed by the Minister of Economy of Russia German Gref. In February 2005, he announced that if the gates were not fully restored by July 3 (the last day of the anniversary celebrations), then a "Royal Gallows" would be installed next to them for the officials responsible for the restoration.
However, it was not necessary to resort to such drastic measures: the gate was ready on time. Their opening after restoration took place on July 1.
The restoration of the bas-reliefs of the "three headless kings", as they were called in Kaliningrad (although one of them, Albrecht, was not a king) presented a particular challenge. There was practically no documentation, and it was possible to judge how they looked before the war only from photographs. It was extremely difficult to send the figures for restoration to Germany, where there is a large experience of such work, because of Russian laws, which provide for a complex procedure for obtaining a permit for the temporary export of cultural objects abroad. In this regard, it was decided to restore the figures on the spot.
To restore the figures, masters Alexei Kadyrov and Sergei Bugaev, sculptors-restorers who had previously restored the Singers' Chapel named after V.I. Glinka in St. Petersburg. Also, the leading restorer of the State Hermitage Vyacheslav Mozgovoy was invited to restore the bas-reliefs.
The difficulty of the restoration was, among other things, that the figures were made of sandstone of a special breed, and a special composition had to be created to strengthen the heads.
There were some curiosities: when the heads were almost ready, detailed photographs of the figures were found in one of the Polish archives. The heads had to be redone. Now, in case the kings in the future, for some reason, lose their heads again, they can be replaced with spare ones.
On November 10, 2005, a message to the descendants was embedded in the wall of the Royal Gate - a glass case with the book "City of My Dreams", from which Kaliningraders of the future will learn how their time seemed to the Kaliningraders of 2005. One of the entries in the book was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 2, when he attended the anniversary celebrations.
The creation of a message to posterity was an initiative of the Museum of the World Ocean.
On February 10, 2005, the gate was handed over to the Museum of the World Ocean. There is an exposition dedicated to the Great Embassy of Peter I to Europe.
Gate architecture
Like the rest of the gates of Königsberg, the Royal Gate was built in the neo-Gothic style, but it is in the Royal Gate that the style is most pronounced. The gate material is brick.
The Royal Gate consists of one passageway 4.5 meters wide, on either side of which there are former casemates. From the side of the city, the casemates had windows and doors, and from the outside there were embrasures. On the outer side of the gate was the so-called guardhouse - a courtyard that was shot from all sides.
The vertical division of the gate consists of three equally wide parts, two lateral parts of the division enclose the casemates, while the middle part belongs to the passage. The horizontal division is indicated by a cornice-belt that divides the gate into two tiers. The casemates are one tier high, the middle part of the gate (the part with the passage) rises above them to the height of one more tier. There are teeth on the edges of the roof of both the casemates and the central part. The tower is located at the four corners of the high central part. At the outer corners of the lower tier there are four of the same towers, so the gate has eight towers. Now all eight towers look the same, but in the 19th century, the towers of the lower tier were in the form of turrets - stylized watchtowers. Most likely, the towers of the lower tier acquired their present appearance when the gates were rebuilt after they were sold to the city.
The first tier of the gate is decorated with three portals, the second - with three niches, in which the bas-reliefs of the King of Bohemia Ottokar II (left), King of Prussia Frederick I (middle) and Duke of Prussia Albrecht I (right) are installed. Their family coats of arms are placed under the figures. Above the niches are the coats of arms of the Prussian lands - Samland and Natangia.
The front walls are two meters thick, the vaults are 1.25 meters thick. Thus, the walls of the gate could withstand the shelling of the then artillery. The coverings of the tiers and the overlap between the tiers are made in the form of a system of cross vaults. Since these arches caused a strong thrust, buttresses were arranged on the side edges of the gate.
During its existence, the architecture of the gate has undergone changes. Back in 1875, the northern casemate was converted into a pedestrian passage, later the same thing happened with the southern casemate. After the sale of the gates, the guardhouse and some other elements necessary for the defensive structure, but unnecessary for the gate, the triumphal arch, were demolished to the city. The end faces of the gates were rebuilt, which styles are visible after the shaft has been removed.
Gate as a possible place to hide lost cultural property
During the war, cultural values \u200b\u200bstolen by German troops from museums, archives, libraries and churches of the Soviet Union were sent to Königsberg. In the spring of 1945, these valuables, together with valuables from Königsberg museums and other cultural institutions, were buried in various hiding places. Often such hiding places were set up in fortifications.
There are versions that the values \u200b\u200bwere hidden in the gates of Koenigsberg, including the Royal ones.
Most of the expedition's searches were focused on the Rostgarten Gate, as there was other evidence that valuables were hidden there. Searches were mostly limited to visual inspection of the premises. The expedition did not have its own instruments; they used instruments borrowed from a military engineering school. Although these instruments were not designed for this use, the search engines had no choice.
Rossgarten gate
The Rossgarten Gate is one of the seven preserved city gates of Kaliningrad. Located at the intersection of Chernyakhovsky and Alexander Nevsky streets, next to Vasilevsky square and the Amber Museum.
The current building of the gate is located in the place where the gate of the same name was located, which belonged to the first rampart fortification of the city (early 17th century).
The building of the gate, which has survived to this day, was built in 1852-1855 according to the design of the Hauptmann Engineer and the director of the fortress building Irfügelbrecht and the Lieutenant Engineer von Heil in Königsberg. The facade of the gate was designed by the secret supreme building councilor August Stühler, head of the Technical Building Deputation in Berlin. The author of the sculptural decorations is Wilhelm Ludwig Sturmer.
The first project of the gate was developed in 1852 by the fortress department in Königsberg. This project was significantly revised by Privy Councilor Stühler. Stühler himself worked out the project of the facade, giving it pronounced Gothic forms.
After the war, the gate was restored and began to be used as a cafe-restaurant "Sunny Stone".
Architecture
The gate has only one passage, four meters wide. There are three casemates on both sides of the passage. Thus, the facade of the gate consists of seven openings. The casemates have windows on the city side, and loopholes on the outside.
Above the facade of the gate, there is a row of teeth, divided into two halves by a raised central part. On the sides, the central part is framed by two high octahedral turrets, which end with decorative machicules. Between the turrets, there is a high arch leading to the actual entrance to the gate. Above the arch there is an observation platform, fenced with battlements. To the right and left of the arch are arcades consisting of arches resting on columns.
On the sides of the main arch are two medallion-portraits depicting the Prussian generals Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
While the city side of the gate is beautifully decorated, the outside has no ornamentation. From the outside, the passage is covered with a blockhouse, from which it is possible to conduct circular rifle and artillery fire, and a guardhouse, from the embrasures of which it was possible to conduct frontal and flanking fire. The guardhouse had swing gates. In front of the guardhouse there was a moat, through which a drawbridge was thrown.
Ausfalsk gate
The Ausfal Gate (also: exit gate, from it. Ausfalstor, gates for sorties) is one of the seven preserved city gates of Kaliningrad. They are located in the south-western corner of the intersection of Gvardeisky Prospekt and Gornaya Street, in the immediate vicinity of the monument to 1200 Guards.
Of all the surviving gates, Ausfal was rebuilt to the greatest extent.
The first gates were built approximately on the site of the present ones in the 1720s, during the construction of a defensive rampart around the city. Later, in 1866, the gate was rebuilt in the brick Gothic style. Built in the 19th century, the Ausfal Gate allowed only pedestrians to pass, and was less significant in relation to the rest of the city gate (as evidenced, for example, by the poorer architectural design). The new Ausfal Gate was designed by the architect Ludwig von Astaire.
The gate from the very beginning cut into the shaft and was actually below ground level. In the XX century, the only passage of the gate was laid. Like all other city gates, in 1910 the Ausphalian Gate was sold to the city by the military.
During the war, the Ausfal Gate was converted into a command post for military units. The vast interior gates were divided into separate compartments by concrete walls. The passages between the compartments were closed by sealed protective doors.
After the war, the gate was used as a warehouse, later as a bomb shelter for a nearby police school, and later a sewage collector was located.
In 1993, on the upper covering of the gate, which is located flush with the level of the carriageway of Gvardeisky Prospekt, the Orthodox chapel of St. George was built, dedicated to the Soviet soldiers who died in the storming of Konigsberg.
In the spring of 2007, the Ausfal and Railway Gates were transferred to the Kaliningrad History and Art Museum. It is planned to restore the gates and place museum expositions in their premises. Together with the monument to 1200 guardsmen and Victory Park, the gate should become part of the military-historical complex.
Architecture
The Ausfal Gate has only one passage, to which a staircase and a rather narrow bridge led from the outside (traces of which have survived to this day), which confirms that only pedestrians were allowed through the gate. On the sides of the passage there are casemates with embrasures of frontal and flanking fire. The passage is blocked along an arc by an arched arch, which is decorated with a casing with teeth. The lateral outer walls of the gate opening out into the moat are faced with granite slabs decorated with rustic patterns in the quadra type.
A battle platform with a toothed parapet is located above the passage.
Nothing is known about the appearance of the inner (facing the city) facade of the gate, since He was covered with earth, and his photographs or drawings have not survived.
Railway gate (Kaliningrad)
The railway gate is one of the seven preserved city gates of Kaliningrad. The gate is located under the carriageway of Gvardeisky Prospekt, next to the monument to 1200 guardsmen. A footpath leading to the park behind the monument runs through the gate.
An inscription with the date of its construction - 1866-1869 - has been preserved on the gate. It is located on the castle stone of the gate. The Railway Gate was designed by the architect Ludwig von Astaire (who is also the author of the Ausfal Gate project).
The railway leading to Pillau (now - Baltiysk) passed through these gates. After the defenses of the city center were removed, Deutschordenring Street (now - Gvardeisky Avenue) was laid along the former rampart. Thus, since then, the gate is hardly noticeable, and rather resembles a tunnel through a road embankment.
After the Second World War, traffic on the railroad passing through the gate ceased as a new branch line was built. Nevertheless, the rails from the old road remained until the end of the nineties.
Later, a footpath was laid along the route of the former railway, which leads from Moskovsky Prospekt through the Zheleznodorodnye Vorota to the park behind the monument to 1200 guardsmen.
In the spring of 2007, the Railway and Ausfal Gates were transferred to the Kaliningrad History and Art Museum. It is planned to restore the gates, and place museum expositions of military-historical themes in their premises. Together with the monument to 1200 guardsmen and Victory Park, the gate should become part of the military-historical complex.
Architecture
The railway gates have two spans, decorated with lancet arches. The gate portals are decorated with figured bricks. On the sides of the arches there are casemates with embrasures. On the outside of the gate there is a guardhouse with powerful embrasures.
The gate ends with parapets with forged lattice, which enclose the Guards Avenue passing along the gate.
A feature of the gate are the so-called strikes. They are vertical double square sections, arranged in the walls of the arches. In the case of defense, strong beams should be laid from them. The fence formed in this way resembled blinds. It was impossible to disassemble the punches from the outside.
Other railway gates in Königsberg
There were other railway gates in Königsberg. The first were built after 1853, they were located next to the Brandenburg Gate. The railway leading to Berlin passed through this gate. There were also several other railway gates. All of them were demolished by the twenties.
Brandenburg Gate (Kaliningrad)
The Brandenburg (Berlin) Gate is one of the seven surviving city gates of Kaliningrad. Located on Bagration Street. The Brandenburg Gate is the only city gate in Kaliningrad that is still used for its intended purpose.
The Brandenburg Gate was built in Königsberg in 1657 on the southwestern section of the First rampart at its intersection with the road leading to the Brandenburg castle (now the village of Ushakovo). Due to the lack of funds and the corresponding project, the organizers limited themselves to the construction of wooden gates, placed under the roof and resting on the earthen rampart. For reliable cover, a ditch was dug ahead and filled with water.
A hundred years later, by order of the Prussian king Frederick II, the dilapidated building was broken, and in its place a massive brick building was erected with two spacious passages with a pointed end. New strong gates completely blocked the road to the south (now Suvorov Street) and served as a reliable defense of the city. Thick walls well covered a small garrison of sentries, who were housed in the inner casemates. There were also service, utility, storage rooms and lifts. During the restoration work in 1843, the gate was significantly rebuilt (almost rebuilt in the same place) and decorated with pointed decorative pediments, cruciform sandstone flowers, stylized leaves on tops, coats of arms and medallions. On the gates there are sculptural portraits of Field Marshal Boyen (1771-1848), the Minister of War, a participant in the reform of the Prussian army; on the right - Lieutenant General Ernst von Aster (1778-1855), chief of the engineering corps, one of the authors of the Second Shaft Fortification.
The Brandenburg Gate is the only one of the Königsberg Gate that has survived to this day, performing its former transport function. The building has been restored and is protected by the state as an architectural monument that adorns Bagration Street in Kaliningrad.
Architecture
The gate has two driveways. Although all the gates built in the middle of the 19th century in Königsberg belonged to the neo-Gothic style, the Gothic motifs are especially pronounced in the Brandenburg Gate. The arrow-shaped pediments stand out, which give the essentially low building a sense of height. The gate is richly decorated with decorative elements such as high reliefs and stylized stone flowers.
Friedland gate
The Friedland Gate is one of the seven preserved city gates of Kaliningrad. Located at the intersection of Kalinin Avenue and Dzerzhinsky Street, adjacent to Yuzhny Park (former park of the 40th anniversary of the Komsomol). There is a museum at the gate.
The name of the gate is associated with the city of Friedland, present-day Pravdinsk. The first Friedland Gate was built in the 17th century, but it was not located on the site of the current one.
The now preserved Friedland Gate became the last gate of Königsberg (that is, it was built last). The exact date of their construction is unknown, the approximate dates are 1857-1862. It is also unknown who their architect was. At the beginning of the 20th century, the obsolete and lost military significance of the gate, along with the entire second shaft, was sold to the city by the Ministry of War. Then the movement of transport through them was stopped, since part of the defensive rampart that had become unnecessary was torn down, and the road to Friedland (current Dzerzhinsky street) began to pass on the side of the gate.
After the war, the gates were empty for a long time, then a warehouse was located in them. In the late 1980s, work was carried out in South Park to clear the area and clean up the bottom of the park's numerous ponds. During these works, many old items were found. Soon, a museum was organized at the gate, the basis of the collection of which were the objects found in the park.
Architecture
Like all gates of Königsberg, the Friedland Gate was built in the neo-Gothic style. The name of the author of the project is unknown, sometimes authorship is attributed to Shtuhler.
The facade of the gate from the city side is divided into six parts by five buttresses. The buttresses end with pointed gable decorative turrets that protrude above the decorative parapet with battlements. All external openings of the gates (driveways, windows, doors) are made in the form of pointed arches and are decorated with perspective portals.
The two central parts of the gate are occupied by driveways. The dimensions of the driveways are 4.39 m wide and 4.24 m high. Parts along the edges are occupied by casemates.
The surface of the facade of the gate is decorated with a kind of mesh, which is a rhombic ornament. The "threads" of this mesh are made of bricks of a different color.
The facade of the gate was decorated with a statue of the great commander Friedrich von Zollern, which has not survived (disappeared after the war). Another statue, depicting Grand Master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, is located on the outside of the gate. This statue has survived, but its head is beaten off. On the outside of the gate is the guardhouse.
The museum at Friedland Gate was founded by Alexander Georgievich Novik (1956-2001). Initially, the museum was actually private and had no official status. Only in 2002 was the museum officially established by order of the director of the South Park. The museum was formally opened on October 22, 2002.
The basis of the museum's exposition is the objects found during the cleaning of the park and its reservoirs. In the museum you can see old bottles, dishes, household items, cart and coach wheels, etc. Another exposition tells about the fortifications of Koenigsberg.
In 2007, the museum took second place in the fourth all-Russian competition "a changing museum in a changing world". Four hundred museums took part in this competition, the Friedland Gate was second only to the Tretyakov Gallery. The prize money will be used to modernize the museum.
The unpreserved city gates of Kaliningrad
In addition to the seven city gates that have survived to this day, there were other gates in Königsberg, now lost.
Tragheim gate
The Tragheim Gate was located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe present Victory Square. They were demolished in 1910, after the defensive structures of the second bypass became obsolete, lost their defensive significance and were sold to the city by the military department.
Steindamm gate
Like Tragheim, these gates were located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe present Victory Square. They were demolished in 1912.
Hollanderbaum
These gates were located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe intersection of the current General Butkov Street and Marshal Bagryamyan Embankment, next to a two-tier bridge across the Pregolya. The gate was named after the area in which it was located (Hollanderbaum, "Dutch tree"). There was a railway station with the same name nearby. The gate was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century.
