The first sigh I saw on my walk was the impressive looking train station that is decorated with Soviet symbols. A few meters later, there is a statue of Mikhail Kalinin, one of the original Bolsheviks and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The city and the state, or Oblast in Russian, received his name after his death in 1946. But the most exciting sight was just a block away.
I was walking down this dark street somewhere in Russia when I looked to my right side while crossing a street and there was something I recognized. The Brandenburger Tor was there, standing as one of the city gates of Königsberg. I stopped briefly in front of it and took some pictures before I continue my walk to the hotel, excited about everything I would be able to see in Kaliningrad.
The History of the Brandenburger Tor in Kaliningrad
The Brandenburger Tor was built back in 1657, in the south-western part of Königsberg. The city was strengthening its walls and decided to create a gate on the road that leads to Brandenburg Castle, where it got its name. At first, due to a lack of funds, the gate was made of wood, and it stayed like this for some hundred years.
In order of Frederick II of Prussia, the original structure was torn down and rebuilt as a brick structure. This structure was altered and richly decorated during a restoration work done in 1843. Stylized leaves on the tops, coats of arms and medallions, decorative pediments, and cruciform sandstone color were added. Together with it, sculptures of Field Marshal Hermann von Boyen (1771–1848), who was a war minister and reformer of the Prussian army, and and Lieutenant-General Ernst von Aster (1778–1855), who was chief of the engineering corps and one of the initiators of the second strengthening of the city walls, can be found decorating the Brandenburger Tor in Kaliningrad.
The Architecture Style of the Brandenburger Tor in Kaliningrad
When it comes to the architecture style, the Brandenburger Tor in Kaliningrad looks a little bit out of place. Not just by the fact that there is nothing much happening around it. But because it was built in a Gothic Revival, also known as Neo-Gothic. This is a little odd because this style of architecture was popular a century before it was made.
The Brandenburger Tor in Kaliningrad vividly expresses its gothic motifs with its leaves, coats of arms and decoration. But, my favorite part of it is the pediments on top of it, shaped like arrows, which give the gate a sense of height.
Brandenburger Tor in Kaliningrad
The Brandenburger Tor can be found in the south-western part of old Kaliningrad. It’s located between the South Kaliningrad Train Station and the Friedrichsburg Gate. Take a look at the map above, and you will find it without any problems.
The Brandenburger Tor in Kaliningrad
Ulitsa Bagrationa, 137, Konigsberg,
Kaliningradskaya oblast’, Russia, 236039
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