Cathedral Church in Kaliningrad is one of the oldest and iconic buildings in the city

The restored Cathedral Church, the symbol of Kaliningrad-Königsberg, looks like a guest from the past, a Teutonic knight in shining armor. The cathedral is directly connected with the Teutons, as is the whole history of the foundation of Konigsberg. The Cathedral Church with the grave of Kant is the main attraction of the island of Kant, the former Kneiphof. It is connected with the “mainland” part of Kaliningrad by a pedestrian bridge.

The cathedral was first Catholic, then Lutheran, and now it is the temple of history. In its towers and halls there is a museum dedicated to the former Königsberg, the Teutonic Order and Immanuel Kant, who, as we know, is buried near the cathedral wall in the “professor’s crypt”.

If we ignore the harsh history of the cathedral and the city - a very romantic place. About a new life of the long-suffering cathedral are reminiscent of a couple on the benches under the brick walls entwined with grapes, neat night lights and the largest organ in Europe.

HISTORY
The first Cathedral Church was built at the turn of the XII and XIII centuries, in Altstadt - the “old city”, which adjoined the settlements Lebenicht and Kneiphof. The congregation gradually arrived, so the old cathedral was dismantled and a new, larger church was built in the island Kneiphof. At first, the new cathedral was conceived as a temple-fortress, but they abandoned this intention. The official date of birth of the cathedral looks beautiful - April 13, 1333. At that time, the temple was Catholic and was dedicated to the Sanctified Body of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, all saints and St. Adalbert. After the Reformation and the separation of Prussia from the authority of the Pope, the Koenigsberg Cathedral became the main Lutheran cathedral of Prussia.

Over the long centuries, the cathedral was renovated and rebuilt several times. The most ruthless "perestroika" occurred in 1944, when the British covered Königsberg with carpet bombing. However, he still failed to raze it to the ground. The walls stood, but the interior was burned to the ground. For many years, the cathedral turned into a sad shadow of past greatness. The new owners renamed Königsberg to Kaliningrad and had neither the desire nor the ability to restore the symbol of "Prussian militarism." The ruins of the cathedral saved from the demolition the grave of Kant, who was considered the forerunner of the ideas of communism.

In the early nineties, Igor Odintsov, an extraordinary and enthusiastic man, a favorite of Kaliningraders, undertook the restoration of the cathedral. He headed the museum complex "Cathedral Church" and engaged in the revival of the main symbol of Kaliningrad.

The appearance of the cathedral is almost completely consistent with the historical, but the restorers still had to sacrifice certain details. The new roof is covered not with tiles, but with shallowness - for weight reduction, and the clock on the tower, although it looks old, hides the electronic mechanism with satellite communications. But they always show the exact time.

In 2003, on the eve of the 750th anniversary of the founding of Königsberg, the high-ranking guests — Russian President Putin and German Chancellor Schröder — visited the Cathedral Church. Schröder then said that it would be good to build an organ in the cathedral - and they heard it. In 2006 a small choral organ was ready, and in 2007 German masters assembled a large one. Combined with fiber-optic communication and packed with modern technologies, both tools make up a single whole - 8500 pipes, 4 manuals, 90 registers. Bach is not even dreamed of. The appearance of the organ is the merit of cabinetmakers of the Kaliningrad factory "Maksik", successful experimental work of simple furniture makers.

In 2009, all this splendor tried to add to the list of its own property the Russian Orthodox Church - to no avail.

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