Königsberg Cathedral

Königsberg Cathedral (German: Königsberger Dom; Russian: Кафедральный собор Кёнигсберга) is a Brick Gothic-style cathedral in Kaliningrad, Russia, formerly Königsberg, Germany. The cathedral is dedicated to Virgin Mary and St Adalbert. It is located on Kant Island, formerly Kneiphof, in the Pregel (Pregolya) River. Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945, and the easternmost large German city until it was conquered by the Soviet Union near the end of World War II. In 1946 the city was renamed Kaliningrad.

The (originally Catholic) cathedral was built to replace a smaller cathedral, after Johann Clare, bishop of Samland, insisted on the construction of a bigger building. The smaller cathedral, situated in Altstadt, was subsequently demolished and materials from it were used to build the new cathedral on Kneiphof.

The construction of the cathedral on Kneiphof is considered to have begun in 1333. The soil on which the cathedral was built was marshy, and so hundreds of oak poles were put into the ground before the construction of the cathedral could begin. After the relatively short period of almost 50 years, the cathedral was largely completed by 1380. Work on the interior frescoes lasted until the end of 14th century.

The choir contained murals from the 14th and 15th centuries, late Gothic wood carvings, and medieval monuments in the Renaissance style, the chief of which was a statue of Albert, Duke of Prussia, carved by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt in 1570.

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