Kaliningrad City Gates and Fort No. 5: Prussian Brick Fortifications

Between the 1840s and 1880s, Prussian military engineers led by General Ernst Ludwig von Aster and architect Friedrich August Stüler encircled Königsberg with an inner brick rampart pierced by neo-Gothic gates and an outer ring of twelve main forts known as the Night Featherbed of Königsberg. Seven historic gates, two circular artillery towers (Dohna Tower and Wrangel Tower, built in 1853 to 1856 with a 34-metre diameter and 12-metre height), and several outer forts survive across Kaliningrad today.

The Surviving Brick City Gates

• King's Gate (Korolevskiye Vorota, Frunze Street 112): Built from 1843 to 1850 to Stüler's design, its facade carries three sandstone statues carved by Wilhelm Ludwig Stürmer depicting King Ottokar II of Bohemia, King Frederick I of Prussia, and Duke Albert of Prussia. Restored in 2005 for the city's 750th anniversary, it houses the Great Embassy exhibition of the Museum of the World Ocean.
• Brandenburg Gate (Bagration Street): First erected in wood in 1657 and rebuilt in brick in 1843 with two vaulted roadways, sharp gables, and medallions of Field Marshal Hermann von Boyen and General Ernst von Aster, it is the only gate in Kaliningrad that still carries street traffic and also houses the Marzipan Museum.
• Friedland Gate (Dzerzhinskogo Street): Built in the mid-nineteenth century at the edge of South Park, this brick gate operates as an interactive museum of pre-war Königsberg street life and everyday household objects.
• Sackheim Gate (Litovsky Val 61) and Rossgarten Gate: Sackheim Gate features reliefs of Generals Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg and Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow.
• Friedrichsburg Gate (Portovaya Street): Erected in 1852 with four circular corner towers to guard the former Friedrichsburg fortress on the Pregolya, now a boatbuilding branch of the Museum of the World Ocean.

Fort No. 5 (King Frederick William III)

On Sovetsky Prospekt at the northwestern edge of the city stands Fort No. 5, a late nineteenth-century hexagonal brick-and-concrete fortress surrounded by a water moat. Stormed by the Red Army from 6 to 8 April 1945 in fighting for which 15 soldiers received the title Hero of the Soviet Union, the fort is now a military history museum and, since 2010, a branch of the regional history museum.