Königsberg Castle architectural features

According to the research of Fridrich Lars (a famous German architect) the Königsberg castle exterior can be reconstructed in several historical stages. This gradation is devised according to the archaeological cultural levels:

Stage 1. RED BRICK FORTRESS

First castle in Königsberg was founded in 1255. It was a castellum built by the Teutonic Order. A castellum is a small Roman detached fort or fortlet used as a watch tower or signal station. The Latin word castellum is a diminutive of castra ("military camp"), which in turn is the plural of castrum ("watchpost"); it is the source of the English word "castle".

This fortlet was firstly wooden, but then it was re-made of red adobe (air-dried brick, also called cob). These bricks bore the cats’ pawprints and birds’ footprints on them. These marks appeared because the technology of brick production included drying bricks in the sun. Animals, birds and even people trod upon the drying bricks freely. It was considered not only normal, but even desirable for brickmakers, because in the Middle Ages footprints on clay bricks were regarded as a quality mark – they showed that the bricks had been dried in the yard long enough. Some tricky artisans even made clichés in a shape of cats’ and dogs’ paws and stamped them over the bricks, then slightly dried them and sold as if the bricks were of a proper quality.

The brickwork of the fortlet walls is called "Gothic bonding" ("gotischer Verband"). It is defied by a specific interchange of long and short brick sides.

All the Teutonic castellums had a detached tower called danzker. This kind of tower was made especially for hygienic purposes. In other words, it served as a lavatory.

As a defensive installation the fortlets of this type had a parham (a moat). In case of the Königsberg castle the parham was built as a defense against Prussian troops.

Stage 2. CASTLE IN THE 14th CENTURY

The information about this cultural layer of the Castle is quite obscure, but we know the most characteristic features.

In the 14^th century the Castle was expanding. It got its side wings and a high Castle Tower used as a lookout. At the same time the Teutonic Order was building up new defensive towers.

The architectural style of the Castle was changing. It got lancet windows, lancet arches and ogival arches. Eventually the castle had been modified from Brick Romanesque to Brick Gothic style, as it was required by the architectural fashion of that time.

Stage 3. CASTLE IN THE 16th CENTURY

 In the 16^th century the Castle got rid of its oldest parts. The House of Convent and danzker were destructed. At the same time the castle design was getting more and more elaborate: paintings and moulding appeared on its walls.

Stage 4. FROM THE 17th CENTURY TILL CASTLE’S END

Due to the dominating baroque style the Castle was getting more and more ornamental features. It was achieving new magnificent look in order to serve as the King’s residence. In the 18^th century the Castle didn’t have any architectural changes, but in the 19^th century the famous Castle Tower was re-built in neo-gothic style. It was famous not only because it could be seen from far away, but because it did not concord with the Castle’s architecture. The style of the Castle was rather baroque in that time, and the neo-gothic brick Tower stood out sharply against the rest of the building. None the less, the image of the Tower became the Castle’s zest and was reproduced on every Castle’s image until the destruction of the whole building in 1945.