Schaaken Castle is a ruined castle originally built for the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

, in Nekrasovo,

Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and admin ...

, Russia (until 1945 Liska-Schaaken in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

). It was extensively altered in the 19th century and has become a ruin since World War II. The first mention of a fortress on the site is in the Chronicle of the Teutonic Knights in 1258."Шаакен—Некрасово (Гурьевский район)"
Крепости и замки Восточной Пруссии, City of Kaliningrad, updated 11 February 2015 . The order established its first castle there in approximately 1270,Paul Gusovius, ''Der Landkreis Samland: ein Heimatbuch der ehemaligen Landkreise Königsberg und Fischhausen'', Ostdeutsche Beiträge aus dem Göttinger Arbeitskreis 38, Würzburg: Holzner, 1966,
p. 93
. on the site of an ancient Prussian fortification and trading place called ''Shoken'' (grass or grassland in

Old Prussian Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European languages, which was once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid con ...

). The walled enclosure was octagonal, following the outline of the original earthen fort, and had outer baileys at two points."Geschichte von Nekrasowo – Liska Schaaken"
Ostpreussen.net . The castle belonged to the Bishop of Samland. The original building was wooden; beginning in 1328 it was rebuilt in stone. In 1525, when the holdings of the Teutonic Order were secularised, it became a ducal seat. It was destroyed by fire in 1606 and partially rebuilt.

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

stayed at Schaaken Castle three times; it was

Alexander Suvorov Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov (russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Суво́ров, Aleksándr Vasíl'yevich Suvórov; or 1730) was a Russian general in service of the Russian Empire. He was Count of Râmnicu Sărat, Rymnik, C ...

's headquarters during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...

. In the first third of the 19th century the residential building of the castle was remodeled in a Romantic

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style, with a new roof and slender corner towers. The kitchen building, the underground vaults, and the stone ring wall remained largely unchanged. At the time of World War II, the castle and of land was a family farm; the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

took it in January 1945, and the farm subsequently became a

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...

. The castle also served for a while as a children's home. Since 1975 the castle has become a ruin. A German and a Russian association formed to stabilise and rebuild it, and proposed using it for a purpose such as a German-Russian friendship centre or a museum of 13th-century architecture. Yuri Sabuga, a

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

architect, examined the site in 2002 and said that the castle could be salvaged. Some repairs were later done and a small museum of medieval exhibits and a horse ring were established there. In March 2012 a fire at the castle damaged the museum."Сгорел замок Шаакен"
39.ru, 29 March 2012 .

References

External links

{{Coord, 54, 54, 21, N, 20, 40, 8, E, display=title Castles in Russia Ruined castles in Russia Castles of the Teutonic Knights Buildings and structures in Kaliningrad Oblast Buildings and structures completed in the 13th century 13th-century establishments in Europe Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Kaliningrad Oblast