Star of the Baltic Coast
The assault on Pillau would become the most brutal battle of the East Prussian operation: up to 1 thousand German soldiers were concentrated on the peninsula, where an isthmus 2-70 kilometers wide led. In the city, the entire male population aged 18 to 45 was mobilized into the Volkssturm. In the battered Soviet divisions, an average of two and a half thousand bayonets remained, and most importantly, “peaceful sentiments” began to be noticed among the soldiers – the war was coming to an end, and many were much less happy to die on the threshold of victory than under the walls of Stalingrad.
Marshal Vasilevsky countered the German defense with the highest density artillery – 400 barrels per kilometer. Gnawing through the enemy defense, the Red Army units moved forward meter by meter. The last defense in the city was an old brick fortress. When the Red Army soldiers entered the fortress gates, there were no defenders in it: the garrison left the fortification through an underground passage and retreated to the Frische-Nerung spit...
Pillau Fortress is beautiful at any time of year. But in autumn it is simply magical!
Today, the Pillau fortress is, if not the only, then certainly the best preserved star-shaped fortress in Russia. On July 1626, 6, the famous commander, the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf, landed near Pillau. However, the king-commander was still far from glory, he had just finished the war in Poland and decided to take up Prussia, and had not yet thought about joining the Thirty Years' War.
King Gustav II Adolf is ahead on a dashing horse! At Lützen this will come back to bite His Majesty...
The Swedes captured the city in three hours, after which, having assessed the advantageous strategic position of Pillau, the king ordered the construction of a fortress here.
Construction began in the same year, 1626, under the supervision of the Dutch fortification engineer Matthias Wentz, but... Building fortresses without excavators and cranes is not a quick process. By the time peace was concluded in 1635, the citadel had not been completed, and it was bought from the Swedes by local residents for 10 thousand thalers. After which the Prussians took possession of the fortification, and they began construction in earnest!
All fortresses are just fortresses, but I am a star!
If the Swedish fortifications were earthen – according to the economical Dutch system: low ramparts, wide moats filled with water, bastions covered with ravelins and crownworks, then the Brandenburg Elector Georg Wilhelm ordered the fortifications to be covered with brick and stone. The fortress received the shape of a five-pointed star: a pentagon with a side of 80 meters, in each corner of which there is a bastion. The bastions have their own names: "Albrecht", "Prussia", "Konig", "Konigin", "Kronprinz".
The fortress gates today. You can't get through without a guide - it's a military unit.
Around the citadel behind the moat there are five ravelins: Ludwig, Storchnest, Fauwinkel, Kronwerk and Schinkenschanz. The construction was completed by 1670, 45 cannons and three mortars were installed on the ramparts of the fortress.
Initially, the entire forest around the fortress was cut down – so as not to interfere with the artillerymen, but the climate on the spit is very peculiar: Pillau began to be covered with sand blown from the spit by the wind, and trees and bushes were planted anew. However, it did not help much, since by the beginning of the Seven Years' War, part of the fortifications were covered with sand...
Mr. Bombardier with the tool of production
However, in 1697, the lanky Russian Tsar Peter Alekseevich arrived in Pillau for the first time, hiding under the guise of the non-commissioned officer of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, Peter Mikhailov. Peter did not like to waste time and in Pillau he began to “learn military affairs in the real way”: to comprehend artillery wisdom under the guidance of the Prussian Lieutenant Colonel Steiner von Sternfeld.
Upon completion of the course, "Pyotr Mikhailov" was issued a certificate stating that: "Mr. Pyotr Mikhailov is everywhere recognized and respected as a diligent, careful, skillful, courageous and fearless firearms master and artist."
In general, Peter ordered to address himself as “Herr Bombardier” precisely after his internship at the Pillau fortress, and quite rightly so – there is even a certificate!
After East Prussia became part of the Russian Empire for a time during the Seven Years' War, Frederick the Great lost interest in these places. In 1770, he deprived Pillau of its status as a fortress city, the artillery was moved from here to the more promising Kolberg and Graudenz, the artillery regiment was transferred to Königsberg, the houses were sold to locals, and 100 soldiers remained from the garrison: after all, someone had to guard the prisoners for whom the fortress was adapted?
However, the strategic position does not depend on the monarch's sympathies, and in 1788 the fortress garrison was again brought up to a battalion, and King Friedrich Wilhelm II ordered the fortifications to be restored. The renovation was undertaken by Infantry General Wichard Joachim von Möllendorff: he had just fallen out of favor, and East Prussia was not the most prestigious place of service.
Pillau Fortress before the air raid...
For a long time the old fortress was used as a warehouse, guardhouse, barracks. Only during the storming of Pillau it managed to accept its first and last battle as a fortress.
The heavy shells of the BM guns could not penetrate the vaults of the Prussian casemates, and the bombing was ineffective. Then assault groups with explosives and flamethrowers went to the assault, the garrison left through an underground passage and was partially captured, partially destroyed on the Frische-Nerung spit.
After Pillau became Baltiysk, the fortress housed military units of the Soviet Army.
Strictly speaking, even today the fortress is a military facility. However, since it is also the main architectural landmark of Baltiysk, excursions from the Baltic Museum fleet They bring you here. You just have to register in advance.
...and after. There was a lot more free space!
The inside of the citadel is quite spacious: during World War II, Pillau was bombed by both the Red Army Air Forces and the British, so while the casemates remained whole and unharmed, the same cannot be said about the houses located inside the fortress walls.
Nevertheless, even what remains is of interest. For example, the absence of right angles in some buildings is surprising. However, this is not an architect's mistake, but a precise calculation. The fortress was built in such a way that it would be comfortable in the strongest wind (and Baltiysk is a very windy place!). And, judging by the recorded stories of local old-timers, before the war, you could actually light a cigarette inside the citadel even in a hurricane. The sundial on the facade of one of the houses is also interesting.
An 18th century sundial on the facade of one of the buildings. No lubrication of the mechanism is required!
Rusty filtering equipment can be seen here and there in the casemates – during the Cold War, it was planned to place a shelter here in case of a nuclear strike. No one doubted that it would have been launched at the Baltic Fleet base. Just as there was no doubt that the old fortress would have withstood such a blow.
One of the fortress casemates from the inside
The basements of the casemates are filled with construction waste: the debris of buildings destroyed during air raids was dumped here without thinking twice. However, they dumped it precisely for the purpose of preventing the soldiers from climbing through the German basements: the old owners of the fortress did not leave a plan of underground communications to their successors. And the mines - perhaps they did leave them, the Germans had such a habit.
In general, the inspection of the basements in 1945 was considered unsafe and they were filled with broken bricks.
The body of an English anchor mine is the largest catch of archaeologists
But already in our time, the clearing of the basements (and diving survey of the fortress moat) was undertaken by an expedition of the Russian Geographical Society. No significant finds have been made yet: coins, fragments of dishes, parts of an old artillery carriage, the body of an English anchor mine (what is it doing in the fortress moat? Most likely, it played the role of a model on which German miners learned to disarm such mines - Pillau was a sea fortress).
But this does not mean that such finds will not be made: the cellars of the old fortress were very well suited for hiding valuables. And if the "amber room" is more of a phantom that has been chased for almost 80 years, then the ancient weapons...
The guns themselves have not yet been found, but parts of the gun carriage have already been discovered in the ditch.
The fact is that a famous collection of old cannons was collected in the Pillau fortress. After the storming of the city, not a single cannon was found. It is doubtful that the retreating garrison would have dragged heavy bronze barrels with them.
So, most likely, they are waiting for archaeologists either somewhere in the basements, or were thrown into the ditch, where they now rest under a layer of silt...
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