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Schaaken Castle

🇷🇺 Russia · 13th century

Schaaken Castle in Russia
Photo · Wikimedia Commons
Country
🇷🇺 Russia
Type
Ruin
Fame
Hidden gem
Century
13th century
Founded
1270
Coordinates
54.90583°, 20.66889°
Open data
Wikidata Q14906507

Schaaken Castle is a ruined castle originally built for the Teutonic Knights, in Nekrasovo, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia (until 1945 Liska-Schaaken in East Prussia). 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. The order established its first castle there in approximately 1270, on the site of an ancient Prussian fortification and trading place called Shoken (grass or grassland in Old Prussian). The walled enclosure was octagonal, following the outline of the original earthen fort, and had outer baileys at two points. 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 stayed at Schaaken Castle three times; it was Alexander Suvorov's headquarters during the Seven Years' War. In the first third of the 19th century the residential building of the castle was remodeled in a Romantic Gothic style, with a new roof and slender corner towers. The kitchen building, the underground vaults, and the stone ring wall remained largely unchanged.

Text adapted from “Schaaken Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Schaaken Castle ranks #2,276 of 2,435 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #59 of the 60 mapped in Russia. Founded 1270, it is older than 74% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 203 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. See how Russia compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗

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