Old photos · Russia
Old photos of Kaliningrad
Two cities in one archive: German Königsberg, photographed most in the 1930s, and Soviet Kaliningrad, built on its ruins after 1945 — its busiest decade is the 1990s.
Time Portal's archive holds about 9,600 photographs of Kaliningrad (Königsberg), taken between 1843 and 2000, each pinned to the spot where the photographer stood. 52% of them date from 1955 or later and are free to browse at map.timeportal.app with no account; the older ones open with Pro. The oldest, dated 1843 in the archive, shows boats moored by a bridge over the Pregel — a daguerreotype, titled in the archive as the oldest photograph of Königsberg.
- Photographs
- 9,600
- Oldest
- 1843
- Busiest decade
- 1990s
- Free, 1955 on
- 52%
How many photographs, decade by decade
The busiest decades for Kaliningrad are the 1990s and the 1930s — 1,505 and 1,168 photographs. 434 were taken before 1900. Everything from 1955 onward is free to open on the map; the older photographs are part of Pro.
| Decade | Relative size | Photographs |
|---|---|---|
| before 1860 | 1 | |
| 1860s | 12 | |
| 1870s | 4 | |
| 1880s | 39 | |
| 1890s | 378 | |
| 1900s | 863 | |
| 1910s | 516 | |
| 1920s | 689 | |
| 1930s | 1,168 | |
| 1940s | 629 | |
| 1950s | 631 | |
| 1960s | 1,162 | |
| 1970s | 914 | |
| 1980s | 1,057 | |
| 1990s | 1,505 |
Where the photographs were taken
Counted in a small square around each place — about 200 metres each way — so a number is every photograph taken there, of the place itself or of the street beside it. Each place opens the map on that spot.
| Place | Photos | Oldest |
|---|---|---|
| The Cathedral and Kneiphof island | 729 | 1892 |
| The site of the Royal Castle | 1,050 | 1861 |
| The Lower Pond | 57 | 1895–1899 |
| Victory Square | 456 | 1878–1879 |
| The South Station | 163 | 1929 |
| The King's Gate | 79 | 1898–1901 |
What changed
Until 1945 this was Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia, and the archive's photographs before then are of the German city: the cathedral on the Kneiphof island, the castle on its hill, the pond the Germans called the Schlossteich. British air raids at the end of August 1944 burned out the old centre, and the Soviet assault of April 1945 took what was left.
The city was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 and rebuilt as a Soviet one. The ruins of the castle were blown up in 1968, and the House of Soviets, begun in 1970 on part of its site, has never been used. The cathedral stood as a roofless shell until it was restored in the 1990s; Immanuel Kant's tomb against its wall came through intact.
Questions about old photos of Kaliningrad
Where can I see old photos of Kaliningrad on a map?
On Time Portal: about 9,600 photographs of Kaliningrad, each pinned where it was taken, most with the direction the camera faced. The map is free in any browser at map.timeportal.app — photographs from 1955 on need no account — and there is an app for iPhone and iPad.
What is the oldest photograph of Kaliningrad in the archive?
The oldest precisely dated photograph, from 1843, shows boats moored by a bridge over the Pregel — a daguerreotype, titled in the archive as the oldest photograph of Königsberg. 434 of the Kaliningrad photographs were taken before 1900.
Which years of Kaliningrad are best covered?
The 1990s, with 1,505 photographs, and the 1930s, with 1,168. 52% of the Kaliningrad photographs date from 1955 or later.
Open Kaliningrad on the map
Other cities: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kyiv, New York, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Nizhny Novgorod, Prague, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Stockholm, Vyborg, Tbilisi, Tashkent, Odesa, Samarkand, Riga, Rome, Minsk, London, Volgograd, Tallinn. Or search any address on the map, or in the app.
The counts on this page are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 — credit Time Portal and link here. The photographs are not ours to license: they belong to their photographers and the archives that keep them.