Baltika Stadium (russian: Балтика стадион, ) is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

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 ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, that was home to

FC Baltika Kaliningrad FC Baltika is an association football club based in Kaliningrad, Russia. Currently the club plays in the Russian First League, the second tier of the Russian football pyramid. History The club was founded on 22 December 1954 as ''Pishchevik Kalin ...

. The capacity of the stadium is 14,660, making it an average-sized stadium in the

Russian First Division The Russian First League (russian: Первая лига, Pervaya liga), formerly called Russian First Division (russian: Первый дивизион) and Russian Football National League (FNL) (russian: Первенство Футбольн� ...

History

Entrance of the stadium The stadium was originally within

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In 1892 philanthropist Walter Simon granted 6.83 hectares in

Mittelhufen Baltic Fleet headquarters in Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg's postal headquarters FSB office, formerly Königsberg's police headquarters Mittelhufen was a suburban quarter of northwestern Königsberg, Germany. Its territory is now part of the ...

for the construction of an athletic field. Named Walter-Simon-Platz in his honor, the stadium hosted

Königsberger STV Königsberger STV was a German association football club from the city of Königsberg, East Prussia. History ''Königsberger Sport- und Turnverein'' was established in 1922.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Vereinslexikon. Kassel: AGON Sportverlag In 19 ...

in the early 20th century. The

Yorck ''Yorck'' is a 1931 German war film directed by Gustav Ucicky and starring Werner Krauss, Grete Mosheim and Rudolf Forster.Noack p.59 It portrays the life of the Prussian General Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg, particularly his refusal to serve i ...

memorial was constructed near it in 1913. Because Simon was Jewish, the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

renamed the stadium Erich-Koch-Platz after Gauleiter

Erich Koch Erich Koch (19 June 1896 – 12 November 1986) was a ''Gauleiter'' of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in East Prussia from 1 October 1928 until 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 he was Chief of Civil Administration (''Chef der Zivilverwaltung'') of Bezirk ...

in 1933. The city became Russian after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Columns from the portico of New Altstadt Church are included in Baltika Stadium's entrance.

References

* Football venues in Russia Buildings and structures in Kaliningrad FC Baltika Kaliningrad Multi-purpose stadiums in Russia Event venues established in 1892 Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Kaliningrad Oblast 1892 establishments in the Russian Empire {{Russia-sports-venue-stub