Kaliningrad Puppet Theatre, formerly the Luisenkirche The Kaliningrad Puppet Theatre (russian: Калининградский кукольный театр) is a puppet

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

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 transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. The building was originally the Königin-Luise-Gedächtniskirche (Queen Louise Memorial Church), popularly known as the Luisenkirche, a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

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 name ...

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 ...

History

The Luisenkirche, the first church to be built outside the Königsberg city walls, was named in honour of Queen Louise of Prussia (1776–1810), who was beloved by Königsbergers. Land and funds were donated primarily by the leading tobacco manufacturer Louis Großkopf and his wife, with additional funding coming from the banker and philanthropist Walter Simon, the industrialist Fritz Heumann, and A. Siebert. The

Neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

building was designed by the architects Friedrich Heitmann and Franz Krah to serve the residential suburbs of Amalienau,

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 ...

, and

Vorderhufen Vorderhufen was a quarter of northern Königsberg, Germany. Its territory is now part of the Tsentralny District of Kaliningrad, Russia. History Vorderhufen ("near Hufen") was originally a village in the eastern part of the Hufen region extendi ...

. Constructed in Amalienau between 1899 and 1901 and dedicated on 9 September 1901, the church was heavily damaged during

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 opposing ...

. Königsberg became the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

city of

after the war, and the Soviet authorities planned to demolish the ruins in the 1960s. However, the architect

Yuri Vaganov Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...

convinced officials that the building could be converted into a puppet theatre. Renovations were completed in 1976. While the exterior of the building has largely retained its pre-war appearance, the interior has been redesigned to fit the needs of a theatre.

Gallery

image:ID004599 E068 Luisenkirche.jpg, Luisenkirche image:ID004598 E067 Luisenkirche.jpg, Luisenkirche

References

* * * 1976 establishments in the Soviet Union Puppet Theatres completed in 1976 Puppet theaters Romanesque Revival church buildings in Germany Theatres in Russia Tourist attractions in Kaliningrad Oblast Churches completed in 1901 Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Kaliningrad Oblast {{Europe-theat-struct-stub