One of the most beautiful and atmospheric places that I visited in the framework of the project "Opening the Silver Necklace" in the Kaliningrad region was the natural park "Vishtynetsky" (formerly Romintsky forest, also Red Forest)
The park is a large forest area located in the southeastern part of the Kaliningrad region. Together with the landscape park "Pushcha Romintska" in Poland and the Lithuanian regional park "Vishtytis" forms a closed forest with an area of almost 360 square meters. km., which is an "echo" of the "Great Wilderness" that existed until the middle of the 17th century.
After numerous cities and the architectural heritage of Prussia, it was pleasant to walk through the ancient forest, which also turns out to be able to keep history.
Spread out on the hills of the Vishtynetsk Upland, the Vishtynetsky Natural Park is an amazing corner of the Kaliningrad region in its beauty and majesty.
The glacier is the creator of the relief. This huge forest with hilly relief and numerous lakes was created by a glacier almost 12 thousand years ago and is a single whole. It was the glacier that determined the special beauty of the landscape, its rich diversity of flora and fauna. In ancient times, the forest was part of the "Great Wasteland" stretching for tens of thousands of square kilometers from the Curonian Spit to the Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
Despite the swampy conditions and the presence of a dense forest that is difficult to pass, this place has attracted people here since ancient times. Shelter of the last pagan tribes The small tribes of the first people settled mainly along the river banks, led a semi-sedentary lifestyle, were exclusively engaged in hunting, fishing and beekeeping. With the help of primitive tools made of flint, they got their food and fire.
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In the Middle Ages, the last pagan tribes in Europe who lived here began to be constantly oppressed (from the middle of the 12th century to the middle of the 16th century) by the knights of the Teutonic Order and the Catholic Church. As a result of the signing of a peace treaty on Lake Mielno in 1422 between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland on the one hand and the Teutonic Order on the other, a border was established here, which is the oldest unchanged border in Europe to date. Due to the loss of West Prussia by the Order, the forest zone of the Great Wasteland became more and more important for its settlement by people. In 1466 the territory of the "Great Wasteland" called Nadrovia finally became the property of the crusaders.
Great Wasteland. In the 15-16th centuries, the territory was actively settled by Lithuanian colonists. The first villages begin to appear. The forest is writhing for arable land, the land is cultivated, and crafts begin to develop.
At the same time, as a result of the transformation of the Order's state into a high-society Prussian duchy, hunting became one of the entertainment of the court nobility. Hunting huts began to be built in the forest, where the Prussian nobility stayed during the hunt (one of the huts was on the banks of the Rominta River in the village of Yagdbud until 1880 along the Dmitrievka-Raduzhnoe road). The first Duke of Prussia Albrecht of Brandenburg, Margrave Georg Friedrich, the Great Elector also stayed there.
It seems incredible the number and species of wild animals that Elector Johan Sigismund hunted while hunting in the Romintskaya Pushcha. In the period from 1612 to 1619. this nobleman hunted, according to his archive: 4935 red deer, 112 elk, 52 bears, 15 bison, 45 wood grouse, 215 wolves, etc.: rounds, wild horses, wild boars, roe deer, beavers, lynx, black grouse, white-tailed eagle and other, almost all known representatives of the European fauna.
The last bear in Rominten Forest was killed in 1788, a bison even earlier - 1755, a beaver - 1941. (In 1938, the former director of the Berlin Zoo, Dr. Lutz Heck, conducted an interesting experiment: he crossed Spanish and South French bulls with Corsican broodstock. As a result, we got a product weighing at least 800 kg and outwardly very similar to the bison that was found in large numbers in the Great Wasteland. A herd of 11 pieces acclimatized well in the Rominten Forest and by 1942 increased to 22. Their post-war fate is unknown).
Romintskaya Pushcha. The main cultivation of the forest begins in the 18th century. The area is actively inhabited by German peasants, expelled from their lands by Protestants from Salzburg, Switzerland, Holland …
The Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I did a lot for the development of the area, who by his decree abolished the name "wasteland", since "His Majesty no longer recognizes the wasteland in his country." The so-called "forest bypasses" are being transformed into forestry, there is a significant felling and rafting of timber for economic needs and for shipbuilding. The forest officially began to be called Rominter Heide (Rominten Forest - from the Prussian name of the pagan sanctuary “Romove”, also formerly the Goldap Lake - Romittersee, the Krasnaya River - Rominte). Artificial reproduction of spruce and coniferous forests begins, which have become the basis of the forest. Two main forest districts have been organized in Nassaven (Lesistoe) and Varnen (Ozerki).
A log castle in the style of a hunting lodge. In 1890, after insistent persuasion and admonition by the chief forester of the Romint Forest von Nordenfleit and Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II, having visited the Romint Forest for the first time, "discovered" the forest "as an old hunting reserve of the Goenzollern family."
By the will of the Kaiser, the Pushcha was turned into convenient hunting grounds. The reorganization of the forestry was carried out - two more main forest districts appeared in Rominten (the village of Raduzhnoe) and in Jittkemen (Zhitkemy, Poland). A railway is being laid, telephone communications are being laid, roads are being paved, schools and churches are being built under the patronage of the Kaiser. For five years, almost 25 thousand hectares of forest have been surrounded by a wire fence. Wilhelm II, who traveled a lot across northern European countries and admired their architectural style, brought this feature to the Romintskaya Pushcha. On his initiative, the Norwegian architects Sverre, Munte and Olsen designed and built in Norway a log castle in the style of a Norwegian hunting lodge, consisting of two wings, for the Kaiser and his wife, connected by overground and underground passages. The building was decorated with carved figures of dragon heads. The building was completely delivered by water to East Prussia to the village of Gilge (Matrosovo), then by railway to the station Trakenen (Novo-Divnoe) and by bull sledding to the center of the Romintskaya Pushcha in the village of Teerbud (the village of Raduzhnoe).
Three years later, in front of the castle, the Norwegian church of St. Hubertus, the patron saint of hunting, was erected from local wood. In 1909, in front of the church, a bronze sculpture of the largest deer caught by the Kaiser in the Romintskaya Pushcha with sixteen tines on the horns was erected, made by the animator, a native of the city of Gumbinnen (Gusev), Professor Richard Frize. The same artist also executed sculptures of four lying deer, placing them on a bridge over the river. Rominte (Red) near the castle. Individual houses in the village of Pugachevo remind of the Kaiser's passion for the northern architectural style.
A resting place for residents of nearby towns. In the period from 1890 to 1913, out of other wild animals caught in the Romintskaya Pushcha, more than 337 large deer with capital antlers, including a deer with 44 tines, became the Kaiser's trophies. He visited Rominten Forest every year for two or three weeks from mid-September to early October. In some places where Wilhel II hunted, memorial stones were installed. Some can be found today on the territory of the Vishtynetsky natural park.
During the Weimar Republic, the social democratic rule in East Prussia, until the Nazis came to power, the Rominter Heide nature reserve, which was under the jurisdiction of the Forestry Department of the Gumbinnen government district, became a resting place (Lake Marinovo) for residents of nearby towns and villages. During the rut of the red deer, to carry out herded hunts for other wild animals, the foresters invited hunters with the status of members of the Government from Konigsberg (Kaliningrad) and Gumbinnen (Gusev).
The Chief Jägermeister hunted here. In 1934, the 4 main forestries were renamed into the forest headquarters of Rominter Heide. Foresters received the titles of “foresters”. With the coming to power of the National Socialists, the old Prussian-Lithuanian names of almost all the settlements of the Romintskaya Pushcha were Germanized.
In 1936, a wire fence around the entire perimeter of the forest was renovated and an imperial hunting yard near the village of Rominten (village of Raduzhnoe) was built by the order of the President-Minister of Prussia and the Reich's huntsman Hermann Goering. This was a consequence of the fact that the Kaiser, who lived in exile in Holland, refused until his death (1940) to "provide for use" to Goering his favorite hunting castle.
On April 1, 1938, Rominter Heide became one of the "state hunting grounds" of the Third Reich. Until August 1944, Goering hunted here, taking advantage of his exceptional position, who, pursuing his political and selfish goals, also invited high-ranking politicians, ministers, generals and industrialists to hunt.
Vishtynetsky Natural Park. After World War II, the northern part of East Prussia, including most of the Rominten Forest, went to the USSR. In the first post-war years, the so-called Lithuanian Economic Council, which was engaged in industrial procurement, "managed" on the territory of the forest. Up to 95 percent of the entire forest was cut down, most of it was exported to the territory of the Lithuanian SSR.
With the formation and growth of the activities of the Nesterovsky forestry enterprise, one of the largest in the Kaliningrad region, reforestation work began to be actively carried out. However, the economic use of the entire territory of the Romintskaya Pushcha was limited due to its border status.
Currently, the forest area covers a total area of more than 360 square meters. km. Two thirds are located in the Kaliningrad region, one third in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship in Poland. By the Decree of the Government of the Kaliningrad region dated January 19, 2012 No. 9, a specially protected natural area was established - the “Vishtynetsky natural park”.
The predecessor of the "Heiden" (also "Heyden", German Heydenbruecke) bridge across the Krasnaya river (Rominte river) was the so-called "Kaiserbrücke" - the "Kaiser" bridge, built by sappers in 1892 from unhewn logs. Carved dragon heads were attached to curving wooden vaults, giving the bridge a "Norwegian" character.
In 1905, the wooden structure of the bridge was replaced by rammed concrete with a vaulted roof of similar material. The construction of the bridge was carried out by a construction company from Insterburg (Chernyakhovsk) "Wildschild & Langelott". The length of the bridge between the vault supports was 25.0 meters. The bridge received a new name "Heiden" on the personal instructions of the Kaiser in memory and a certain respect for Wilhelm Heiden-Kadov, who occupied in 1890-1894. the post of Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of Prussia. Now there is a walking route across the bridge.
And here is the railway of those times.
Rail production year:
1927 year.
Krupp.
