The amber room is one of the most original masterpieces of
art in the world
Since it disappeared in 1945 ithas been one of its most interesting
mysteries .
The history begins in 1701: King Friedrich I. had the amber
room made by handworkers from Copenhagen and Danzig for his
casttle of Charlottenburg . Later he had it rebuilt in the
statecasttle of Berlin, historians think that the plans were
made by the Court Architect Andreas Schlüter from Berlin
Friedrichs successor, Friedrich William I. (the soldier
king) was not a high and was not interested in the unfinished
work of art. He gave the room to the Czar Peter I. the
great on his demand, in order to close an alliance with
Russia against Sweden. The king received in exchange
55 infantry soldiers each of them more than 6 feet tall,
for its wellknown "langen Kerls " grenader
army.
In
April 1717 the " amber cabinet" was dismounted from
the casttle and transported first to Memel, then to St. Petersburg.
It was first built in the old winter house, and later in the
new winter palace.
The Czarin Elizabeth, Peter I's daughter was the only one
who appreciated the gift from Berlin and had it rebuilt as
wall pannels by her favourite building master Francesco Rastrelli
in the winter palace. The Emperor Friedrich II the Great of
Prussia sent her more baltic amber from Berlin.
1755 the tsarin finallycommissioned a new generation of craftsmen
to embellish the room and moved it from the Winter Palace
in St. Petersburg to her new summer abode in Tsarskoye Selo,
just outside the city. (After
the revolution the palace was renamed palace Puschkin.)
As the room was too large (100 square meters), they had to
complete the amber pannels with 24 wall mirrors from Venice,
precious stones marquetries, golded lamps and the central
sections were occupied by four Florentine mosaic landscapes
with allegorical representations of four of man's five senses."When
the work was finished, in 1770, the room was dazzling,"wrote
art historians Konstantin Akinsha and Grigorii Kozlov. "It
was illuminated by 565 candles whose light was reflected in
the warm gold surface of the amber and sparkled in the mirrors,
gilt, and mosaics."
The
room was higher than the original one and they added
amber bases under the mirror walls and stuc pieces under
the ceiling painted in amber "trompe l'oeil"
It was the most beautiful room of the summer palace,
its jewel. This palace was later called Catharina palace
from the name of Peter the great 's wife Catharina I
The
great Catharina, Catharina II, love staying in thie amber
room. It was her preferate room and this palace was her preferate
residence. She had many changes done to this palace.
During
almost deux hundred years this amber room was known as the
"8th wonder of the world" in all Europ.
1941 . During the occupation of Russia, seven german officers
from the Wehrmacht, dismantled the panels of the oversized jewel
box, in
36 hours, packed them up
in 27 crates, and shipped them to Königsberg.
Only a part some of them were exhibited. Because of lack of
space some pannels stayed iAfter the invasion in Normandy,
Ernst Gall, Director of " State Casttles and gardens
of Berlin" advised Alfred Rohde, Curator of Königsberg
to send the amber hause to the Wilhelmshöhe near Kassel.
The bowes were ready when came the order toleave them in Königsberg.
They thought that it would keep the moral of the troops . back
up
So in 1944, a small part of the amber room, mostly the one
made in Russia, was left in a deep cellar of the south wing
of the casttle by the director Rohde . The original pannels
were certainly sent to a bunker in the botanic garden of Berlin.
It was a good decision as the Schloss Königsberg was
bombed in the night from august 26th to august 27th.
Then started the legend of the room with many different witnesses
about burnt amber, hidden boxes and so on....The imagination
of human beeings has no limit : some people enriched their
collections or the boxes still lay between two cellars in
Königberg or are sunk in a submarin somewhere. They went
to Pommern, then to south Germany....
The legend lives on....
Since
1979 russian specialists try to rebuild this room from
old drawings and models.
This is done with the sponsoring of the german gas company
the Deutschen Ruhrgas and the room will be finished
in 2003 (http://www.ruhrgas.com)
exactly for the 300th St Petersburg jubilee.
No effort was spared to rebuild this marvel.
E.
Wiedemann / DER SPIEGEL
Zarskoje
Selo: Restaurator in der Bernsteinwerkstatt
No
effort was spared to build our miniature marvel in scale 1:12
The amber shines like honey in the light.
The miniaturee is made exactly like the original one in all
details.
The oilpainting of the ceiling shows the Olympe. You may observ
the symbolic letters FR, for Fridericus Rex, the prussian
eagle. Even the marquetry floor copies exactly the original
one..
We can now present you this "eight marvel of the world
" in our Museum "ARIKALEX"
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