Tapiau was first mentioned in 1258 as the possession of a Prussian aristocrat who swore allegiance to the Teutonic Order. The territory where the castle was later built was captured by the Teutons in 1265. In 1265, the wooden-earth fortress was rebuilt. By order of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Anno von Sangershausen, the fortress was erected on the high northern bank of the Pregel River.
In 1275, the Tapiau fortress was stormed by Lithuanian troops.
Between 1280 and 1290, the fortress was relocated. Under the command of Komtur Ulrich Bauer (German: Ulrich Baier), a new wooden fortress was built on a low peninsula at the confluence of the Pregel and Deime rivers, surrounded on three sides by marshland. From 1283 to 1301, the fortress served as the center of the Komturship, with Ulrich Bauwarus (Bavarian, German: Ulrich Bauwarus) as its first Komtur.
From 1290, the fortress was called Tapio, from 1299 Tapiów, and the name Tapiau became firmly associated with the castle only from the mid-15th century.
In the 1330s, the Komtur’s residence was moved to Insterburg Castle, and the territory of Tapiau with its castle became part of the Königsberg Komturship, governed by the Order’s marshal.
In 1309, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Brother Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, moved his residence from Venice to Marienburg. After this, mass construction of stone castles began. Between 1347 and 1359, a stone four-winged castle was built on the site of the old fortification at Tapiau.
In the 14th century, the castle played an important role in organizing military campaigns against Lithuania. In 1377, Duke Albrecht of Austria stayed at Tapiau Castle with his retinue of five counts and 50 knights and squires. The future King of England, Henry IV, also stayed at the castle during the period when he led a crusade against the Lithuanians in 1390-1391 as the Earl of Derby.
In 1385, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Vytautas, fled to Prussia due to political intrigues with his cousin Jogaila and was baptized in the Catholic rite to gain the favor of the Order. The baptism took place in the castle chapel at Tapiau.
During the Thirteen Years’ War in 1454, the Prussian Confederation opposing the Order took advantage of the absence of a garrison in the castle and captured it. In 1455, after a prolonged siege, the Order retook the castle.
In 1474, the Sambian (Samland) Bishop Dietrich von Kuba was captured by the Order. By order of the Grand Master Heinrich von Richtenberg, the bishop was imprisoned in the castle dungeons, where he died. Many opponents of the Teutonic Order were thrown into the castle’s dungeons even then. During a tour, we learned that in 1474 Bishop Dietrich von Kuba was thrown into the dungeon. Dietrich von Kuba was famous for being a papal appointee who wished to bring the Order’s knights back into the fold of the Holy Church, while the knights preferred to live more by chivalric laws rather than spiritual ones. He behaved arrogantly and even dared to criticize the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Heinrich von Richtenberg. Initially, the bishop was kept in guarded chambers appropriate to his rank. But after an escape attempt, he was locked in the dungeon, chained to the wall, and left to die of starvation. It is said that his cries were heard in the castle church located above his place of imprisonment. After this incident, the castle gained a bad reputation.
After the Peace of Kraków in 1525 and the subsequent secularization (Reformation) of the Order, the last Grand Master of the Order, Albert of Hohenzollern, became the secular ruler of the Duchy of Prussia, with Königsberg Castle as the duke’s main residence. In the mid-16th century, by order of Duke Albert, a large-scale reconstruction was carried out at the castle. Tapiau was the duke’s favorite residence; he died here on March 20, 1568, at the age of 78, having tried to hide from the plague epidemic that had engulfed Königsberg. The plague found him here, and he was initially buried here; later, his remains were moved to the crypt of Königsberg Cathedral. Today, a monument to him can be seen next to the cathedral. Notably, on the same day and year, just hours after her husband’s death, his 36-year-old wife Anna Maria died in another castle, Neuhäuser. One might be tempted to say, “They lived happily and died on the same day,” but alas, this is unlikely, considering that both the wife and their son suffered from serious mental illness.
Another famous figure “appeared” at Tapiau Castle. In 1541, the renowned astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was here, also known as a healer. He treated the castle’s majordomo, Georg von Kunheim, for a cold.
In May 1697, Peter I’s Great Embassy stopped at Tapiau. About two hundred people spent one night here, but the tsar himself did not visit the castle. Upon arrival at the port of Pillau (now Baltiysk), Peter I traveled by small boat to Königsberg.
Between 1786 and 1797, during the reign of King Frederick William II, a poorhouse was opened in Tapiau Castle. Until 1792, the castle was the residence of the lessee of the state estate Kleinhoff. In 1792, on the foundation walls of the castle’s foreburg, a building was constructed for the royal house of charity for rural poor and war invalids. As a result of the reconstruction, three wings of the castle were demolished.
In 1794, the institution was transferred to the administration of the Prussian estates. In 1797, it housed 217 men and 108 women.
In 1800, the institution was transformed into a correctional facility for vagrants, beggars, pimps, and prostitutes (Corrections- und Besserungsanstalt Tapiau). By 1801, it housed 438 men and 163 women.
Later, it was decided to convert the castle into a prison. In 1879, the only surviving medieval building of the castle was rebuilt. Two floors were added in a pseudo-Gothic style. The upper floor was allocated as a church for prisoners.
In 1885, the surviving castle buildings were surveyed and measured by government architect Konrad Steinbrecht.
By early 1911, the prison held 176 men and 38 women.
The Battle of the Masurian Lakes on September 6, 1914. The 8th German Army forced the 1st Russian Army to retreat beyond the Angerapp with its southern encirclement wing deployed near Goldap.
Soon after the start of World War I, the Russian army invaded East Prussia from the east. During the East Prussian offensive operation in August 1914, Russian troops occupied Insterburg, and German troops retreated. By late August, Russian troops reached Tapiau and began artillery shelling of the town. The defenders returned fire. The German positions on the Pregel-Deime defensive sector were weak, and there was no possibility to hold Tapiau for long. On August 27, the last passenger train left Tapiau for Königsberg. The artillery duel continued until August 29. On that day, Hindenburg’s victory over Samsonov’s 2nd Russian Army at Tannenberg was announced, and the Russian troops ceased shelling and retreated. On September 10, 1914, the Russian troops were ordered to withdraw from East Prussia. The town suffered serious damage from Russian artillery shelling, and the castle was also seriously damaged—the upper added part of the castle burned down. On September 27, 1914, a small number of prisoners of the correctional facility, previously evacuated to Western Prussia in the town of Konitz, returned to the castle.
After World War I, the castle was restored. By 1917, the only surviving medieval building (the foreburg) was reconstructed—the upper Gothic-style added floors were demolished, and a traditional four-sloped tiled roof typical of medieval castles was built. Thus, its presumed original appearance was restored.
During the Weimar Republic, a prison was also located on the castle grounds.
In January 1945, Soviet troops launched the East Prussian offensive operation in East Prussia. The town of Tapiau was captured by Soviet troops on January 25, 1945, during the Insterburg-Königsberg operation. By April 1945, a detention center for suspects of war crimes began operating in the castle building. In July 1945, the Soviet Ministry of Defense organized a Special Military District in northern East Prussia. By August 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, the participants decided to divide East Prussia between the Soviet Union and Poland.
On December 26, 1945, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel-General Kruglov, ordered the NKVD commissioner for East Prussia, Major-General Trofimov, to concentrate all detained German minors up to 14 years old inclusive in a children’s labor colony. At the same time, the head of the NKVD department for combating child homelessness and neglect, Major-General Leonuk, was ordered to organize a children’s labor colony in the town of Tapiau for the detention of German minors with a limit of 600 people.
From February 1946, the detention center was transformed into a labor colony for minors. On April 7, 1946, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Königsberg Region was established within the Special Military District as part of the RSFSR. On September 7, 1946, the town of Tapiau was renamed Gvardeysk.
In 1947, the colony for minors was converted into a transit prison. It held convicts before their transfer from the Kaliningrad region to the USSR.
In July 1952, Camp Point No. 2 was organized. The correctional colony remained in the castle until 2021.
By autumn 2021, the transfer of Correctional Colony No. 7 from Tapiau Castle to other FSIN institutions in the Kaliningrad region was completed. On September 14, 2021, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service officially handed over Tapiau Castle to the Kaliningrad region. The FSIN transferred the castle property complex consisting of 48 objects. On September 28, 2021, Tapiau Castle came under the protection of the Kaliningrad Regional Historical and Art Museum. The institution will manage the monument until the Kaliningrad regional government finds an investor. On December 16, 2021, Rosimushchestvo announced the completion of the transfer of the castle into the ownership of the Kaliningrad region.
On April 28, 2022, the concept for the restoration of Tapiau Castle in Gvardeysk was approved. On the territory of the former prison, all late-period buildings not related to cultural heritage objects are planned to be demolished. The foreburg is planned to be turned into an exhibition center. The investor is discussing the possibility of changing its exterior by reconstructing the “historical” part (the 1879 superstructure demolished in 1917).
In March 2023, the walls of the foreburg were cleaned of plaster, revealing a diamond-shaped geometric pattern made of glazed bricks underneath.
Sources:
https://spratto.livejournal.com/56790.html
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Замок_Тапиау
