Polessk: Labiau Castle and City History

In Polessk, Labiau Castle takes center stage as a building whose history dates back to the Middle Ages. In 1360, the castle was rebuilt using stone as a building material. Until the end of the Teutonic Order’s period in Prussian history, Labiau served as a border castle and as a storehouse for food and military equipment.

Labiau Castle and Museum

Labiau Castle houses the municipal museum for the history of Polessk District. The Museum of the History of the City of Polessk comprises around 2,500 exhibits from various periods. These include photographs, household and craft items, rare coins and stone objects. The collection thus brings together visual materials with objects from everyday life and items from different fields of work. Collection details may change; check the latest information before your visit. Also confirm locally before travelling whether it is possible to visit the castle.

The museum has three exhibition rooms: “The Origins of East Prussia,” featuring a model of the castle; “East Prussia in the 17th–19th Centuries”; and “The 20th Century and the History of the City of Polessk.” The themes span the origins of East Prussia, several centuries of history and the city’s history in the 20th century. Check which displays are currently on view before your visit.

If you want to make castle and museum history the focus when choosing your destination, these themes give Polessk a distinct character. They may be the deciding factor when you look for a holiday apartment in Polessk.

Nature themes in the wider Kaliningrad Oblast

In the wider destination of Kaliningrad Oblast, a distinctive landscape comes into focus alongside the city’s history: the Curonian Spit. The sandy peninsula is 98 kilometres long and between 350 metres and 3.8 kilometres wide. It forms a natural barrier between the salty Baltic Sea and the fresh waters of the Curonian Lagoon. The transboundary Russian-Lithuanian World Heritage Site “Curonian Spit” was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in the “Cultural Landscape” category in 2000. Its scale and the separation between two bodies of water described here give this natural area a different perspective from the history of the castle and museum in Polessk.

A striking feature of the Curonian Spit, in the wider destination of Kaliningrad Oblast, is the coniferous forest known as “Dancing Forest,” famous for its bizarre, zigzag-shaped, twisted tree trunks. The “Dancing Forest” eco-trail is located at kilometre 37 of the spit, four kilometres north of the settlement of Rybachy. The national park on the Russian part of the Curonian Spit has seven ecological educational trails and three tourist routes. The “Dancing Forest” eco-trail is accessible around the clock year-round; it may be temporarily closed due to weather or for necessary restoration work. Check for the latest information before visiting. This gives you two different interests to weigh up when planning your trip: the history of the city of Polessk and nature themes in the wider destination of Kaliningrad Oblast.

Discover more destinations: Orlovka, Zelenovo, Kutusowo, Svetloye, Lipovo, Ivashkino, Neman, Tschernyschewskoje.

Back to the overview of the wider destination: Kaliningrad Oblast.