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Abstract: “The cultural historical heritage of the seaside resorts in Sambia (Kaliningrad region): the problem of its identity and preservation”

Conference “Cultural Historical Heritage in Seaside Resorts. Traditions and modern tendencies”


October, 18-20 (2012), Jūrmala

The numerous East Prussian seaside resorts in Sambia –  above all Cranz (Zelenogradsk), Rauschen (Svetlogorsk),  Georgenswalde (Otradnoe), Neu Kuhren (Pionerskij)  –,  which were well-known in Western Europe,  lost their European importance after World War II, when the Kaliningrad region became a military no-go area for foreign visitors. Most of these health resorts weren’t destroyed during the Second World War and preserved the interesting architecture, which was regarded as “foreign”, “German”, architecture in the Soviet Period. From this point of view the new Russian administration didn’t consider it as a cultural heritage. Knowledge of the history of these buildings and their architecture wasn’t remembered in the Soviet society. The situation was changing with the opening up of the Kaliningrad region to Western Europe and the development of Russian-German relations in the past few years. The paper plans to identify of the cultural heritage of the seaside resorts in Sambia and analyse the problems of its preservation.