On a cold winter night in 1941, Nazi soldiers entered the great halls of Catherine Palace near Leningrad, Russia, and laid their hands on a treasure once described as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”
In just a few days, they dismantled one of the most extraordinary creations of Baroque art: the Amber Room, a dazzling space lined with panels made entirely of amber, decorated with gold leaf and inlaid with mirrors and semi-precious stones.
As they packed the precious panels into crates and shipped them to Königsberg, no one could have imagined that the Amber Room would soon disappear into the fog of war, never to be seen again.
The origins of the Amber Room
The Amber Room was originally constructed in the early 18th century, a gift from Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I to Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. It measures 180 square meters and weighs more than six tons and was installed in the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg.
The room was a masterpiece of Baroque art, with amber panels backed with gold leaf, decorated with mirrors, mosaics and semi-precious stones. Built with more than six tons of amber, which is fragile, difficult to work with and extremely rare, the chamber was an engineering marvel.
The room contained ornate architectural features, such as gilding, carvings, amber panels, gold leaf, gemstones, statues of angels and children, and mirrors that illuminated the room with candlelight.
For more than 200 years, the Amber Room adorned Catherine Palace, as a symbol of Russian imperial wealth. Its dazzling beauty even attracted the attention of famous figures such as Empress Elizabeth and Catherine the Great, both of whom had the room restored and expanded.
By the time World War II broke out, the Amber Room had become an integral part of Russia’s cultural heritage, attracting visitors from all over the world. But with the advance of the German army towards Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1941, the fate of this priceless treasure took a darker turn.
Nazi looting and disappearances
As part of their campaign in the east, the Nazis sought to loot art and artifacts, and the Amber Room was a prime target. Despite attempts to hide it behind plain wallpaper, the Nazis – who had been closely monitoring valuable artefacts across Europe – knew exactly where to find it.
When German troops captured the city of Pushkin, where the Catherine Palace was located, they took dismantled the chamber for a period of 36 hours and transported it to Königsberg Castle in East Prussia (modern Kaliningrad, Russia). There it was exhibited in a museum under the supervision of Alfred Rohde, a German art historian with a special interest in amber.
After being transported to Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia, the Amber Room was briefly put on display before disappearing amid the chaos of war.
The room remained there until 1944, when Allied bombing raids began to target the city. That’s when the records get cloudy. In the last months of the war, the Amber Room disappeared.
Some believe it was destroyed during bombing raids on the city, while others suggest it was hidden by the retreating Germans. The lack of definitive evidence has led to a plethora of theories.
Search efforts and theories
Over the years, numerous expeditions have been launched to locate the missing Amber Room, but none have been successful.
One of the clearest explanations is that the Amber Room was destroyed during the Allied bombing of Königsberg in August 1944.
Declassified documents from the Russian National Archives, written by Alexander Brusov (head of the Soviet team charged with locating lost arts), concluded that the Amber Room was most likely destroyed by the resulting damage to the castle. His report also stated that three of the Amber Room’s four Florentine mosaics were found damaged and burned in the castle’s basement.
Despite this, the Soviets continued to conduct an extensive search for the Amber Room on the castle grounds. It has been suggested that this was a means in early Cold War propaganda to conceal the fact that they were responsible for its destruction during the artillery bombardment (blaming the Nazis), or that they were simply investigating their own soldiers for its destruction. .
Another theory states that the Amber Room was hidden in a secret underground bunker or mine in Germany. This belief has been reinforced by the discovery of several art warehouses used by the Nazis during the war, such as the Altaussee Salt Mines in Austria, where stolen works of art were recovered. However, extensive searches of such sites have not yet yielded any evidence of the Amber Room.
Some researchers believe the Amber Room was loaded onto a ship sunk by the Allies during the final stages of the war. An often mentioned name is the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in January 1945, resulting in one of the deadliest maritime disasters in history. While divers have explored the wreck, no trace of the Amber Room has been found.
In more recent years there have been suggestions that Russian authorities may have already recovered parts of the Amber Room and are keeping them hidden for political reasons. However, this theory is considered highly speculative and lacks credible evidence.
In 2017, a team of Polish divers announced they had discovered a sunken German ship that may have contained the Amber Room, but subsequent investigations found no evidence. In 2020, another search was launched in a cave system in Germany, based on newly discovered documents, but again no trace was found.
Reconstruction
In 1979, a project was launched under the leadership of Russian craftsmen to recreate the Amber Room based on historical photographs and descriptions.
After 24 years of painstaking work, the replica was completed in 2003 and installed in Catherine Palace.
The reconstruction was a massive undertaking, costing approximately $11 million and taking 25 years to complete. The opening in 2003 marked Saint Petersburg’s 300th anniversary.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, visitors from around the world could view a reconstruction of the original Amber Room at the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve.
