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Restoration brings Museum to Life in Nizovie

Restoration brings Museum to Life in Nizovie

Ivan Zverev saves old German building from terminal decline

Published: 31 December 2021 ~ Restoration brings Museum to Life in Nizovie

There are good days and bad days, and Christmas day is no exception. But this year there was no need to wonder what we were going to do. If I had been in the UK, I could have put on my Christmas-cracker hat and high-tailed it to the nearest McDonald’s for a Yuletide jab, but as I was in Kaliningrad I would have to accept the next best thing, which was an invitation to attend the opening of Zverev’s museum in the village of Nizovie.

Restoration and museum comes to life in Nizovie

As long as you know where Nizovie is, the museum is impossible to miss. It is a large, red-brick, three-storey German building, set back from the road; very municipal-looking; very formal; and unmistakeably civic.

Today, its presence was even more unmissable. In addition to the soviet pennants fluttering in the breeze on either side of the imposing entrance and next to them a red sign bearing the words ‘NKO USSR, Military Commandant of Waldau’, and a large, decorated and illuminated Christmas tree on one side of the forecourt upstaged only by the pea-green 18th century carriage located on the opposite side and a very active music system, a not insubstantial crowd was gathering, some of the younger folk among it dressed in animal costumes and some among the older in the velvet-rich finery and lace that would have been worn by the well-to-do back in the 18th century.

Ivan Zverev's museum in Nizovie

😊Waldau Castle and Museum are a short distance from the Zverev museum, making it possible to visit all three on the same day …

Snow, and lots of it, completed a scene which for me was exceedingly 25th of December, although the meaning that I attributed to it may have been lost on the crowd, as in Russia Christmas is celebrated according to the Orthodox calendar, and thus falls later on the 7th of January.

Nevertheless, we were into the festive season and the composition all told engendered a perfect seasonal atmosphere.

Carriage outside Zverev museum in Nizovie Russia

Restoration brings Museum to Life in Nizovie

The official opening of the museum took place at the foot and on top of the steps leading to the main entrance. The ribbon was cut by a representative of Kaliningrad’s administration and then, after a short speech from this gentleman, Mr Ivan Zverev, owner of the building, chief restorer and curator of the museum, delivered a slightly longer one, upon completion of which up went the volume of the music and with it a herd of people who, whilst no doubt endeared by the snowy scene around them, which was extremely picturesque, could not forbear a moment longer the urgent need to throw themselves inside the warmth that the building offered.

I endured for a few minutes more, as I wanted to have my photograph taken with the man from the 18th century and his female entourage. That done, I, too, shot up the steps and into the entrance hall behind the great wooden door.

Mick Hart with re-enactors in Russia
Mick Hart with re-enactors at the opening of Ivan Zverev’s renovated German building and museum in Nizovie

As I passed through the doorway, someone remarked ‘original’. It could have been me they were talking about, in which case I am glad that I did not catch the last word, but I think they meant the door, which they believed was genuinely old. The key to the door looked old, also. I did not stop to verify this as my toes were nipped and nippy, but I must say that I would not want this heavy, six-inch metal object hanging on my key ring.

The 18th century photograph taken outside had been a prelude to what awaited me on the other side of the door, a flirtation with the past possessing curious overtones of baronial medievalness and 19th century sobriety. Too many facets for immediate computation presented themselves, but the tiled flooring, stained glass partition windows, beamed and lattice-work ceilings, heavy Tudor-style wrought iron chandeliers, enamel and metal signs and, on either side of the hall, views of an eclectic profusion of bygones announced your departure from the 21st century, which, let us not be shy in saying it, can by no means be misconstrued as anything but agreeable.

Hallway to museum in Nizovie
Entrance Hall to Nizovie Museum

The extent of the building’s restoration to date is confined to the ground floor, but make no mistake, given the size of the building and the condition in which it was found after 10 years of neglect, the work involved so far has been nothing short of considerable.

If you were to put the plaster entirely back on the walls and mask out the curios and relics, the feeling of being back at school would be understandably justified since, in Soviet times, this is what it had been ~ Nizovie village school. Interestingly, some among today’s visitors were former pupils who attended the school in the 1960s and 70s.

Prior to its scholastic purpose, in German times the building had served the village as an all-inclusive health centre and, considering Nizovie’s diminutive size, an elaborate one at that. It had contained a dentist’s surgery, doctor’s surgery and also an apothecary.

The apothecary theme has been picked up by the building’s restorers and built into the first room on the left hand-side of the hall, which today doubled as an exhibit’s gallery and refreshment centre. The room is screened off, but not enclosed, by a decorative wrought iron framework, likewise the room opposite. This is an excellent arrangement as it affords irresistible glimpses of all that lies beyond.

Today, it was a choice of hot beverages and snacks, or, if you were so inclined, exotic and novel alcoholic infusions. Into the room we went!

The first one I sampled was a herb-based liqueur, the secret ingredient of which, or so it was whispered, is amber, over which the liquid recipe is poured and then slowly left to marinate. I took a nip of this not knowing what to expect and instantly wished I had been more greedy!

The second beverage was difficult to decant. It sat within a giant, thin-necked oblong bottle. Snow-bitten fingers and hands that looked like salmon made manoeuvring this a risky endeavour, but not one to forego a challenge, at least when it comes to alcohol, needless to say I excelled myself and was thus rewarded with a delicious glass, which then became two, of mead. Other people in the room must also have been unsure as to whether they had the dexterity to safely handle the bottle, since nobody made for the mead until I had shown them the way, after which I was quickly promoted to chief difficult bottle controller and mead dispenser extraordinaire!

Whilst drinking this pick-me-up, I was able to enjoy the many and various apothecary elements displayed in the wall-side cabinets as well as reflect favourably on specific details of restoration, for example the technique repeated throughout the building of contrasting exposed and clean brickwork with asymmetrical flowing panels of plaster.

Apothecary themed wall  Nizovie museum
Medicinal herbs in the apothecary at Nizovie Museum

In this room, the plastered section has been artistically decorated with large, coloured illustrations of herbs and plants, accompanied by short descriptions of their medicinal value and the curative or health-giving properties that each is said to impart. The apothecary theme is further enhanced by a line of suspended dried plants strung against the ceiling and, of course, by a multiplicity of obsolete bottles together with teeth-chilling dentistry and twinge-inducing surgical instruments.

Anaesthetised by the pleasant brew, I did, however, eventually vacate this room and, fortified as much if not more than I should be, given the time of day, I set off floating somewhat on a personal voyage of discovery.

Restoration brings Museum to Life in Nizovie

Having stopped for five minutes to enjoy the resuscitating heat puthering out from a great barrel of a wood burner, which bore an uncanny resemblance to a vintage eight-cylinder car engine, my explorations revealed that the building’s ground floor is arranged around a T-shaped profile. The entrance hall, flanked by the two rooms, has no door at its opposite end. A corridor running at right angles to it lets into rooms adjacent, and at either end of this corridor, within two symmetrical wings, a room in each is located transverse to the others.

The room on the opposite side of the entrance hall, the apothecary’s counterpart, is chocker block, mostly with relics of a domestic nature, ranging from kitchen utensils to telephones, whilst the end room in the wing on the right contains larger, more bulky household devices and many other items and implements once commonplace to gardening and agricultural work. All this was good, educational and insightful stuff from the past, reminding us that before the universality of plastic everything from watering cans to ‘washing machines’ had been manufactured from heavy, solid materials including, but not limited to, galvanised steel, wrought iron and wood.

The most inspiring and thought-provoking of the museum’s exhibit rooms are, without question, the one themed around bygone motorcycles, associated vehicle parts and ephemera and the other which is devoted to the Second World War.

As a westerner, the two-wheeled Soviet transport displayed offered me an intriguing chance to compare the similarities of and differences between the mopeds and motorbikes used in postwar Soviet Russia with models I was familiar with in the UK that had been manufactured and ridden in an era contemporaneous to that of their Russian counterparts.  

Vintage Soviet motorcycles

This room also contains a number of enamel wall signs, most of them German, some advertising motor oils, others vehicle requisites.

These signs are a particular favourite of mine and were, and no doubt still are, highly sought-after by collectors and interior designers. When we owned and ran our UK-based antique and vintage emporium enamel signs were never out of demand.

The Nizovie exhibition of Soviet war memorabilia is really in a class of its own. Naturally, it helps with a display of this kind that the environment in which it is housed has a stark, industrial feel to it, a backdrop which comes naturally to buildings of a certain age where the walls and floors are made of brick, the ceilings lined with thick oak beams and the lighting commercial in character.

Mr Zverev and his helpers have spared nothing creatively in an effort to frame the exhibits in such a way that they guarantee emotivity.

Two explicitly detailed and dramatic murals, one a battle scene raging above and around Königsberg Castle, the other a depiction of vanquished Hitler youth and battle-exhausted German soldiers forlornly resigned to their fate as they huddle against the walls of a bomb-gutted Königsberg Cathedral, capture the hell of war in its devastating consequences for culture and humanity.

Suffering and death are also served up in two macabre symbolic compositions: one is a life-sized skeleton dressed in a German greatcoat wearing a gas mask; the other, aligned above him, is a wall painting of a Nazi officer in full military uniform locked behind a grid of real iron bars. The mask used for the face in this depiction has allowed the artist to twist and distort it into a crumpled agony of bewildered despair.

WWII exhibits in Zverev Museum  Nizovie
Restoration brings Museum to Life in Nizovie

Displayed against this sensory backdrop is a diverse assortment of German and Soviet field gear, some excavated others well-preserved, as well as small arms, edged weapons, military uniforms, flags and banners and examples of heavier weapons such as the Maxim M1910, Degtyaryov machine gun DP-27 and what I think may be a tripod-mounted German MG34 anti-aircraft gun. A particularly interesting exhibit is the military motorbike and sidecar combination fully equipped with machine guns.  

Another valuable asset was the war room’s guide — a knowledgeable re-enactor dressed in full Soviet combat uniform. As my Russian is slow and still has a few shell holes in it waiting to be plugged, the fact that this particular Russian infantryman could speak good English and, as with most re-enactors, was a mine of information (Did you get it? ‘Mine’ of information? Alright, well you do better!) proved most beneficial.

Mick Hart with Soviet re-enactor
Mick Hart with Soviet re-enactor in the war room at Ivan Zverev’s museum

In conclusion, Ivan Zverev’s red-bricked building, a one-time German centre for a doctor’s, dentist’s and apothecary, which later became a Soviet school, has been rescued from extinction. It is a deserving restoration project, a first-class example of the architectural style of its time and the culture from which it derives, which now, in addition to its intrinsic merit, accommodates, thanks to Mr Zverev, a unique historical exposition that combines the satisfaction of entertainment with an improved understanding of the socio-cultural timeline of this fascinating region.

All in all, I must say that this Christmas Day was one to remember. Thank you, Ivan Zverev, for your gracious invitation!

Ivan Zverev with Olga Hart in Nizovie
Ivan Zverev with Olga Hart, Nizovie

Ivan Zverev and the Zverev Creation
Ivan Zverev, the inspiration behind the restoration of the former Soviet school and medical centre in the village of Nizovie, is a Kaliningrad businessman. He purchased the derelict school after a long search for somewhere close to Kaliningrad where he could establish a museum dedicated to the history of Königsberg and its territory which would encompass its pre-war German, wartime and Soviet periods.

Already, a percentage of that vision has been brought to fruition with exhibitions devoted to a German pharmacy, German post office, motorcycles of the 1960s and 70s (a personal interest of Mr Zverev’s), a WWII exposition and artefacts pertaining to gardening and agriculture. Mr Zverev has also obtained thousands of photographs and associated documentation relating to the building when it was a school, which he intends to use as a basis for a classroom diorama.

Ivan Zverev is a hands-on restorer. He fully understood from the outset that the restoration of a building as large and run down as Nizovie School would be no undertaking for the faint hearted, but often the hard graft that underscores labour for love is not without its special compensations, and Ivan was rewarded for his hard work.

In a hitherto unknown or forgotten cellar, exciting finds were unearthed ~ a mummified mouse in a mousetrap (possibly of German ancestry), shelves containing cans of unopened food and ~ joy upon joys ~ a real German motorbike in remarkably good condition!

In a disused well at the back of the building a further discovery was made, which Ivan Zverev considers to be one of the most poignant and historically valuable. It is a white enamel dentist’s sign, inscribed in German ‘Dental Practice, Kai Marx, Dentist’. As this find ties in with at least one important vocational aspect of the building’s history, it now has pride of place in Nizovie’s entrance hall.
Dentist's sign at Zverev's museum

Ivan Zverev’s business and cultural curriculum vitae testify to a long-standing interest in and love for the past, especially for the land in which he lives and for the Soviet era in general. It is also reflected in his passion for acquiring antiques and collectable and in ‘Chevalier’, the quirky mediaeval-styled restaurant which he conceived, created, owns and operates in Alexander Kosmodemyansky, a village outlying Kaliningrad.

Mick Hart with Ivan Zverev
A Soviet moment: Mick Hart with Ivan Zverev

Copyright © 2018-2022 Mick Hart. All rights reserved.

Mick Hart Waldau Castle Kaliningrad region

It Happened at Waldau Castle Kaliningrad

A night to remember

Published: 13 July 2021 ~ It Happened at Waldau Castle Kaliningrad

Take a 750-year-old castle, a friendly curator-family from central Russia, an impressive and well-stocked museum, two classic Volgas and a vintage Hanomag car, a guided tour by a youthful tour guide better informed than Tacitus, home-baked bread the delights of which I have never tasted before made by a child baker, a female troupe in full traditional German dress demonstrating Prussian folk dancing, first-class quality beer and cognac, a rousing speech by our friend Grozmani about the book that took him 29 years to research and write, an opera concert performed in the open air by professional opera singers, a grand finale supper with large iced cakes, and what you have is one of the most unusual and interesting birthday parties that I have ever had the good fortune to have been invited to.

The curious location of this event, to which we were driven in style in our friend’s, Arthur’s, classic Volga, was Waldau Castle, thirty minutes or so by car from Kaliningrad.

We had called at the castle at the end of the Kaliningrad Retro Car Club’s rally a couple of weeks before, on which occasion I had been attracted to the castle on many levels but immediately by the feel of what it was and what you would not expect it to be.

It Happened at Waldau Castle Kaliningrad

No sooner had we passed through the gate into the castle grounds than I was smitten with an enveloping sense of calm, a convalescent repose, which had it been a churchyard or a monastery would have excited no further response but, given the purpose for which it had been constructed and by which it had lived out most of its life, fortification, seemed oddly at variance with its military biography.

My first impression had been no aberration, for the same singularity stepped out to greet me when we passed through the castle gate this evening. There was no challenge, no rattle of sabres or priming of firearms, in fact nothing to authenticate its militaristic legacy, only an inviting, calling, sense of calm, the kind that those who seek and who are fortunate to find might speak of in terms of sanctuary.

We had pulled up in our Volga not at the front of the house but a short distance from it and parked at the side of the drive. Although the castle’s surviving principal building was visible from where we were, it was yet indistinct, only a glimpse of its tall, grey walls asserted itself through the wooded area that lay between us, the tree trunks and branches obscuring whilst the leafy canopy overhead cast a thoughtful but not unpleasing shade over the tranquil prospect and introduced a welcome coolness in which refuge could be taken, for although it was early evening the heat of the day had not yet abated.

Set in the middle of this entreating copse stands a solid monument of large, rectangular proportions surmounted by an apex top. It is dedicated to those who fell in the First World War. This is a German monument which has on both of its narrower ends an incised representation of the imperial military cross and along the top edge of the monument’s greater width words of commemoration.

German WWI Memorial Russia

There is something so touchingly melancholic about this monument immersed within the shade of Castle Waldau’s trees. I detect in it an attitude of self-consciousness, as if it plainly understands that whilst symbolism is timeless, the land on which it is stationed, and for which the men it pays tribute to gave their lives, is now but a point of historical record and has lost all claim to anything else.

Be this as it may, I could find nothing in the calm that I have already described to suggest the slightest trace of rancour, just a gentle, quiet, contentment. So, if there are ghosts in the grounds of Waldau Castle, you are less likely to hear them rattling chains than to catch them occasionally sighing.

It Happened at Waldau Castle Kaliningrad

The path that leads away from the German memorial led us in a straight line to the front door of the castle. We stood on the opposite side of the sweeping driveway taking in the Teutonic might with which all German buildings of a certain age and stature in this part of the world are redoubtably invested. Bold, solid and, apart from the section of the building devoted to the doorway and its encasement, austere, the structure embodies typical if mythical German virtues and has an impregnability about it that perceptibly transcends bricks and mortar, effortlessly overshadowing the knowledge and laws of mere physics.

Waldau Castle facade

The only concession that the architect of this building has made to the decorative lies in the perpendicular that projects, surrounds and extends vertically from the main entrance, a feature which supports two sets of simple Gothic windows, three in parallel, both sets incorporating tracery and both arranged within a rectangular oriel supported by a stepped, pyramidical corbel. Enrichment takes the form of a small number of various blind, recessed arches, with the oriel culminating in a crenelated cornice and the perpendicular typically concluded as a broad stepped gable, the last horizontal platform of which makes the perfect base for Mrs Stork and her nest.

Waldau Castle entrance
Waldau Castle Gothic features
Two photographs (see above) depicting Waldau Castle entrance and the Gothic nature of the embellishing features

To the right of the building, orienting from the position of observer standing at the front of the castle, is a second three-storey building connected to the principal by a high wall. This second building houses the castle museum.

The museum at Castle Waldau, Kaliningrad region, Russia

Both the castle and its grounds have passed through innumerable transitions in its 750-year history and no better appreciation of this can be found than by visiting the on-site museum, which occupies the cellar, ground and second floors of the surviving wing of the castle.

It is impressive in its collection of artefacts, impressive in its layout, impressive in its inventive displays and impressive in the past that clings to it in every tread of its ancient steps and every nook and cranny. It is so impressive that it needs to be covered in its own article, so we will put it on hold for the time being and revisit it at a later date. Ghosts and God willing!

It Happened at Waldau Castle Kaliningrad

In the wall that connects the two remaining parts of Waldau Castle, there is a small, low archway, the kind in historic buildings that must be walked through in order that the apparition that you will eventually become can follow in the footsteps of those that once like you were physical forms. It is truly a time-honoured ritual, in every sense of the word, but do not forget to lower your head!

On the other side of this portal, we found ourselves on a piece of wild ground, on a slight eminence looking over more ground of an even wilder nature: lush, green, overgrown and silent. This is the last step on the road to complete tranquility that you would want to take of your own volition. We ambled along, Olga, our friend Inara and I, stopping now and again to move fragments of brick with our shoes or to pick up a piece of pottery, deep in the thought of moments past.

The back of the castle is not in the best of health. There is no denying its solid state, but the wall rendering has given way in places and the castle’s eyes, the many windows spread out across its awesome width and height, are covered in a mess of makeshift cataracts. I cannot remember when, if ever, I last beheld such an incongruous and anomalous sight, in which doors of all shapes, sizes, makes and periods have been requisitioned for use as wooden blinds to eye-patch empty window sockets. But work proceeds, and as Waldau Castle knows, possibly better than anyone, nothing remains the same for long or forever.

Boarded windows Waldau Castle

Returning to the front of the castle was a lot like having swapped Leonard Cohen for VE Day. The vintage cars had been lined up on the opposite side of the drive to the castle entrance and the party guests were busy assembling in the middle of the driveway.

Hanomag Kaliningrad

A troupe of ladies all dressed in period Prussian costume were about to demonstrate the art of traditional Prussian dancing. The music and footwork in clogs set the party spirit in motion, but before getting down to the serious business of sampling the beer and cognac, we were about to be given a guided tour of Waldau Castle’s ground floor rooms.

Waldau Castle, Russia. Typical Prussian folk dancing

On the other side of Waldau Castle’s entrance sits a great hall, which owes its present restored condition to the hard work and volunteer commitment of one family, the Sorokins, whose tender loving care can be seen and felt everywhere. Observing and appreciating is one thing, but it is quite another to have to clean and repair acres of wooden floorboards, bricks by the thousands and dusty, peeling plasterwork and have to construct hefty, wooden, external doors and massy window frames when by trade you are not a carpenter but are the sort of valuable person who can turn your hand to anything.

When my wife mentioned this feat to the head of the Sorokin family, he modestly confirmed, “No, I am not a carpenter by trade, but I believe that everyone has an innate knowledge that they rarely ever use, and if necessitated can turn their hand to anything.” I would like to have concurred, and I did note the professionalism of his castle doors and windows, but I also recalled in secret embarrassment how, back in the 1970s, my one foray into DIY had resulted in the humiliating experience of witnessing the wall-mounted can opener that I had screwed to the wall lasting for less than a day before it fell off ~ and so I had my doubts. As the saying goes, “Horses for courses.”

In the process of describing Waldau Castle it is next to impossible not to resort to words like strong, solid, robust, but it is only when you get inside that you are able to fully appreciate the exactitude with which these attributions apply. The windows, sitting as they do at the front of broad, deep brick arches, reveal the thickness of the walls to be at least three feet, and the quality of the brickwork, in all its restored glory, leaves you in little doubt that endurance and longevity have always been the castle’s watchwords.

But restoration in terms of visitor attraction is not confined to structural work. Also to be considered is, for want of a better word, the inclusion of suitable ‘props’, the seeking out, acquiring and emplacing of interior décor and household items best able to create a medieval atmosphere. Central to this objective, and situated in the main hall of the castle, are two suits of armour ~ a matching pair (I did not stop to check if it was ‘his’ and ‘hers’),  conjoined with wall-mounted hunting trophies, intricate tapestries and a ceiling pendant made from a heavy wooden wheel entirely surrounded by antler horns. I’ll have the full Hermann Göring baronial hunting-lodge works, please!

The tapestries, which are as colourful and imaginative as they are intricate, are made to order for the Sorokin family from specific patterns that they provide to a specialist company. Now that my wife had seen these, I wondered how long I would have to wait. It was not long: “I really want to buy one of these!” Olga exhaled.

Our tour guide was the oldest son of the Sorokin family, who not only had an incredible knowledge of the history of the castle, but was fluent, articulate and completely unphased when it came to holding court to so many adult strangers. My Russian gets better every day (I boast ye not), but my present knowledge was no match for the speed and confidence with which this young man discharged his verbal duty.

Our guide led us from the main hall into an adjoining room. There are no corridors, at least between rooms, in this part of Waldau Castle, thus access to the three great rooms at ground level is obtained on a door-to-room basis.

The second room, though large, was of smaller dimensions than the first, but as with the former had undergone extensive renovation and as with the former was work in progress.

From here we were taken into the kitchens, where, at the far end of the room, two hefty brick-built ovens encased in rusting white metal testified to the gargantuan task of cooking meals on a banquet scale. The ovens were quiet today and the castle interior cool, but one can imagine how unbearably hot and sweaty this environment would once have been when full of cooks and servants and the ovens in full swing.

In this room there was another oven. Tall, slim, far more elegant than the ones I have described, made of ebonised cast iron, with a succession of white porcelain knobs protruding from rows and layers of doors, this oven was of German manufacture. It had a German precision-build quality about it that was undeniably superior, and I should not imagine for one moment that anyone among our company was in the least surprised to learn that this fine example of industrial German craftsmanship, which is almost 170 years old, is as functional today as it was on the day it was made.

Antique German Stove
Not a grandfather clock!

Two other features in this kitchen that caught my eye were the heavy wooden serving hatch in the wall to the back of me and a nineteenth century iron ceiling column, with an intricately wrought Corinthian capital.

Whilst our young tour guide was fulfilling his duty, a man entered the room who was immediately recognisable to us. It was our friend Ivan. At first, I thought what a coincidence, and in a way I was right. I knew that Ivan was renovating an old German building of his own, but I had not realised that it was just up the road from Waldau Castle. And a second coincidence, it was his birthday, too.

We were greeting each other just as the tour guide was explaining about the intrinsic dangers of old building restoration. Apparently, in the process of their labours the Sorokin family had uncovered Schweinfurt paint, or Emerald Green as it was generically known.

Emerald Green was an extremely popular colour in the early nineteenth century. It was used in paint, wallpapers and a number of other pigmented and dyed products, and it was used extensively. But whilst most of us know about the dangers of friable asbestos, less people are acquainted with the fact that many old green paints and green-coloured wallpapers, those made from a compound in which arsenic was one of the main ingredients, could, did and can kill. Highly toxic when it was produced, the dust from this arsenic derivative continues to pose a serious threat to health and retains its lethal potential.

Right on cue, no sooner had our tour guide apprised our fellow tourers of this warning from the past, than a playful poltergeist or two, decided to shake the ceiling. A small amount of dust descended, enough to make our company beat a hasty retreat.

In the first room, where we had now re-assembled, I had noticed earlier that opposite the main entrance there was a carved, Gothic screen in wood, which, on closer investigation, I discovered was employed to separate the area in which we were standing from a corridor that ran the entire length of the back of the building. This was an unusual arrangement, at least it was not one that I was familiar with in the large historic houses and castles that I had visited in England. In the wall of the corridor, a few feet back from the screen, I also observed a great wooden staircase that could be closed off, if need be, by two incredibly large and heavy doors.

We were not privy to this section of the castle today or to its upper storeys, but I hope we may be allowed to explore at a later date.

There are many things that can inculcate a thirst, and history is one of them. A table in the main hall had been laid out with food, bottles of beer and cognac and, on the word ‘go’, it was every man for himself (I have no idea what the women were doing?). To accompany my cognac, I chose a large, flat, round bread roll, and was glad that I did. I cannot recall tasting bread half as delicious as this. The second surprise was that the baker of this delicacy turned out to be a young boy, the youngest son of the Sorokin family. When Olga praised him for the bread, he threw his arms around her and thanked her for her kind words, saying that it was the nicest thing that anyone had said to him. I endorsed her praise, adding Königsbacker beware!

Our friend Yury and I were in full flow about the quality of the beers when, in true Russian party fashion, it was announced that we all had to congregate outside on the drive to do something? When I discovered what that something was, an attempt by the hosts to dragoon us into a dance routine, I swiftly excused myself. Our friend Ivan followed my lead, but Yury stepped up to the challenge, and I was only too happy to play the part of photographer as he was twizzled around the tarmacadam.

Yury Grozmani demonstrating the art of Prussian folk dancing; and above, the talented boy who bakes the bread

We had not long been back inside, and not too far from the table, when a second announcement was made. It was now time to witness an operatic performance, which would take place on the granite stone courtyard at the front of the Sorokin house.

It would be dishonest of me to claim that I have any love or affection for opera, but, by the same token, it would be no less dishonest if I did not admit that I enjoyed this performance immensely. The Sorokin family’s house made a superb backdrop, the large open window with wrought-iron lattice work emitted the piano accompaniment perfectly and, from where we were sitting, gave us a first-rate view of the pianist at work.

I marvelled at the fact that the performers required no artificial amplification systems to project their voices, which were either remarkably well toned, aided by the acoustics of the building that lay behind them, or both.

Before the performance commenced, our friend, Yury Grozmani, delivered a speech as requested by the host, about the book he had researched and written on the vintage cars of Königsberg. Yury is what you would call a natural speech maker and, as he admitted himself, once fired up it was difficult for him to come back down.

Yury delivers a speech about the book that he worked on for 29 years

When both performances reached their respective conclusions, the tables were rearranged and laid out for supper. I refrained from indulging in the big iced cakes but was quite pleased that we had enough time and enough cognac left for one or two for the road before being chauffeured home in style by Arthur in his Volga.

Essential details (not of the party, but of Waldau Castle):

Waldau Castle
Kaliningradskaya Ulitsa, 20
Nizov’e,
Kaliningrad Oblast, 238313, Russia

Tel: 007 (963) 299-85-43

Opening hours
7 days a week ~ 10am~5pm

How to get there
By car, taxi, bus. The approximate journey time is 30 minutes

Copyright © 2018-2022 Mick Hart. All rights reserved.