Kaliningrad new flats - Expat in Kaliningrad, Russia

No Laughing Matter!

Continuing with our theme of Kaliningrad City of Contrasts, I was out walking the other day and I came across this rather splendiferous example.

On one side of the road you have this spanking new block of flats; on the other, this rather sad and sorry ruined Königsberg cottage.

Kaliningrad City of Contrasts

Could the latter be restored, I hear you say? Or, is that just the sound of my own Romanticist fantasy ringing inside my head?

If I had a flat which faced the street in the new apartment block pictured here, every day I looked out of my window and beheld this ruined abode, I would be confronted with the question, is this building restorable?

I would need you there to laugh at me.

But something has to be built on this site at some time. So, let us rephrase the question: would it be possible to salvage something from this former home and integrate it into a new build as a historic feature?

You are laughing at me again!

But look at those marvelous chimney stacks, and is that an enamel sign peeping through the trees on the right-hand side? And who knows what may still be lurking on the inside under the debris? Perhaps one of those remarkable tiled Königsberg stoves; 1920s’ door handles; additions and renovations from the Soviet era. If nothing else, the red bricks have to be a reusable, recyclable commodity?

What’s that you say?

It would be easier to keep the curtains shut or buy a flat on the other side of the building.

Philistine!