Amber & Jewellery

The Amber Room

The Amber Room was definitely the most famous work of amber craftsmen of Gdansk. It was ordered by King Frederic William I who placed it in his Mon Bijou palace. The Amber Room consisted of numerous elements – picture frames, medallions, coats of arms, Biblical scenes depictions and sculptures of Minerva and Pomona, Roman goddesses. Amber decorations were breathtaking works of art. The size of the room was 55 square metres.

In 1717 Peter the Great visited Berlin. When the greedy Emperor saw the room, he demanded to have it for himself. However very reluctantly, Germans did give the Amber Room to the Russian ruler. The room was dismantled, packed into 18 boxes and sent to Russia. For 38 years it was exhibited in different locations but no appropriate place was found for it. It turned out that Peter the Great completely forgot about it. Only in 1743, thanks to Empress Elisabeth and an Italian architect, Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli, the room was taken first to Winter Palace and then to Tsarskoe Syelo.

The room in Tsarskoe Syelo where the Amber Room was located was bigger than the original. A group of craftsmen were employed to complete the works with extra decorative elements. There were mosaics made of rare kinds of wood, mirrors decorated with valuables, and amber details made by craftsmen from Krolewiec. The works were finished in the 70s of the 18th century.

During World War II, in 1942, Germans reclaimed the lost treasure. The Amber Room was packed back into boxes and taken to the Krolewiec Castle. The amber treasure had to be kept in the boxes to prevent it from the possible destruction caused by 1944 bombarding. In April 1945 the track of the Amber Room has been lost ever since. It most probably burnt down during the fire of the castle in Krolewiec in 1945. However, there are people who did not believe in this version of the story and keep searching for it in Europe.

The attempts to reconstruct the Amber Room in Tsarskoe Syelo began in the late 70s of the 20th century.