Museum of the History of Eastern Prussian Brick

Dmitry Shilov got the idea to create a museum. He had an interest in collecting bricks – samples of the production from the brick factories of Kreis Heiligenbeil, the former district center of Heiligenbeil, now Mamonovo. In the process, it became clear that this issue should be considered much more broadly – throughout the Kaliningrad region (part of former East Prussia). At the same time, he began to search for information about brick production before 1945 on the specified territory and search for the locations of former brick factories.

The museum is engaged in searching for, collecting, and studying samples of brick production within the territory of the Kaliningrad Region, starting from the Order period (the end of the 13th century). The bricks of ancient castles and churches from the Order period, former manor house estates and famous fortifications of Konigsberg, elements of brick architecture, puzzle-bricks, and many other things can be seen at the museum.

The collection of samples of brick production consists of bricks from the Order period (the oldest in the Kaliningrad region), hand-formed bricks, bricks with various prints (the craftsman’s hands, animal paws, and so on), bricks with signs and numbers made by the craftsman’s hand, bricks from various historical objects with the hallmarks of the manufacturer, fire-resistant (fireclay) and clinker bricks found in the Kaliningrad Region, and much more. Nowadays, the museum in Mamonovo is the only one in Russia and perhaps Europe that studies the topic of brick production in former East Prussia.