The Amber Room is a stunning room made of amber, a prehistoric substance, and an almost infinite number of jewels. Many historians find it fascinating because it represents one of the century’s great mysteries. The room was commissioned King Frederick of Prussia in the 18th century, but it took much longer than expected to complete due to the many craftsmen involved. King Frederick died eight years after the commission, and his successor, King Frederick William I, was unconcerned about the amber panels’ beauty and craftsmanship. Frederick William I gave the entire room to Peter the Great of Russia as a diplomatic gesture.
The Russians spent a long time trying to decide where the room should be located in Russia, and eventually decided on the Catherine Palace. The only issue with this choice was that the amber panels made in Prussia were too small for the room, so artisans, particularly those skilled in mosaics, were invited to contribute to the project creating additional stone-studded panels. The Amber Room was said to be like stepping into glowing gold when it was finally completed and installed in the Catherine Palace.
Unfortunately, the Amber Room, which adorned the Catherine Palace until World War II, was not to last forever. Attempts to remove the panels from the Catherine Palace during Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII were unsuccessful. In 1942, Germany took the entire Amber Room and displayed it for a year at Konigsberg Castle.
This is when conspiracy theorists and historians alike become enthralled the room’s mystery. The area around Konigsberg Castle was bombed Allied forces, and there are several different stories about what was done to “save” the room. According to some accounts, soldiers were given orders to completely destroy the room, while others claim that the room was hidden various Nazi soldiers. Both stories may be partially true. Over the years, a few mosaic pieces have resurfaced, but the majority of the Amber Room has been destroyed, hidden, or buried.
Russia recently completed a massive project, the reconstruction of the Amber Room, which is now housed in the Catherine Palace and open to the public for visits. People must be wondering where the original Amber Room went as they gaze at the honeyed colors of the reconstruction, which is all accounts identical to the original. We may never fully understand this mystery, but it has certainly piqued the interest of many authors, with numerous theories circulating about the original’s hidden existence.