Amber Room
18th century
Catherine Palace of Tsarskoe Selo near Saint Petersburg
LOCATION UNKNOWN SINCE 1945

The Amber Room at Charlottenburg Palace was created in 1701 - 1709 at the persuasion of Sophie Charlotte, the second wife
of Friedrich I, the first King of Prussia. It was designed by Andreas Schlüter and crafted by Gottfried Wolfram, master craftsman to the Danish court of King Frederick IV of Denmark. Both the masters had hired the expertise of the amber masters Ernst Schacht and Gottfried Turau from Danzig.

The Amber Room originally (for it was modified and renovated time and again) had amber panel’s decorations with gold leaf and mirrors at the base. It’s known that when lit with candles, the amber walls gave a brilliant & divine golden aura that bathed every object present in the room. A masterpiece of Baroque art, Amber room was a hall that measured 11-foot-square when created, with its walls & ceiling studded with amber and many other semiprecious stones. In today’s time, had it existed, it would be worth $142 million dollars approximately. However, it was not only the preciousness of this work of art that made it famous but also its most exquisite artistic prominence that helped it attain the remark of the "Eighth Wonder of the World". As a gesture of political alliance, the Prussian king presented the Amber room to his the then ally, Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire in 1716. In 1755, Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia was so fascinated with the Amber room
that she relocated it first in the Winter Palace and later in the
Catherine Palace.

Frederick II the Great from Berlin, presented her with abundant Baltic amber, and she renovated the room with new designs by her court architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Thus, the Amber Room stood as a mutual effort of German and Russian designers and craftsmen. It underwent many renovations in the 18th-century depending on the fancies of its owner, and before it disappearance, it occupied over more than 55 square meters of area containing over six tones of amber.

The Amber Room was “lost” during World War II by Nazi Germany and its whereabouts stay ambiguous & mysterious to date. The loss has given birth to various researches, film plots and gossip round the world, as the room continues to remain elusive. Though efforts were made by the Russians to disassemble and hide the Amber room at the onset of WW II, the 250 year old and brittle amber started crumbling and hence the room was only camouflaged with wall paper. However, the Nazi dug up the secret of the marvelous Amber room and shortly after its discovery, the room was dismantled and moved to Königsberg Castle packed in 27 crates, on Hitler’s order.

To this day, various rumors exist about the disappearance of this stunning and breath-taking work of art. Sometimes it is said that the room was accidentally destroyed when the Russian army raided and burned Königsberg Castle in 1945; few say that it sank to the bottom of the Baltic sea while in transit through the sea route; few opine that Nazis buried it in a silver mine 100 km south of Berlin where it still lays concealed; some differ that it was hidden by the Nazis on the shores of Baltic Sea and yet again some hold a view that it was dumped beneath the dark waters of a lagoon near the Lithuanian town of Neringa. Against all speculations of its fate, search for the Amber room still continues and is one of the biggest treasure hunts of all time, with explorers and adventurers still searching for the missing fortune.