Coppenbrügge Castle with the legendary Peter’s linden tree and the memorial plaque to commemorate the visit of Peter I
Coppenbrügge was first mentioned in documents in the late 10th century. The castle is located on an island formed by a moat with water. In the 16th century, it was rebuilt in the so called Weser Renaissance style. It is an architectural style that was common in the areas around the Weser River from the early 16th century until the mid-17th century, combining features of both Italian and Northern Renaissance styles. Nowadays, the courtyard of the castle is surrounded by an earth rampart which is supported from the inside by a stone retaining wall with counterforts. At some point, the bridge across the moat was a draw bridge. Two hefty round towers soar on both sides of the gate leading to the castle with a surviving section of the battlement between them. The rampart and the adjoining areas are used as a public park.
The castle saw Peter I two times.
First, when he traveled with the Grand Embassy, a large-scale diplomatic mission of Peter I to Europe (in 1697–1698), the Tsar stayed in Coppenbrügge from July 27 / August 6 to July 28 / August 6, 1697 on his way to Amsterdam and then from May 26 / June 5 to May 27 / June 6, 1698 on his way from Amsterdam to Vienna. In those years, the town belonged to the House of Nassau-Dietz.
In the Coppenbrügge castle on the night between August 6 and August 7 (Gregorian calendar), 1697, the Russian Tsar met Electresses Sophia of Hanover (Sophie von Hannover) and her daughter Sophia Charlotte of Brandenburg (Sophie Charlotte von Brandenburg). The meeting was also attended by George William, Duke of Celle (Georg Wilhelm Herzog von Celle) and three brothers of Sophia Charlotte: George Louis, Crown Prince of Hanover (Georg Ludwig von Hannover), the future English King George I; Maximilian William (Max), Duke of Brunswick (Maximilian Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg), the future Field Marshall of the Imperial Army; and Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick (Ernst August II. von Braunschweig-Lüneburg), the future Duke of York and Albany and Prince Bishop of Osnabrück, with their retinue. Sophia Charlotte sent a dinner invitation to Peter I in advance.
The meeting was documented both in Peter’s Travel Journal and in the Grand Embassy’s diplomatic report (known as the “Stateyny Spisok” in Russian), a diary of the mission that was kept by the travelling secretariat. The entries describe the seating of guests at the table and the dinner itself, during which the Tsar “spoke a little Dutch or German”, after which “music and dancing” followed and continued into the morning. A story of the meeting is also found in a letter from Electress Sophia Charlotte to the Minister of Brandenburg Baron Paul von Fuchs (Paul Freiherr von Fuchs).
When the Tsar visited Coppenbrügge, the castle had several buildings that no longer exist today. It is now impossible to precisely identify the one where the meeting took place. However, it was the surviving half-timbered building that functioned as “a palace”.
Until 1962, the building housed a pretrial detention facility. The reconstruction began in 1986. Nowadays, the castle is a museum featuring a large display dedicated to Tsar Peter and his visit to Coppenbrügge. The exhibition was created in 1997 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Grand Embassy. The exhibition is based on copies of the archive documents about the Grand Embassy. Peter’s visit to the site in 1697 is well covered, while his stay in the castle in 1698 is completely overlooked.
The so called “Peter’s linden” is found near the castle, to the right of the gate on the rampart which is currently a public park. The tree is 11 meters high and its trunk is 6.64 cm in diameter (July 2017). At the foundation, the hollow trunk is reinforced with brickwork. The remains of the fortifications are seen above the ground. According to different estimates, the tree is 400 to 700 years old. Apparently, this tree is shown on an engraving dating from 1654, where it is already quite big. A small hill under the tree is reinforced with the semicircular stepped masonry of crude, rough stones. In the center, there is a memorial gray granite stone with a chipped inscription reading, “Peterlinde / 1697” (Peter’s linden tree). The memorial sign embodies a local legend that suggests the tree was planted by Peter I during his stay in the Coppenbrügge castle. But at that point the tree had existed for a long time already and the Tsar saw it. The linden tree is protected by the government.
In 1997, Coppenbrügge held large-scale celebrations on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Grand Embassy and the visit by Peter I. A Russian delegation from Kaliningrad was also present. Until 1945, Kaliningrad was known as Königsberg and in the Petrine era it was the capital of the Duchy and then the Kingdom of Prussia.
The Kaliningrad delegation’s gift to the German town was a 60 x 40 cm black marble memorial plaque. It was installed to the right of the gate on the northwestern inner wall of the castle, and the unveiling ceremony took place on September 6, 1997. The memorial sign was made on the initiative of the Representative Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kaliningrad by sculptor Lyudmila Bogatova.
The plaque bears an engraved portrait of Peter I and an inscription underneath, which reads, “Peter the Great” and two texts in Russian (on the left) and in German in Gothic letters (on the right) as follows: “On August 6, 1697 and June 5/6, 1698, Russian Tsar Peter I and the Grand Embassy of Moscow visited Coppenbrügge. This memorial stone was installed to honor the 300th anniversary of this outstanding event on the initiative of a delegation from Kaliningrad (former Königsberg)” (“Am 6. August 1697 und am / 5./6. Juni 1698 besuchte der / russische Zar Peter I. und / die Große Moskauer / Gesandschaft den Flecken / Coppenbrügge. / Zur Erinnerung an den / 300 Jahrestag dieses / bemerkenswerten Ereignisses / wurde auf Initiative der / Delegation aus Kaliningrad / dem ehem. Königsberg, dieser / Gedenkstein aufgestellt.”)
