Yantarny: The Best Beach In The Kaliningrad Region

The award–winning beach is a Blue flag

This is the best beach in the Kaliningrad region, which was the first in Russia to receive the Blue Flag award – Shakhta Anna beach. Later I will tell you about its name in more detail, it is located in Yantarnoye.

The urban–type settlement of Yantarny, until 1945, was called Palmniken. A great place to relax, it is located a little further from Svetlogorsk, recreation here is exclusively beach, entertainment too, for example surfing, diving, riding cheesecakes and of course walking along cozy streets.

“Russia’s first underwater diving park”

An interesting tourist site is located in a flooded quarry, where amber was previously mined. Sinyavinsky Lake is quite transparent, in good weather, even underwater trees strewn with shells can be seen from the shore. The exhibits are located at a depth of 11 to 21 meters. Underwater excursions are accompanied by experienced instructors, and the route is provided with explanatory signs.

“Restaurants”

There are few restaurants and cafes in the city, but there are many on the shore, thanks to the wide beach, very atmospheric establishments are located here right on the sand, there are no such places in the region anymore. Where can I have a meal here? you can visit the delicious cafe “DACHA” next to the Schloss hotel, and the most worthy restaurant is located at the Schloss hotel. There is also a museum restaurant that deserves attention – the Amber Legend. It is a pleasure for the stomach and for the eyes. The place is decorated with amber, real and quite large, it took more than a ton of amber to create such an amber room. The kitchen is decent. You can have a budget lunch in the dining room of the amber plant.

“For the sake of the photo and the view”

A gorgeous idea was embodied, right on the coast of Amber, by the Nordic spa spa complex. Guests note that it is especially atmospheric here in the evening, at sunset or even later, a vacation a step away from the sea is something wonderful. You can also stay here for the night, in general, all 33 pleasures for your money. The place is quite famous, guests arrive in the region for the weekend to bask in the steam room with panoramic sea views and take an already “legendary” photo in a vat. It is located near the Shakhta Anna beach, a path with lighting leads to the complex.

“Floating Promenade”

Another feature here is the promenade, which stretches in the middle of the lake and connects the central beach and the “Anna mine” beach. It’s a great place to walk, fish are splashing, ducks and swans are swimming. Rest areas are equipped on the way. The route will definitely not leave anyone indifferent.

“Unique and unrepeatable”

This place is famous for amber mining, Baltic amber is a favorite of magicians, jewelers, alchemists, doctors, treasure hunters and more. The stone has been mined since the Neolithic period (4000 BC). There are about 200 amber birthplaces in the world, but in the Baltic Sea it is special, all thanks to the blue clay. This is a unique anomaly, its footprint stretches about 600 km, it begins in the Baltic Sea and ends in the Rivne region. It is to Kaliningrad that people from all over the world go to get amber.

“Facts about the sunstone”

It is called in different ways, here are a few examples – “tears of angels”, “tears of the Gods”, “stone of life”.
Everything that lay in the sand, and not in clay, is an “Amber-like formation”.
The density of amber coincides with the density of human bone, so implants were made from it before, the body does not reject it, since it is a natural organogenic material. By the way, a project of dental implants made of amber is currently being developed.
Amber water is structured with amber and is extremely useful.
The water supply of Konigsberg was soaked in amber.
When exposed to sunlight, amber creates the purity inherent in the female body (770 nanometers), this is the very energy of life that any person feels.
Lithuanian tribes created aromatic materials with which they entered certain states and moved through time and space.
The most expensive and beautiful amber is white.
A violin soaked in amber can lie in the ground for thousands of years.
The secret of the Stradivarius violin is precisely that it was soaked in amber, thanks to which it was perfectly preserved.
Amber has medicinal properties and it’s not about plantain, but about a magic stone and its many properties, it’s not for nothing that alchemists revered it, calling it the fifth element. For someone, it will help get rid of the disease, and for someone it will become a source of energy, it is certainly worth buying this miracle of nature for yourself, but when choosing, try to find a natural stone, not a crumb press.

“Amber mining”

Previously, amber mining was carried out in mines, in the 19th century Moritz Becker and Wilhelm Stein opened two mines Henrietta and Anna, but at the beginning of the 20th century, amber mining began to decline, the mines were mothballed, and amber began to be mined in open pits.

Today, the Amber Plant alone raises more than 500 tons of amber per year, and there are other miners.

“The history of the Schloss Hotel”

It dates back to the 17th century, when a hunting lodge was built for Elector Georg Wilhelm. At the end of the century, the coastal amber board was located in this house. In the 19th century, the castle was bought first by Mr. Stein, who began restoration work, and then it became the property of Moritz Becker. He demolished the old building and built a luxurious mansion on its foundation. A magnificent park is located on 12 hectares, a descent to the sea has been equipped.

The state bought both the house and the mines from Becker (who was Jewish). And since 1899, a Schloss Hotel has been opened in the Becker house. For a long time after the war, no one was engaged in the building, only in 2010 it was restored again, now the luxury Schloss hotel is located there.

“Monument to the victims of the Holocaust”

We can say that our area is built on bones. But it was in Yantarny that a great tragedy occurred, this story cannot be read without tears.

At the end of January 1945, about 13,000 exhausted (according to other sources, about 6-7,000) prisoners from the ghettos and concentration camps of East Prussia, mostly women and girls of Jewish nationality, were driven to Palmniken. It was a “Death March” during which many prisoners collapsed or tried to escape – and were killed on the spot.

Those who reached the seashore were placed in the factory locksmith workshop of the amber manufactory. Then they were shot two by two behind the sheds, and on the night of January 31 to February 1, 1945, the remaining prisoners were taken to the shore of the Baltic Sea, near the Anna mine, and shot, while driving people who were in fear and despair into icy sea waters.

Only a few people managed to survive in this terrible bloodshed – approximately from 13 to 30 people.

In the early 1960s, the remains of a large number of people were found in a vacant lot near Yantarnoye. Then they decided that these were Soviet soldiers who had fallen in battle. A memorial sign with the inscription “Eternal Glory to the heroes” was installed at the burial site.

In 1994, Martin Bergau’s book “The Boy from the Amber Coast” was published. The author, a former resident of the village and a witness to those events, described in detail the events of January 1945. The work created a sensation in Germany.

After that, a monument was erected at the expense of a Kaliningrad businessman, “They are pulling their hands up out of the water in search of salvation, help, which did not come at that moment.”

Advice to the guests of the region – it will be quite comfortable to stay in Svetlogorsk, life there is more intense, rent a car and get to the beach in Yantaranyi in 20 minutes. You can only get from Kaliningrad by bus, the road will be quite long, the autobahn has not yet been completed to these places, but it is definitely worth it!

Have a colorful trip, friends!