Chernyakhovsk, spelled Черняховск in Russian, is a city in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Its history dates to 1337, when knights from the Teutonic Order founded Insterburg on the site of former Prussian fortifications. Insterburg was destroyed several times, which happened with Polish attacks in 1457.

In 1525, Insterburg became part of Prussia, which was then a duchy. Prussia became a kingdom in 1701, and in 1732 King Wilhelm I invited Protestant refugees from Salzburg to settle in Insterburg, which had lost part of its population due to the plague. Later, the city became part of the Russian Empire and of the German exclave of East Prussia, before the area became Russian after World War II.

It was on that occasion that the town got its current name. It was named after the Russian general Ivan Chernyakhovsky, who was in command of the troops who were the first from the Soviet Union to come to German East Prussia. Since then, the city has been part of first the Russian Soviet Republic and then the Russian Federation.

There are several things to see in Chernyakhovsk, where several buildings still stand from the city’s German era. You can see several churches such as St. Michael’s Church/Свято-Михайловская церковь from 1883 and St. Bruno’s Church/Храм Святого Бруно from 1902. In the city center are also the ruins of Insterburg’s old castle, and a few kilometers from the city you can see Georgenburg Castle/ Замок Георгенбург, which was founded in 1264 and thus before Chernyakhovsk.

Of course, there is also something to see in the modern Russian cityscape, where Lenin Square/Площадь Ленина is a good place to start a stroll. In the square you can see the city’s monument to the Soviet leader Lenin, and from here you can see the equestrian statue of Barclay de Tolly, Памятник Барклаю де Толли, who was a Russian field marshal from the Napoleonic Wars. Nearby, you can visit the city’s historical museum, Музей истории Черняховска.