page_title: Kaliningrad
section_title: Twangste
hierarchical_section_title: Kaliningrad / History / Twangste
caption_attribution_description: Map of Prussian clans during the 13th century. Areas shaded in grey reached further south than shown on this map. Prussian clans of Galindians, Sudovians, Sasna and Lubavia as well as Kulmerland had become subjected to numerous incursions and conquests by recently arriving Slavs.
context_page_description: Kaliningrad, is the largest city and the administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, the westernmost Oblast of Russia. The city is situated on the Pregolya River, at the head of the Vistula Lagoon on the Baltic Sea, with a population of 489,359 residents, up to 800,000 residents in the urban agglomeration. Kaliningrad is the second-largest city in the Northwestern Federal District, after Saint Petersburg, the third-largest city in the Baltic region, and the seventh-largest city on the Baltic Sea.
  The settlement of modern-day Kaliningrad was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named Königsberg in honor of Czech King Ottokar II of Bohemia. A Baltic port city, it successively became the capital of the State of the Teutonic Order, the Duchy of Prussia and East Prussia. Königsberg remained the coronation city of the Prussian monarchy, though the capital was moved to Berlin in 1701. From 1454 to 1455 the city under the name of Królewiec belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, and from 1466 to 1657 it was a Polish fief. Königsberg was the easternmost large city in Germany until World War II.
context_section_description: Königsberg was preceded by a Sambian (Old Prussian tribe) fort called Twangste (spelled also as Tuwangste or Tvankste), meaning Oak Forest. During the conquest of the Sambians by the Teutonic Knights in 1255, Twangste was destroyed and replaced with a new fortress named Königsberg in the honor of Bohemian king Ottokar II. The declining Old Prussian culture finally became extinct around the 17th century, after the surviving Old Prussians were integrated through assimilation.
caption: Old Prussian clans in the 13th century (Sambia - orange)
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