Festungsmuseum Küstrin (museum)

The Museum of the Küstrin Fortress is a unique museum ensemble in Europe. It includes the ruins of the old town of Küstrin, which was completely destroyed in 1945 and not rebuilt, and some parts of the fortress from the 16th century that have been preserved.

The Küstriner old town
The history of the old town of Küstrin is extremely exciting. The castle, the town hall, the parish church and the market square once shaped the cityscape. Today only ruins are left of it. Together with the wild flora and fauna of the old town, they create a unique atmosphere. After the war, city life froze for nearly 50 years. Until recently, the place aroused the longing for what was once there, for the city that has ceased to exist. Today, the ruins of the old tenement houses and entire streets, covered with cobblestones and sidewalks, as well as part of the fortress that has been restored, rise from the former mountains of rubble. A walk through the ruins of the old town of Kostrzyn is a sentimental journey to the times when Küstrin was one of the most beautiful cities in Brandenburg.

Bastion Philip
The Philipp bastion is one of the three remaining and already accessible bastions of the Küstrin fortress. Since May 2014, a permanent exhibition has been presented in the casemates of Bastion Philipp, presenting some of the most important aspects of the history of the city, the garrison and the Küstrin fortress. It also explains the various problems and challenges the city has faced over the centuries during wars and sieges. The fights are particularly extensive illuminated around Küstrin in February and March 1945. The many stages of the expansion and modernization of the fortress are also shown clearly and vividly. A lot of space was also devoted to the catastrophe of the Seven Years' War and also to destruction the city on the day before the battle of Zorndorf on August 25, 1758. The history of the Küstriner Castle, the "Nest of the Hohenzollern", is presented separately. The exhibition is interactive, with many original exhibits and finds available to visitors available, as well as various multimedia (films and audio samples), models, different replicas of weapons, etc.