A page from Otto Stiehl's photo album, 1908 to 1912: two sepia photographs of tall plastered houses with shop signs on the market square of Küstrin, captioned Küstrin by hand.

Am Markt 115, around 1910. A glove factory and a dentist. The signs match the 1913 address book.

Stary Kostrzyn · Altstadt Küstrin

The town is gone. Its streets are still there.

Küstrin stood on a sand island where the Warta meets the Oder.S25 The fighting of 1945 destroyed 95% of it,S25 and the old town was never rebuilt.S38 This is a 3D reconstruction of the fortress town as it stood in 1913, built from terrain data, old plans, photographs and the town's address book, with every guess marked as a guess.

Enter the reconstruction Read the history

The place

A fortress between two rivers.

Margrave Johann of Brandenburg-Küstrin made the town his seat and the capital of the Neumark from 1535 to 1571.S37 He built the Schloss in 1535–37 and began the fortifications in 1537, to an Italian pattern.S25 S35 By 1688 six bastions stood: König, Königin, Kronprinz, Kronprinzessin, Philipp and Brandenburg.S25 S35

The Oder ran along the south-west wall. A dam at Bastion Philipp held water in the moat, and the marsh of the Warta mouth lay beyond.S25

On 6 November 1730 Crown Prince Frederick, a prisoner in the Schloss, was made to watch the execution of his friend Hans Hermann von Katte.S35

Hand-coloured plan of the fortress of Cüstrin, about 1860: a star-shaped enceinte with named bastions, moats drawn in blue and the Oder below. — Plan der Festung Cüstrin, about 1860, drawn to record the guns. Our wall outline starts from this sheet. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.S07

Before 1913

Burned, rebuilt, garrisoned.

1652

A town of timber

Merian's view from across the Oder. Behind the walls most buildings were still wood.S25 S53

1758

Three buildings left

In August 1758 Russian guns destroyed the whole Altstadt except three buildings. The fortress held. Frederick had it rebuilt in masonry at royal cost, and that look lasted until 1945.S25 S35 S54

1893

Rail town, still a fortress

The fortress gave up to Napoleon without a fight in 1806. In the siege of 1813–14 the population fell from 5,516 to 760. From 1875 the town grew as a rail junction, and this sheet already calls the old gates "former".S25 S19

The working year

Why 1913.

Two documents from the same year let us work house by house: a town plan with house numbers, and the address book.S01 S23

The fortress was at its last full stage. All six bastions stood. The Oder wall between König and Brandenburg had just gone for an exercise ground.S42 S25 The Berliner and Zorndorfer gates were in their 1877/78 form, and the Kietzer Pforte had been widened for wagons.S35 S25

A row we can name

Otto Stiehl photographed this row between 1908 and 1912. His album says only "Küstrin". The shop signs say more: glove factory, dentist's studio, colonial goods, bakery. All of them appear in the 1913 book at Am Markt 115 to 119, on the market square.S52 S23

For most of the town we have a lot and a number. Here we have the façade, the shop signs and a child in the road.

Three-storey plastered house with shop signs reading Handschuhfabrik and Zahn-Atelier; a girl and a boy stand in the street. — Am Markt 115 and neighbours, 1908–12. Otto Stiehl, Architekturmuseum TU Berlin.S52

Row of baroque houses with an ornate curved gable; a carriage stands by a shop sign for colonial goods, and a bakery with an awning is at the far end. — Am Markt 117/118 and 119, 1908–12. Otto Stiehl, Architekturmuseum TU Berlin.S52

bastions standing in 1913

246

Altstadt house rows from the address book

170

of them placed on the map so far

1 m

terrain grid from airborne LiDARS13

What stood there

Six views that outlived the town.

Courtyard of the Schloss: arcades, a round stair tower with a carved portal, a gas lamp in the foreground.

1897–98

Schlosshof

Four wings round a courtyard. Burned out in 1758, a barracks from 1814.S25 S51

Carved Renaissance portal in the Schloss courtyard, with a sign reading 3. Kompagnie above it and six men posing below, some in uniform.

1897–98

Portal of the 3. Kompagnie

A Renaissance portal with a company sign above it and the garrison in the doorway. The residence had become a barracks.S51

White arsenal building with a large portal under two carved coats of arms and a wooden gate with statues on its piers.

1897–98

Zeughaus

The arsenal gate, with the arms of Margrave Johann and Katharina of Brunswick. A drawing of 1853 shows the same portal.S20 S21

Quiet cobbled street of plastered houses; two small children sit on a doorstep beside a child's tricycle.

1908–12

A street we can't place yet

Two children on a step and a tricycle. Stiehl wrote "Küstrin" and nothing else. No sign, no number.S52

1908–12

Bäckerei

A carved doorway and one word on the wall. A woman in the door, children at the corner. Not yet matched to an address.S52

1853

The same portal, measured

Karl Friedrich Pruss von Zglinicki's pen drawing. A photograph gives the look, a drawing gives the proportions.S21

1945

A fortress once more, for the last time.

21,499

people, 1939

634

people, February 1946

Before the end came the regime's own crimes here. The synagogue burned on 9 November 1938. Stalag III-C at Alt Drewitz held about 70,000 prisoners of war, of whom more than 12,000 did not survive. A Sachsenhausen sub-camp ran from 1943.S25

Hitler declared Küstrin a fortress in January 1945.S25 S35 Civilians were evacuated on 20–21 February. The Red Army took the town in March: sources give 11 or 12 March, with fighting until the end of the month.S25 S35 S37 About 95% of it was destroyed.S25

On 23 June 1945 the remaining Germans, about 1,500 people, were expelled. The first new settlers were mostly Polish railwaymen. Building material salvaged from the ruins went largely to rebuild Warsaw. The new Kostrzyn grew on the former Neustadt, and the Altstadt stayed empty.S25 S38

Black-and-white aerial photograph of the Altstadt of Küstrin on 18 March 1945: roofless blocks around the open market square, trenches along the Oder bank, the bastions at both ends of the town, patches of cloud. — The Altstadt from the air, 18 March 1945. The Oder is below, the market square is the pale rectangle in the middle. Roofless blocks at lower right, trenches along the bank. US reconnaissance photograph, National Archives.S56

Today

A field with a street plan.

The Altstadt is overgrown, with low ruins. Mown paths follow the old streets and squares.S38 The cellars of the Schloss remain, and the outlines and foundations of the Marienkirche and the Rathaus.S25

Restored since 1994: Bastion Philipp with the fortress museum, Bastion Brandenburg, the Berliner Tor, the Kietzer Tor.S25
Not restored: Bastion König.S25
Gone: Bastions Königin, Kronprinzessin and Kronprinz, the Zorndorfer Tor, the Albrechttor.S25 S35

A street sign in an empty field: ul. Jana Kostrzyńskiego, with Kurze Dammstr. below it in old German lettering. A worn path crosses the grass. — Kurze Dammstraße, April 2015. The sign stands, the street is a path in the grass. Photo MOs810, CC BY-SA 4.0.S57

3D render of the terrain with the fortress works of 1913 rebuilt as simple brick-coloured solids. — One terrain model, two states. Drag across. On the left, the rubble of the town blocks in today's LiDAR. On the right, the works of 1913 as plain solids, dark where the terrain gives the height and pale where we assumed it.S13 S07

3D render of today's terrain from LiDAR: the rubble of the town blocks shows as raised patches between the old streets. — One terrain model, two states. Drag across. On the left, the rubble of the town blocks in today's LiDAR. On the right, the works of 1913 as plain solids, dark where the terrain gives the height and pale where we assumed it.S13 S07

Low brick ruins and a flight of steps overgrown with green creepers, behind a cobbled street in the Altstadt, September 2017. — House remains on a cobbled street, 20 September 2017. Photo Gerd Danigel, CC BY-SA 4.0.S55

The restored Berliner Tor: a brick gatehouse with two arches and small towers, a wet cobbled road leading up to it, January 2025. — The restored Berliner Tor from the town side, January 2025. Photo Fry72, CC BY-SA 4.0.S58

Inside the reconstruction

Go in. It's unfinished, and says so.

3D view

The fortress on the real terrain, at real scale. Switch between today's ground and 1913. The ordinary houses are not shown yet.

Open in 3D

ASeen on a map or photograph from 1900–1914.

BFrom another period, or a written account.

CInferred. Every guess is a C.

How far to trust it

Each feature has a source and a confidence grade. Ordinary houses have a lot but no known outline, so any house volumes would be typology, not evidence.

See the sources

Your family's Küstrin

Do you have a photograph, a plan, an address?

The ordinary houses are the gap. A photo with a shop sign or a house number can move a building from C to A.

hello@yaga.sh

Sources, image credits and licences