South Railway Station

South Railway Station

(Южный Вокзал)

(Before 1946: Hauptbahnhof)

Address: Ploshad Kalinina/Площадь Калинина

Address before 1946: Reichsplatz

The South Railway Station is the main station of Kaliningrad, a status it have had since the early railway days of the city of Königsberg.

The present building was opened 1929 after 17 years construction. It was one of the most modern railway stations in Germany at that time with the services in the terminal building and passage underground to the three large covered platform halls.

The station is to a great extent similar today. However, in 1945-1946 the tracks were widened to fit the Russian standard track width which is a bit wider than the German and Western European standard.

In front of the terminal building, at the square Ploshad Kalinina, there is a 13 meter high monument to Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (Памятник М.И.Калинину). Kalinin was the formal head of state in the Soviet Union 1919-1946 and at the time of his death, there were thoughts of a Russian name for the city instead of German Königsberg. Kalinin’s high political status was suitable for naming the new Russian city after him and it that way Kaliningrad got its present name as a Russian city.

Close to the terminal there are some old trains on display. They are a part of a museum collection of historic railway development and trains of the area.