Seasalt, amber and stone

Some memories never leave. Like Lochstädt castle, built by the teutonic knights and destroyed by the Soviet soldiers. It's but a memory now, with a fragment of a wall buried under the rubble.

My heart still weeps

At the mention

Of you.

The place that is no more.

Built by the sea,

Where the seagulls cry,

The castle

Of sea salt, amber and stone.

Built carefully

Preserved lovingly

Rising proudly

Above the waters.

Is there anyone there

Who still remember

You

In more than a name?

Shall you rise

Again

From the rubble and dust,

If I whisper your name?

Shall your gardens

Thrive

Again,

As before?

Shall your walls

Shine

In the moonlight

Again?

Lochstädt,

Lochstädt,

Can you hear me?

Are you still there?

Let me walk

Your pathways,

Let me see

Your white halls.

Let me find the one

Who is still there,

Waiting by the window

That is no more.

Let me find him,

Let me talk to him,

Pale and proud

Humble and mournful

The keeper

Of Lochstädt,

With eyes

Of Prussian blue.

Let me find him

In the quiet

Of your chapel,

Praying for hope.

Let me hear him,

Quiet, soft-spoken,

Wise

And betrayed.

Let his voice

Ring through the halls

Filling them

With memories.

Lochstädt

Lochstädt,

Will you ever

Let us go?..

Notes.

That's the reconstructed imaging of Lochstädt, rising proudly over the Baltic. Once the home of the ambermaster, and the last refuge of the grand master of the order, it had a splendid library, and magnificent frescoes- all that destroyed and exploded twice by the Soviet soldiers- merely because they were told the Nazis had their treasures buried there.

Ground plan of the castle.

The interiors, living now only in pictures.

Heinrich von Plauen, the 28th grand master of the order, who was deposed after a plot lead by his adversary, Michael Kuchmeister von Sternberg, who later became the grand master.

Heinrich spent about 10 years imprisoned on trumped up charges in Danzig and Brandenburg, until the next grand master, a great admirer of his, asked him to remain as the keeper in Lochstädt, where he died some time after, humble and never losing faith.