The Amber Mining Museum is located in the village of Yantarny on the shore of Lake Sinyavinsky. The world`s largest amber deposit is located here, where this stone has been mined since ancient times. There are no samples of large amber stones here, as in other museums, but you can see an interesting exposition about the formation of the amber deposit and its mining.
The Amber Mining Museum is located in a small two-story building. On the ground floor, the exposition is dedicated to the amber deposit in the Kaliningrad region, and on the second floor you can see an exposition dedicated to diving in Lake Sinyavinsky. This lake appeared on the site of the abandoned Walter amber quarry, where amber was mined from 1913 to 1972.
The museum`s exposition begins with the events that took place tens of millions of years ago, when there was a huge glacier on the site of modern Scandinavia. After its melting, the Baltic Sea was formed. Vast forests grew on the site of modern Denmark. The resin of these trees petrified and turned into amber. Glacial waters washed it onto the Baltic coast near the modern village of Yantarny. Currently, up to 90% of the world`s amber reserves are concentrated here.
The next exhibition is dedicated to the extraction of amber, which has been carried out at this place for two millennia. The Balts tribe, who lived in these parts, were engaged in its extraction. Amber and its products were highly valued already during the Roman Empire. Then the Teutonic Knights took control of amber mining and introduced Amber Regalia. According to this document, it was allowed to engage in the extraction and sale of amber only with the permission of the administration of the knightly order.
A significant part of the exhibition is devoted to the activities of the firm Stantin und Becker, founded in 1858 by Maurice Becker and Wilhelm Stantin. They began commercial extraction of amber. Initially, they opened two mines "Anna" and "Henrietta".
However, the extraction of amber in the mines was not profitable, so they soon invested in the development of the Walter quarry.
The Henrietta mine was located on the mountainside, in front of the entrance to the Amber Mining Museum. Here you can see the ruins of the mine buildings, as well as the equipment used to extract amber. After the cessation of amber mining in it in 1972, the Walter quarry was flooded with groundwater and turned into Sinyavinsky Lake.
