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Search for missing Amber Room to continue in Poland on July 12

Specialists expect to find the Amber Room near a German World War II bunker in Mamerki, northeastern Poland

© EPA/TOMASZ WASZCZUK

WARSAW, July 5 /TASS/. A search for the famous Amber Room, which went missing during WWII, will continue near the former German bunkers in Mamerki village, Poland, on July 12, Bartlomiej Plebanczyk, the head of the Mamerki Museum, told TASS on Tuesday.

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Poland to start searching for missing Amber Room soon

The bunkers are located about 62 miles from Russia’s Kaliningrad region, which was the German region of Koenigsberg before and during the war, where the Nazis brought the precious Amber Room from Russia’s Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg in 1941.

"New wells will be drilled in the territory of the bunkers in Mamerki on July 12 with an aim to find a hidden premises where the Amber Room elements and other valuable objects - archives, museum exhibits and weapons - could be hidden by the Nazis during WWII," Plebanczyk said adding that a test carried out by an earth-penetrating radar confirmed there were unknown objects in the foundation of bunker 31 in Mamerki, which was the headquarters of the Vermakht’s ground troops command during the war.

Previous tests by earth-penetrating radars suggested there were hollows in the soil of one of the bunker’s tunnels. It turned out to be an immured place located underground. Explorers drilled two deep wells in the foundation of one of the former German bunkers in Mamerki in mid-June but failed to find the secret premises.

This time, experts armed with a geological radar will watch the drilling works steadily adjusting the place of search if necessary. A video camera will be descended to the premises if it is found.

Read also

Amber Room not found in Poland so far — explorers

The Amber Room is a gift of King Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia to Russian Emperor Peter the Great. The room was brought to St. Petersburg in 1717 and was fitted into Russia’s Catherine Palace in the Tsarskoye Selo imperial residence. Architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli added gilded carving, mirrors and mosaic panels made of agate and jasper to the room’s interior decoration under the rule of Empress Elizabeth of Russia (born 1709-died 1761), the daughter of Emperor Peter the Great. The Amber Room remained intact for about 200 years. It was stolen by German fascists who occupied Tsarskoye Selo during WWII.

A group of field engineers who arrived in Mamerki back in the 1950s-1960s brought a witness with them who claimed that the Germans had unloaded treasures there in 1945. They assumed it could be the famous Amber Room. The field engineers tried to find the hidden treasure for several days. The exploded all the passageways leading to that concrete facility. They halted the search after it had not crowned with success.

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