This is Kaliningrad cathedral, sometimes called Kant’s cathedral, since it houses both his tomb and a museum dedicated to the city’s most famous son. (There’s even been a lobby recently to change the name of Kaliningrad to Kantograd.)

When you want to get close, some buildings are just too big to fit in a regular camera, so this is a composite of six shots stitched together by poster WWS at Kaliningrad.ru.

The cathedral is one of the most spectacular pieces of restoration of the last decade. Like Konigsberg Castle, it fell victim to the RAF bombing of 1944 and was left for years as a burned out hulk. Below is how it looked in 1992 when work started.

Most of the money came from Germany but the 15 year project was overseen by a local team headed by Igor Odintsov. It was a tour de force of research as much as anything. A wealth of reference material was destroyed in the early days of Soviet occupation. In fact, history in Kaliningrad was effectively banned - all books began in 1945. Even in the 90’s, many with wartime memories voiced opposition to the project.

Ironically, one of the Russian engineers working on restoration was the same man who, forty years earlier, was involved in the demolition of Konigsberg castle. The jury is still out on whether the castle will be rebuilt but in the meantime he has assisted archaeologists on local digs. There are also plans to turn the former ‘bastion of fascism’ into a Museum of Old Prussia. The cathedral restoration did much to promote interest in local history.

The spire used to dominate the Kaliningrad skyline but lately it has received some unwelcome competition. New concretodominiums, which only Russians can build, are now obscuring the view from quite a few points of the compass.

Here’s a last gap view of the cathedral before obscuration. (On the right is ‘Fish Village’ - an entirely repro concept.)

Which brings us back to why it’s sometimes useful to stitch wide-angle shots together in Photoshop for buildings you can only see close up. Actually, it’s not that difficult (if you’re not too fussy) and two or three shots will give you quite an interesting faux panorama. Just take successive pictures with about 20% overlap, moving the camera sideways - not your body. Avoid any moving objects in the centre of the picture. Usually the hardest part to join in Photoshop is the sky, so just fudge it with the clone stamp.