Insterburg

Insterburg stands where the Instruch and Angrapa join to form the Pregel. The Teutonic Order built a castle on an older Prussian fortification in 1337, and a settlement grew around the rebuilt stronghold after attacks during the wars with Lithuania. In 1583 the Prussian regent George Frederick granted it town privileges.

Insterburg became a meeting place of communities: Lithuanian, German and Polish preachers served its people, and Scottish merchants settled there in the seventeenth century, adding another language to the town's varied life. Brewers sold their beer in Poland, while crafts and trade in grain and flaxseed also supported the town. After plague depopulated the district in the early eighteenth century, Frederick William I invited Protestant refugees from Salzburg to settle there.