The Ancient Amber Room of Fredrick the First

Many of you amber jewelry lovers may already know about the the Amber Room, but for those of you who don't, the Amber Room is not only an incredible display of another application of this Baltic gold in art outside of jewelry making, but it is also an important part of amber and world history.

The original amber room was built by Prussian King Fredrick the First in the 18th century, but no one has seen it since the Nazis looted it during WWII. Although the opening of the recreated room has made recent news headlines due to the possible find of the original panels in a man made cavern on the German-Czech Republic border, the actual opening of the completed recreation took place in 2003 in St. Petersburg during the city's 300 year anniversary. Also an incredible display of craftsmanship and the versatility of amber, the reconstructed amber room is a remarkable work of art. It's 3 - 26' high walls are composed of 500,000 amber tiles the entire room measuring 1080 square feet. One of the museum officials Yuri Dumashin described it as - "the world's biggest jewelry box."

Here is a link to a photo album of the Amber Room as well as some of the other rooms in the Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg:
http://picasaweb.google.com/topgammy/CatherinePalace/photo#5098621706310656066