Rapa Pyramid

In the woods near the village of Rapa, between Banie Mazurskie and Gołdap, stands a stone pyramid 15.9 m high. It is the tomb of the Prussian barons von Fahrenheid, and the bodies laid inside became naturally mummified. So many legends have grown around it that facts and stories are still hard to separate – which is exactly what draws visitors here.

History: Egypt in Masuria

The Fahrenheid family owned Rapa from the first half of the 18th century, having bought it from Christoph von Rap, after whom the village is named. Their main seat was at Beynuhnen (Bejnuny), a dozen or so kilometres to the north and now in Russia's Kaliningrad region, where they built up an impressive collection of sculpture and paintings. Baron Friedrich von Fahrenheid, a collector and patron who had attended Immanuel Kant's lectures in Königsberg, encountered the craze for ancient Egypt in Paris after Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. According to the most common version, he then decided to build a pyramid-shaped tomb that would favour mummification.

The date is uncertain: 1811 is usually given, but 1808 and 1795 also appear. Archaeologist Jerzy Łapo of the museum in Węgorzewo believes the structure was probably built in 1792–1795 and first served as an ice house, like similar buildings in Chambourcy and Potsdam, becoming a burial chapel only in the early 19th century. Another theory links the pyramid shape to the Masonic interests of Baron Johann Friedrich Wilhelm von Fahrenheid (1747–1834).

Who rests here

The first person laid in the pyramid was the baron's three-year-old daughter Ninette, buried in 1811. In total seven family members were interred here, including the tomb's creator himself in 1849, as well as members of the von Bujack and von Altenstadt families. The interior was plundered by Tsarist soldiers in 1914–1915 and again by the Red Army in 1945, and in 1977 the remains were desecrated.

The structure

• Height of 15.9 m, on a square base with 10.4 m sides built of fieldstone.
• The inner vault slopes at 51°52′ – the same angle as in the Egyptian pyramids.
• A causeway across marshy ground once linked the manor with the pyramid; statues are said to have lined it.

Interesting facts

The design is often attributed to the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, whose patrons the Fahrenheids were, but there is no firm evidence for this. According to historians, the man behind the project was related to Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, inventor of the mercury thermometer. A popular legend about a family dinner at which everyone died from poisonous mushrooms does not stand up when compared with the burial dates.

Rescue and today

In 2015 researchers from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw studied the pyramid, made a 3D scan and carried out anthropological research on the remains. A year later the walls and the collapsing ceiling were secured. In 2018 the Czerwony Dwór Forest District, on whose land the pyramid stands, restored it for PLN 890,000 from the State Forests fund.

Tripto tip

The interior is not open to visitors and the coffins are closed – you can look inside through the barred windows on the sides and at the back. A cleared path along the old causeway leads to it from the road. Allow 20–30 minutes for the visit itself; in summer, bring insect repellent for the forest. It combines easily with a trip to Gołdap or the lakes of northern Masuria.