Romincka Forest

Romincka Forest (Polish: Puszcza Romincka, Lithuanian: Romintos giria), also known as Krasny Les (Russian: Красный лес) or Rominte Heath (German: Rominter Heide), is an extended forest and heath landscape stretching from the southeast of Russian Kaliningrad Oblast to the northeast of Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship.

Common plant communities include Tilio-Carpinetum forest on dry ground, composed of oak, spruce, linden, ash, alder, maple, elm, hornbeam, and birch.

Understory shrubs include bird cherry (Prunus padus), hazel, guelder rose, and saplings of canopy trees.

Part of the German Empire from 1871 onwards, a vast estate in Rominter Heide was purchased by Emperor Wilhelm II, who had his Rominten Hunting Lodge, including a chapel dedicated to Saint Hubertus, erected here in 1891.

Plundered by Russian forces in World War I, the hunting lodge and grounds were administered by the Free State of Prussia on Wilhelm's abdication in 1918; Minister-President Otto Braun was a regular guest.

Rominten hunting lodge, 1914 postcard