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Bilderweitschen Churches

Bilderweitschen Churches

Most of the inhabitants of this village had come from Salzburg. In the mid-20th century Bilderweitschen was renamed, first Bilderweiten and then Lugovoye. Coordinates of the surviving Catholic church: 54.673347, 22.687263.

The Protestant church was built of fieldstones in 1730, with an octagonal east end to which a sacristy was attached. A wooden ridge turret with a pyramid roof. Five round-arched windows. The church measured 26 x 13 m. The altar and pulpit were combined. The church had an organ and three bells. It was restored in 1920.


Bilderweitschen Protestant church

After the Second World War the Protestant church was demolished, and a parking area for farm machinery was laid out on its site. Fieldstones and bricks have survived along the edges of the area.

Interior of the Bilderweitschen Protestant church


The Catholic church was built in 1860–61. A brick building of 19 x 12 m, with a small turret containing two bells built into its west end. Statues of saints stood in blind niches on the gable. The chancel was at the east, with a small sacristy attached to it on the south. All the windows and the entrance were round-arched. Inside, wooden ceilings covered with plaster. Three altars (two of them side altars). An organ with Rococo ornament.


Bilderweitschen Catholic church (2001)

The Catholic church is practically intact. It is used as a storehouse.

All the windows have been bricked up. The roof has been re-covered with asbestos-cement sheets. A square doorway for vehicles has been knocked through the chancel extension on the east. The statues of the saints have not survived.

Next to the church stands the former school building.



Photos: Bildarchiv Ostpreußen, bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de.


Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.