The church was rebuilt many times; originally it was a plastered building of fieldstone and brick. The west tower was erected in 1817, using part of the old structures. The east gable of the church had pointed windows. The windows were blind. The interior, together with the cellars and lofts, had a vaulted wooden ceiling. The altar, made in 1645, was supplemented with side wings in 1720. The pulpit was built in 1700. The stained-glass windows were made in the 19th century after Cologne models. The organ was built in 1850.
The patrons of the church were Count zu Dohna-Schlobitten of Waldburg and Burgravine zu Dohna of Wundlacken, who lived nearby at Waldburg Castle. Michael Stifel, pastor of the Haffstrom church, published his work on algebra in 1553.
The little village of Haffstrom was never renamed, and there is no information about it or its church after the war. Not a trace of the village is left on the spot. In the 1960s gravel was extracted here, and the place where Haffstrom stood no longer exists. Today there is water of the lagoon there. Boathouses already stood along its shores by the end of the 1970s. Later the adjoining land was allotted for dachas.
Photos on this page: Bildarchiv Ostpreußen, bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
