Very close to the church, just to the north of it, lies an artificially raised mound (see below) on which a pagan stronghold once stood. The chronicler of the Order Peter of Dusburg (Peter von Dusburg) identifies it as Kattow, the place where the stronghold called Otolikhin was situated. It was destroyed by the Teutonic Order in 1274.
The first church was built here in 1589. The second followed in 1755, paid for by the king. It burned down in 1805. The last church was built in 1811 of fieldstones and brick, without a tower, with a free-standing wooden belfry on the west side.
The church was very plain, with entrances on the west and south and a sacristy on the east. It had large round-arched upper windows and small paired windows below. An organ with Rococo ornament (1821). The altar was combined with the pulpit. Altar plate: a chalice mixing Gothic and Renaissance; a wafer box with a crucifix on the lid, dated 1638.
The church survived the Second World War.
Later it was used as a storehouse. To make unloading easier, a large oblong opening was knocked through the south wall. In the 1980s the church was abandoned and partly destroyed. As of 1990 the west gable and parts of the north and south walls survived. The east wall with the sacristy had been demolished.
In 1992 the church was completely demolished.
Photos: Bildarchiv Ostpreußen, bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
