The church was a mighty Gothic brick building, erected in the 14th century on a fieldstone foundation. It measured 14 x 12.5 m. The north side of the nave is almost entirely of fieldstone with brick corners. A square four-storey tower with two later buttresses on the west side. A pyramidal roof. In the end wall of the chancel there was a small double door. An annex on the south-west side was built somewhat later than the nave. The sacristy was added on the north-east later still. The nave consists of five bays. A very narrow triumphal arch. The chancel had a twelve-part star vault. In 1676 a new carved altarpiece appeared (sculptor Pfeffer). Pulpit of 1690. Baptismal font of 1690. Organ of 1881 (by the master Terletzki of Königsberg) in the Baroque style. Gallery of 1643. The ceiling was painted in 1703.
In 1945, during the heavy fighting for Mount Galtgarben, which changed hands several times, the Kumehnen church, two kilometres to the north-east, was also damaged.
After the war the church was used as a farm storehouse. A square double door was knocked through the east part of the chancel so that vehicles could drive inside. The tower is in a dangerous state. The south-west annex has been destroyed. The north porch is broken down. The beautiful Gothic door has been bricked up. The sacristy has not survived either. The rafters have rotted, and the north wall of the chancel is crumbling. The north-east corner of the nave has also fallen into disrepair for lack of a drain. Since 1995 the building has not been used and is slowly perishing.
The partly ruined church has become a favourite of storks: no fewer than three families of these graceful birds return to Kumachevo every spring to raise their young here.
Volunteer clean-up by the church walls. Photo © Ruin Keepers (@ruin.keepers)
Photo above: Bildarchiv Ostpreußen, bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
