Translated from Lithuanian, Lengwethen means “place in the meadow”. The village was settled by colonists from Salzburg. The Protestant church was built here in 1732–35. It had no tower and measured 23 x 11.5 m. A porch (the entrance) on the west, a sacristy on the east, plus a free-standing belfry to the south-west. The building's windows were rectangular. Inside, a flat ceiling and massive galleries (balconies). An 18th-century altar. An organ of 1858. An interesting brass font.
Lunino is a small village at a crossroads. After the Second World War the church was intact and was used as a House of Culture.
In the 1980s it was thoroughly rebuilt for this purpose. The roof was repaired and covered with asbestos-cement sheets. On the west, the porch was raised to two storeys. The entrance was moved to the south. The windows were bricked up, leaving only small standard window openings. In 1988 the building was painted a hideous purple. By 2000 it had been abandoned, and only the walls remained.
Photos: Bildarchiv Ostpreußen, bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
