The first church here was probably built in 1629. The second parish church, built in 1701, was a plastered brick building. It measured 27 x 13 m. Its tower fell during a storm in 1818 and partly destroyed the building. The church was restored in the same year, but the tower only in 1827. The tower had five storeys with round-arched windows and a roof with a spire bearing a weathervane of 1827 in the shape of an eagle, with the figure 1701 next to it.
The body of the church had five round-arched windows on each side, and the porch door on the south was set in a shallow arch. Above it was a sandstone pediment with an eagle and a crown, and beneath it the inscription: “Friedrich I, King of Prussia, built this house of God; this is the first house of the first king.” Above the eagle: “May God preserve the first king and this house of God, and may it bring us grace unto the last days.”
In 1701 Elector Friedrich III became the first Prussian king, Friedrich I, and Schillen church was the first to be built on his orders.
Inside, a plastered wooden barrel vault. The chancel was vaulted. The side aisles had flat ceilings. The altar and pulpit, made in 1720 and 1820, were combined. The organ was built in 1832 and renewed in 1910. The church had two bells.
After 1945 the church was intact. For a long time it was used as a granary. The tower spire was pulled down. In 1965 coins were found in it. Because of a lack of even the most basic supervision, the tiles began to fall off and the rafters began to rot, and in 1983 the depot was moved out of the building. In the same year the church was set on fire. After that the roof collapsed. By 1989 the church was a sad sight. The tower: bare walls with no roof or floors. The building itself: only walls, the porch without its roof or gable, the sacristy dismantled. Inside, rubbish, broken tiles and charred rafters. Only the chancel still had the remains of its tiles and a holed vault.
The state as of 1990. The inside of the church was cleared, and there were plans to build a sports complex in it. But nobody ever got round to it; as of 2002 the church building was an empty brick shell with a tower, not used in any way.
Photos: Bildarchiv Ostpreußen, bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
