The south wing of the new building contained a chapel. After the Reformation the castle began to be extensively rebuilt, and the chapel was moved to the west part of the castle, which was later enlarged. The Castle Church was consecrated in 1591. Originally it had a single nave, and its wooden ceiling structure rested on adapted columns of the old star vaults.
It began to be used as the coronation church in 1701.
For the solemn occasion the church was furnished with galleries, as well as a royal box and an altar with pulpit designed by Joachim Ludwig Schultheiss von Unfriedt. The altar plate of the 16th and 17th centuries was of great value. The organ was built in 1732 by Adam Gottlob Casparini. The tower in the south-west corner of the castle held two bells, one of which was cast in 1525.
The Castle Church was destroyed at the end of August 1944 during a British air raid. The castle was further damaged during the storming by Soviet troops in April 1945. The ruins of the west wing of the castle stood until 1969, when they were finally demolished on the orders of the regional Party leadership, despite public protests.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
