The first church was built in 1686 by the owner of the Heinrichswalde estates, Wilhelm Reinhold von Hallen, to whom Elector Frederick William had granted the patronage of the church. As early as 1691 the church had become too small for the parish, and the patroness Rosina von Hallen built a new church in 1694. In 1792 the tower was taken down because it threatened to collapse, and in 1862 the church itself was closed.
The new, majestic brick church was erected in 1867–69 in the Gothic Revival style. Surviving parts of the old church building were used in its construction.
The church has a tall square tower with a handsome octagonal top and a narrow, tall brick spire with four dormer windows halfway up. The tower and the church itself have fine lancet windows separated by narrow buttresses with pinnacles. The paired windows of the ground floor are blind. The chancel has a five-sided end with annexes on either side. On the south side of the church is a porch with a handsome gable.
After the war the church, like the whole little town, was in excellent condition.
A warehouse was set up in the church; as of 1990 its condition was satisfactory. The fine lancet windows were bricked up halfway, and in places up to two thirds. The cross on the eastern gable survived. The handsome brick wall that surrounded the church and the cemetery survived only in part. For some reason the red brick had been whitewashed. In 1993 the church was handed over to the Evangelical congregation and repair work began, but then it was unexpectedly decided to hand it over to the Orthodox Church. In August 1994 the church was returned to the Evangelical congregation once again, and since then (as of 2005) repair work has been going on in it.
Photos: Bildarchiv Ostpreußen, bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de (top three), Mikhail Ogorodnikov (2014, 2020, bottom two).
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
