The Salzburgers who settled here in 1732 at first worshipped in a hall adapted for services. Adolf Boetticher writes that Prince Frederick of Prussia built a temporary church for them in 1739. Walther Hubatsch gives a different date for the construction of the first house of God, namely 1752–54. On 18 June 1839 the foundation stone of a new church was laid, and on 15 October 1840 it was consecrated. It is a simple gabled building of rendered brick with a tower to the west. There are three large round-arched windows each on the north and south sides. Inside, galleries run along the walls as far as the pulpit, which is combined with the altar. The organ was built in 1835 and acquired in Memel. In 1931 the church was repaired.
The Salzburger Church was the one least damaged during the fighting.
After 1945 the tower was taken down to the level of the walls and covered with tiles. Some of the large windows were bricked up completely, the rest partly. The church housed a warehouse of the DRSU, the road construction administration. In 1993 the German side allocated two million marks for its restoration. On 31 October 1995 it was ceremonially opened. Today it belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran congregation.
Photos: Bildarchiv Ostpreußen, bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de and Mikhail Ogorodnikov (2021).
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
