Arnau Church

The church Arnau (Russian Кирха Арнау ) was the church of today Rodniki (Russian Родники ) mentioned place and one of the most important monuments of East Prussia as well as long time a pilgrimage church in the land of the order. The oldest parts of the surviving building date from the first half of the 14th century. Until 1945 the church was a Protestant church.

  • 3.1 parish
  • 3.2 parish places (until 1945)
  • 3.3 pastor ( 1525-1945 )

Geographical location

The Russian Rodniki today is nine km east of Kaliningrad and can be reached via the new route of the Russian highway A 229. The place is a settlement ( possjolok ) within the Nisowskoje selskoje posselenije (Town Nisowje ( Waldau ) ) in Rajon Guryevsk ( Neuhausen district ) of the Kaliningrad Oblast ( region Königsberg ( Prussia) ) ..

The pre-Reformation period in " St. St. Catherine's Church, " said former house of worship is located outside the village south of the highway on a hill above the lowland area of the Pregel (Russian: Pregolja ). From a 30 meters to the glacial valley of the Pregel sloping hillside overlooking the far south to the moraine hills Natangens south of Slawskoje ( Cross Castle ). A prehistoric burial ground, and a location on the steep edge of Old Prussian Fliehburg shed light on a very early settlement of the high bank of the Pregel.

Church building

Architectural History / Description

Until 1945

Not far from the Old Prussian fortification built the German Order in the years 1340 to 1350 the church dedicated to St. Catherine. In 1349 she wrote the Grand Master with 24 hoofs the newly founded monastery in Löbenicht. For this and the successor, the Great Hospital, she was to 1636th

First, the choir of the church was built, then the nave, which was plastered with whitewash and with consecration crosses. In the 1360s the decoration of the nave was performed with a curative mirror cycle ( spectaculum Humanae salvationis ), probably by a master of Königsberg school of painting. After that, the two-storey porch, the west tower in brick masonry on field stone base was built and, like the vestry roof was planted with tonnengewölbtem. The murals were painted over during the Reformation.

In 1684, the Lutheran doctrine had been introduced for more than 150 years, Christian Klodssen created the pulpit and the baptismal font was created at that time. Three years later the altar received a painted and gilded by Martin Bergmann essay. The painting of the pulpit was made until 1768 by J. B. Zedler.

The built in the 18th century organ was rebuilt in 1854 and received 17 speaking stops.

In the years 1908 to 1912 an extensive restoration of the church took place in the medieval wall paintings were uncovered with 119 images.

Since 1945

During World War II the church was not destroyed. Only the tower was damaged by fire. In the postwar period, however, the art treasures of the church have been a victim of circumstances. If they were not destroyed, they were lost. A liturgical use of the Church was not given. The decay of the building began, it also took damage from vandalism.

Early 1950s was the church building owned by a collective farm, which used it as a granary. Using the wooden beams of the roof, a ceiling was drafted in 1951 to provide more storage capacity: up was the dry ground, down a camp.

In the following years, the murals were painted over and sometimes even plastered with cement mortar. The east wall and the sacristy were broken and built a gate for extra tractors. The vault of the sacristy was destroyed.

In 1978 the tower was demolished and built with the materials of the free-standing pillars with wooden false ceiling.

After 1994, the Arnauer church passed into the possession of the Russian Federation. The building was rented by a construction company that used it as material storage. The kolkhoz was deprived of the right of use. The Board of Trustees Arnau eV, founded in Germany in 1992 was officially authorized to carry out the restoration work on the church. In the same year the church was supposed to be demolished. The Board of Trustees also reached after a long struggle that the church was declared a National Monument.

With the completion of the tower, the first Restaurierungsbauabschnitt could be finalized in 2002. Symbolic end of this construction was the application of the spire. She had been prepared on the historical presentation in Moscow. In the sphere there is a document with the text:

The Kaliningrad corporation commissioned the Museum of History and Art in Kaliningrad with the management of Arnauer church. E Between him and the Board of Trustees Arnau V. In 2008 a treaty on equal planning of the restoration work and the exhibitions are closed. The church is to be conducted as a public museum. A change in these agreements arose when the local authority in 2011, the Russian Orthodox Church ( Diocese of Kaliningrad and Baltijsk ) transferred suddenly the power to dispose of the building. She has since determined the construction process.

The Board of Trustees Arnau eV sees the danger that although the Orthodox Church secures the building, but has no interest in the preservation and restoration of the unique frescoes with the healing mirror cycle. The fixation commenced by the Board of Trustees of the frescoes is not continued. Inside the church, even measures have been taken, they move on affected

Parish

Parish

Already in 1322 a church was mentioned in records in Arnau, in 1320 already Plebanus de Arnow ( diocesan priest ). Already in pre-Reformation time Arnau was a central Kirchdorf. The Lutheran Reformation held there early collection, because in 1525 services were held under the new doctrine. The church was once part of the inspection of Königsberg court chaplain and the parish was then incorporated until 1945 in the parish of Königsberg Land II within the Ecclesiastical Province of East Prussia the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union.

Currently, there is no parish. The village is in the catchment area in the 1990s newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Kaliningrad, the main church in the deanery of Kaliningrad in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia ( ELCER ).

Parish places (until 1945)

To Arnauer church belonged to 1945 weitgedehntes a parish, which belonged 29 places:

Pastor (1525-1945)

From the Reformation to the end of World War II officiated in 26 Protestant clergymen Arnau:

  • NN, 1525-1526
  • Bartholomew Luther Mann, 1536-1544
  • Caspar Scheibichen, 1545-1549
  • Thomas N., to 1570
  • Jerome Galliculus, 1565-1580
  • N. Kruger, from 1580
  • Gregor Sagittarius, 1587-1592
  • Elias Wolf, 1592-1594
  • Michael Pancritius, 1594-1645
  • Johann J. narrow Bird, 1646-1668
  • Albert Gabius, 1680-1690
  • Michael Schiller, 1691-1704
  • Daniel Hintz, 1705-1712
  • Andreas Ernst Dorn, 1712-1725
  • Johann Balthasar Charisius, 1726-1758
  • Frederick William Bene Feldt, 1758-1786
  • Gotth. Friedrich Hippel, 1786-1809
  • Daniel Freytag, Theodor, 1809-1821
  • Johann Friedrich Plew, 1822-1858
  • Samelowitz August, 1858
  • J. G. Adolf Mertens, 1859-1874
  • Gustav Ludwig Rehbein, 1874-1899
  • Albert of Schaewen, 1900-1913
  • Ernst Richard Glogau, 1913-1936
  • Arthur Brodowski, 1936-1945
Guryevsky District, Kaliningrad Oblast Teutonic Knights Protestant Reformation
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