Church in Pravdinsk: A Gothic Brick Church and Orthodox Parish
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.9
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Russia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crusader, Teutonic Order
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page9 sections
History
The Church in Pravdinsk is a Gothic brick church in Russia, serving the town formerly known as Friedland in East Prussia. Founded by the medieval Catholic community, it began in 1313 and became Lutheran after the sixteenth-century Reformation, a religious movement that produced Protestant churches. Since 1990, it has been a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to Saint George, the Christian martyr and military saint.
Medieval foundation and expansion
A wooden church was founded at the site in 1313. Lithuanian forces burned it during an incursion in 1347, and a masonry replacement was built between 1360 and 1380. Before the end of the fifteenth century, major rebuilding transformed the church into a three-aisled basilica. The St. Anne Chapel was added on the south side in 1506 and later became the private chapel of the von Proeck family. Further chapels were built on the north side after 1521.
Lutheran parish in Friedland
Following the Reformation, the church served a Lutheran congregation and parish. It was initially attached to the ecclesiastical inspection headed by the chief court preacher in Königsberg, later joined the Friedland church district, and from 1927 belonged to the Bartenstein church district within the Church Province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union. Before 1912, the parish had about 4,500 members. Friedland parish registers and other ecclesiastical records are preserved in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin.
The Battle of Friedland
On 14 June 1807, during the Battle of Friedland, Russian commander General Levin August von Bennigsen directed Russian-Prussian forces from the church tower parapet against Napoleon’s army. Russian officers also watched the fighting from the 48-metre bell tower. Bennigsen was a Russian general who commanded the Russian army during the 1807 campaign against Napoleon.
War, Soviet use, and restoration
The church survived the fighting of 1945 without structural damage, but it was looted in 1948 and lost valuable artistic furnishings. Church life was prohibited during the Soviet period. On 14 October 1961, the building was transferred to the district consumer cooperative for use as a warehouse, a function it retained until 1991.
Lack of maintenance caused severe deterioration during the warehouse years. Preservation efforts began in 1979, and municipal authorities undertook necessary repairs, including restoration of the tower roof in 1986. The building was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990. Restoration followed through the efforts of the parish and former Friedland residents. Ursula Kluge, a Friedland-born former resident previously known as Ursula Jandt, initiated support from Germany in 1992 and contributed substantially to the work through 2006 while leading the Friedland (East Prussia) association.
Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad consecrated the restored church for Russian Orthodox worship on 27 September 2005. Kirill is a Russian Orthodox metropolitan who served in that jurisdiction and performed the consecration. The parish belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church’s Chernyakhovsk Eparchy and is also associated with the Kaliningrad and Baltijsk diocesan jurisdiction.
The church received state architectural-heritage protection in 1959 and regional cultural-heritage status in the Kaliningrad region in 2007. In 2013, the town and parish marked seven hundred years since the beginning of construction of the first church.
Remains
Church structure
The surviving building is a Gothic brick church, a medieval tradition that used brick masonry for the pointed arches, vertical forms, and structural features associated with Gothic architecture. Its oldest existing parts date from the second half of the fourteenth century. The principal masonry church was constructed between 1360 and 1380 as a hall church with a sacristy and tower. Fifteenth-century rebuilding created a three-aisled basilica divided into seven bays by two rows of piers.
Tower and bells
The integrated tower was rebuilt as a five-storey brick structure and also serves as the bell tower. A lightning strike caused a fire in 1772, after which the upper part was reconstructed with a crenellated crown and a hexagonal hollow-brick spire. The tower reaches 60.6 metres and is topped by a ball and a simple cross.
The tower originally held three bells. The two other bells remain there, including a larger bell cast in 1729 bearing the monogram of Frederick William I of Prussia, the Prussian king whose monogram appears on it. Another bell, cast in 1746 by the Dörling foundry in Königsberg, survived the war in the Hamburg bell cemetery and now hangs in the church at Langenhagen in Lower Saxony. Documents and coins found inside the ball at the top of the spire were transferred to the local museum.
Chapels and associated remains
The St. Anne Chapel remains part of the church’s south side, while later chapels were added on the north. The building also bears the effects of its periods of deterioration, including roof failure, water penetration, mould and algae growth on the walls, frost damage to the brickwork, and partial collapse of vaults in the additions. Restoration and repair returned the church to use for Orthodox worship.
A burial site beside the church contains ten soldiers of the Russian Imperial Army’s 1st Guards Cavalry Division who died during fighting in the First World War.
