The construction of the Church of St. Catherine in Arnau (Arnau, now the settlement of Rodniki in the Guryevsky urban district) presumably began in 1320. It is one of the oldest churches in the region.

Its origin is owed to the crusaders who captured the Prussian settlement in a picturesque bend of the river and founded a castle on the steep bank. On another hill, a church appeared, becoming a place of pilgrimage and hosting many nobles, including the future King of England Henry IV. It continued the chain of churches dedicated to St. Catherine, located along the entire southern coast of the Baltic Sea. Therefore, the church’s spire was crowned with a wrought iron weather vane featuring Catherine, at her feet a wheel, and in her hands – a sword.

This wheel was seen by people as a spinning wheel, which is reflected in many legends formed around Catherine in Arnau. There are so many of them that they could fill an entire book. According to one legend, the beautiful daughter of a chieftain fell in love with a conquering knight and converted to Christianity, taking the name Catherine. When her beloved went to war, she locked herself in the tower and kept spinning, hoping he would return. But the knight never appeared, and the beauty never left the church until the end of her days.

The image of the chieftain’s daughter and the holy great martyr Catherine of Alexandria merged in popular consciousness. The “real” Catherine died for the Christian faith, unafraid of torture on the wheel. Interestingly, in the new Russian history, the church was “left” to this saint, and inside you will see many icons bearing her image. The Germans gifted the church an exact copy of the weather vane with Catherine, placing a message to descendants inside the sphere, but after some time, it was replaced by an Orthodox cross. The weather vane from Arnau now adorns the “Vagonka” — the former Church of Christ, misleading about its age.

The brick church in Gothic style, built on a high foundation of boulders, is located on a picturesque hill between the river and the road. For a long time, it was the main attraction of the Arnau suburb. In the early 20th century, residents of Königsberg loved to come here on weekends — both by road and by river, on sailboats and kayaks. A small passenger steamboat even ran between Königsberg and Arnau. Its main feature was the unique 14th-century frescoes decorating the interior walls and vaults. Discovered in 1908-1912 under a layer of whitewash, they caused a real sensation in the art world. 119 episodes of the “Mirror of Salvation” encircled the church inside with a double ribbon. Painted in the 14th century based on frescoes in the Cathedral, they reflected the Catholic text so fully that they were unparalleled. In Europe, these scenes could be found in stained glass, but in wall painting they were a rarity. When the cathedral frescoes burned in the war fire, the paintings in Arnau became the last memory of this kind of sacred art.

During the fighting in the spring of 1945, the church suffered significant damage — the upper part of the tower and the southeast part of the choir were destroyed, and the interior was heavily damaged. The collective farm that received the church after the war unknowingly “protected” the frescoes under a layer of lime paint. Since 1960, the building was used as a grain storage facility.

In the 1990s, restoration of the church began funded by the German cultural society “Curatorium Arnau,” regional and federal budgets. In 1999, the Russian Ministry of Culture included the church in the federal target program “Culture of Russia,” and later it was included in the investment development program of the Kaliningrad region. The bell tower and roof were restored, and fresco research was initiated. By the decree of the Government of the Kaliningrad Region No. 132 dated March 23, 2007, the church was granted the status of a cultural heritage site of regional significance.

In 2008, the church was transferred to the balance of the Kaliningrad Regional Historical and Art Museum, and on July 8, its first exhibition opened. But on May 11, 2010, by decision of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma, the building was transferred to the Kaliningrad Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. In April 2012, the chairman of the German society “Curatorium Arnau,” Walter Rix, stated that he was satisfied with the preparatory work carried out on the church and announced the society’s decision to begin cooperation with the ROC. However, in August 2014, it became known that as a result of restoration work funded by the federal budget and carried out by the company “Mirozdanie,” the frescoes were covered with nitro enamel, which led to their destruction. There is an opinion that this was done intentionally.

Currently, the church is an active parish of the Kaliningrad Diocese of the ROC. Nearby is the burial site of Theodor von Schön — a Prussian statesman, Oberpräsident of East Prussia from 1824 to 1842, which is also a cultural heritage site of regional significance.

Sources:

https://ambertour.ru/dostoprimechatelnosti/kirkha-arnau.htm

https://kenigo.ru/galereya/kirha-arnau/