1st Kaliningrad Street, 21, Turgenevo, Kaliningrad Region, Russia, 238646
The Gross Legitten Church is located in the Polessky District of the Kaliningrad Region, in the village of Turgenevo. It was built during the Order period and is one of the oldest buildings in the region, with no equivalents in Russia. Before the arrival of the Teutonic Knights, there was a sanctuary of the ancient Prussians here. The knights built a wooden church on this sacred site, and at the beginning of the 15th century, they erected a Catholic church made of field boulders with brick inserts. The oldest part of the Order church, the choir, was built around 1400; the nave and tower possibly appeared somewhat later — in the mid-15th century. The church had a wooden ceiling, about the shape of which there are conflicting reports; stone (brick) ribbed vaults were constructed in the 16th century. The entrance to the nave was through the tower, consisting of three bays with star-shaped vaults built in the 16th century, and the outer walls were reinforced with buttresses. At that time, the eastern facade was decorated with a stepped gable. The dome of the tower dates back to 1772.
Behind the pointed triumphal arch stood a medieval crucifix. Beautiful large windows are profiled both outside and inside, the pulpit dates from 1698, and there is a 17th-century pewter chandelier. The altar furnishings are from the 17th century.
Next to the church is buried Baroness Jenny von Gustadt — one of the illegitimate daughters of King Jérôme Bonaparte of Westphalia and niece of Napoleon.
A memorial plaque on the building reads:
“To those who lived here — in memory.
To those who live here — as an inheritance.”
The foundation of the cast-iron cross has been preserved; the cross itself was scrapped by local residents during the Perestroika era.
The tower received its characteristic roof with a break after the fire of 1772, caused by a lightning strike.
After World War I, a monument to the fallen was installed on the outer northern wall of the church in the form of a soldier figure holding a helmet. The plaque bears an inscription in German: “They did not die in vain. 1914 - 1918.” The head was lost during World War II. The plaque disappeared.
The exterior of the church was quite simple. It is a building made of boulders with brick inserts. The exterior is richly decorated with brick niches and decorative brick pinnacles, with a narrow, low choir, a rectangular nave, and a tower.
After 1945, it remained intact. It was first used as a club, then as a grain dryer. By the late 1960s, it was abandoned. Until 1975, it was still intact. Later, as a result of children lighting a fire inside the church, a fire broke out. The choir roof burned down, part of the vault collapsed. The nave roof was destroyed, but the vaults survived, as did the suspension from which the chandelier was hung. The tower remained without a dome. The northern vestibule was destroyed. Only fragments of the walls remained from the sacristy.
From 1996 to 1998, thanks to donations from former residents, Diakonie Düsseldorf, the East Prussia and Labiau associations, as well as the German Ministry of the Interior, conservation of the church was carried out. However, despite this, a year later the conserved buttresses and other parts of the church began to deteriorate. In 2004, conservation work was carried out again.
Thanks to the efforts of the village residents and the Lutheran community, it was restored. The church interiors are modest. Once its vaults were painted with unobtrusive ornaments, and the main decoration was wooden carving. Everything the parish has was sent from Germany. For example, the century-old crucifix was donated from a Berlin veterans’ home when it moved to another building.
A plaque on the church wall bears text in Russian and German: “Restoration of the Order Church Gross-Legitten 1994-2004 ‘To those who lived — in memory; to those who live here — as an inheritance.’ Funding: Donations from former residents, Diakonie Düsseldorf, the East Prussia and Labiau associations, and especially the German Ministry of the Interior. Gross-Legitten Support Society.”
Currently, Lutheran church services are held here.
Sources:
https://www.prussia39.ru/sight/index.php?sid=356
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross-Legitten_Church
https://visitprussia.com/map/kirche_gross_legitten/
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