![Кирха Арнау 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/%D0%9A%D0%B8%D1%80%D1%85%D0%B0_%D0%90%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%83_02.jpg)
The Arnau Church (german: Kirche Arnau) of St.
Catherine of Alexandria
Catherine of Alexandria (also spelled Katherine); grc-gre, ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς ; ar, سانت كاترين; la, Catharina Alexandrina). is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, ...
is a
Brick Gothic church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
8 km east of
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...
near the
Pregolya River and the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n-
Lithuanian border.
It was built in the 14th century as a Catholic church in the
East Prussian village of Arnau (modern
Rodniki) and until recently contained more than 200 medieval
frescoes from the 14th century. It became a Lutheran church after the Reformation and the frescoes were whitewashed, then uncovered in the early 20th century. The graveyard contains the tomb of
Theodor von Schön.
After 1945, when the Kaliningrad region became part of the Soviet Union, the church was used for grain storage. In 2003 a restoration campaign was launched, with the church building then belonging to the Kaliningrad History Museum, which used it for exhibitions and orthodox liturgy.
In 2010 local legislators transferred the ownership of the church to the
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
, and Church officials started a renovation that caused irreversible damage to the frescoes. Prof. Dr. Nicole Riedl, a restoration expert in medieval wall paintings at Hawk University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hildesheim, described the frescoes as being "irretrievably lost" in a 2014 report prepared for the German-based Kuratorium Arnau, an organization created in 1992 to conserve the church and its frescoes. As a result of the report, the Kaliningrad Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church cut off relations with Kuratorium Arnau. Riedl later said to
The Art Newspaper
''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments ...
that only 2-3% of the frescoes now survived, and that the Russian Orthodox Church had "deliberately destroyed" the rest.
[Sophia Kishkovsky, "Gothic church's frescoes destroyed during restoration" in The Art Newspaper, 28 August 2014]
/ref>
References
{{reflist
External links
Kuratorium Arnau website
14th-century churches in Russia
Brick Gothic
Churches in Kaliningrad Oblast
Gothic architecture in Russia
Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Kaliningrad Oblast