Juodkrantė Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of St Francis of Assisi. For the past quarter of a century it has been used by both the Juodkrantė Evangelical Lutheran parish and the Roman Catholic parish of St Francis of Assisi. The Juodkrantė Evangelical Lutheran Church is not only a striking architectural landmark but also an important witness to the history of the Juodkrantė fishing village. After the winter of 1791, fateful for the village of Karvaičiai, when the settlement was buried under sand, many of its residents moved to Juodkrantė, where a church began to be built. The modest wooden church was consecrated on 28 July 1795. The first pastor of the Juodkrantė Evangelical Lutheran parish was Christian David Wittich, transferred from Kaukėnai (now Yasnoye), who brought up his relative – the future Bible scholar, editor of the Lithuanian translation, folklorist and Königsberg University professor, the Rev. Liudvikas Rėza (Ludwig Rhesa). Before it had stood even a hundred years, the house of prayer was ravaged by fire. In 1885, in place of the reed-thatched church, an impressive neo-Gothic, rectangular, single-nave red-brick church rose, and it was consecrated the same year. The crucifix and two brass candlesticks for the new Juodkrantė church were donated by the German Empress and Queen of Prussia Augusta Victoria, and the fine small organ by the amber-mine owner Moritz Becker. The parish was multilingual – services were held in German and Lithuanian, because most parishioners were Curonian fishermen whose native tongue was Curonian, so services in Lithuanian came more naturally to them. The war brought the church many misfortunes. Religious life was restricted, and the church, which survived the war undamaged together with all its treasures, was confiscated and turned into a warehouse; later a Museum of Miniatures was set up in its premises. After Sąjūdis brought Lithuania back to life, the church was handed over to the Catholics, but only a couple of years later it was returned to the Lutherans. To mark the church's 110th anniversary, the interior was renovated and new pews were made. In 2008 the organ sounded again in the Juodkrantė church, and now you can hear not only the organ but also a sound signal imitating the tolling of a bell.