Church of the Transfiguration in Iława

In 1940 the people of Iława took their 18th-century bells down from the tower and handed them over to be melted down for the war industry. Yet the bells survived: in 1952 Pastor Schäffer from Osterode am Harz found them in the "bell cemetery" in Hamburg, and on 27 May 2006 they rang out in Iława again. They hang in the tower of the brick Church of the Transfiguration, known locally simply as the "red church" – the oldest historic building in town.

History: from the Teutonic Knights to the Oblates

The Gothic church was built in 1317–1325 on the highest point of the Old Town hill. It was built into the south-east corner of the town walls – its south and east walls continue the line of the fortifications, so the church could also serve a defensive role. It first appears in records in 1324, when its first parish priest, Andreas, is named as a witness. The parish was under the patronage of the Teutonic Order, but it was mainly the townspeople, organised among others in the Corpus Christi brotherhood, who looked after the church. From 1525 it was used by Protestants, and after the Second World War it returned to the Catholic Church. Since 1952 it has been run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

The 27-metre tower was added in 1550. A great fire in the town on the night of 26–27 June 1706 badly damaged the church, which had to wait until 1730 for repairs – paid for out of his own pocket by Count Finckenstein, the hereditary governor of Iława. The last major rebuild took place in 1903–1905. In 1949 the church became the first building in Iława to be placed under heritage protection.

What to see

• The Rococo high altar from 1741 by Johann Heinrich Selcke of Prabuty, built on a Gothic altar table. Its niche holds a statue of Our Lady of Fátima – the first in the Archdiocese of Warmia, crowned in 1999.
• The pulpit with reliefs of the four Evangelists and a 19th-century Neo-Gothic font.
• Neo-Gothic stained glass from 1899 showing Christ and the apostles Peter and Paul.
• The tomb slab of Mayor Jakob Mück and his wife Susanna, who died in 1745.
• The bells from 1733, cast in Gdańsk, with a German inscription saying they "flowed through fire" and were cast in Gdańsk with God's help.

Interesting facts

There are two crypts beneath the altar. Among those resting there are the embalmed bodies of Wilhelm Albrecht von Finckenstein (d. 15 April 1752) and his wife Hedwig Elisabeth, née Rippin, who died two and a half months before him. In 1800 the vaults were bricked up and burials there stopped. An oak in front of the church was planted in 1871 to celebrate Prussia's victory over France – despite protests from the parish priest of the time.

Tripto tip

This is a working parish church without fixed visiting hours – the interior is easiest to see just before or after Mass. According to the parish website, Masses on Sundays and holidays are at 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, 11:30 (for children), 13:00 and 18:00, plus 21:00 in July and August; on weekdays at 7:00 and 18:00. Address: ul. Kościelna 1. Allow 30–45 minutes for the church and its surroundings. The building is floodlit in the evening, and nearby you can see fragments of the town walls and the medieval moat, as well as the Neo-Gothic presbytery from 1902–1903.