Gumbinnen

Gumbinnen grew where the Pissa and Krasnaya meet in eastern Prussia, in the region known as Lithuania Minor. A Protestant parish was established in the sixteenth century and a church built in 1582. The plague of 1709–1711 devastated the surrounding country, prompting King Frederick William I to encourage resettlement. He granted Gumbinnen town privileges in 1724 and later settled Protestant refugees expelled from Salzburg in the district. Their church, built in 1752, was a visible sign of the new community.