for a long time to Lithuanian researchers. Therefore, German historiographic and local traditions became the knowledge transferor about the first churches in the Prussian lands to the north of the right bank of the Nemunas. The thinking constructs formed by German historiographic and local traditions were accepted without critical evaluation of Lithuanian historiography. The age of particular buildings was directly linked to the first mention of parishes or believers’ community, artefacts, local traditions and etc. However, such uncritical access is not always good. This is evidenced by the case of Rusnė (Russ) church and the story of the “aging” of Viešvilė (Wischwill) church which has been discussed more widely in the article.