Site of the former Jaunjelgava Lutheran Church

The idea of building the Jaunjelgava Lutheran Church dates back to 1596, when the Duke of Courland, Gotthard Kettler, decided to build a church, and by 1652 the building was completed. The original church was built of wood, and in 1770 a stone tower was added, with a chapel underneath containing seven burials: one in zinc, the rest in wooden coffins. In 1878 the church was rebuilt as a stone building, and in 1882 an upper part was added to the tower. The clergy of the parish were strictly required to speak Latvian in order to be able to convert new believers. Services were held in both Latvian and German. When the church bells rang, they could be heard as far as five kilometres outside the town, because during the First World War the church had two bells, after the war only one was restored.

On 30 April 1947, a fire broke out and the church burnt down. Everything was burnt, including the organ. Only the altarpiece and the pew were saved from the flames. The bell tower contained two bells, which broke in the fall. The bell tower fell to the west side as it burnt. The church could not be saved, but the inhabitants tried to save the neighbouring buildings, among them the Catholic church, which was a wooden building almost next to the Lutheran church.
The post-war political situation and the material resources of the parish did not allow the church to be rebuilt. For some time, services were held in the ruins of the church. Later, the church walls were blown up, the ruins were removed and the church was replaced by a rally square and the graves of the brothers who fell in the Second World War were built in the church garden. For a while, Lutheran services could be held in the Orthodox or Baptist church.

In 1956, Pastor Mārtiņš Kārtiņš proposed to build a new church and got a building plot allocated near the town cemetery. With much help and support from the congregation, construction work began and the new church was opened and consecrated on White Sunday in May 1957. In 1960 the church tower was built. The altarpiece and the pew, which were preserved from the old church, were placed in the church. This church is special in Latvia because it was built during the Soviet occupation. Church services are held every Sunday.