History

Zakoziel belonged to the Orzeszko family of the Korab coat of arms from the second half of the 18th century, when members of this family assumed high local offices in the Pinsk district. In 1814, it was the centre of a sizeable estate, the hereditary successor to which was Józef Orzeszko, Marshal of Pińsk and deputy magistrate of the Kobryn district courts. Józef and his wife, Elżbieta née Orda, were responsible for the initiative to erect a Classicist manor house here, built on the site of an older, more modest one, which became the seat of this branch of the family. The manor house (destroyed in 1944) was set within a regular, axially symmetrical garden layout, which was expanded after 1826 by successive owners – Nikodem (1790–1843), a colonel in the Polish Army, married to Ferdynanda Chrzanowska. During their time, the Zakoziel estate was extended to the south-west by a section freely laid out as an English-style park. The architect behind this design was most likely Franciszek Jaszczołd.

The Neo-Gothic chapel was erected in 1838 or 1839 on the initiative of Nikodem and Ferdynanda Orzeszko, who expanded and modernised the estate that served as their residence. It stood on the edge of the park, most likely also designed by Jaszczołd. In 1844, it was listed as part of the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Braszewicze (Kobryn deanery of the Diocese of Vilnius). It held the status of a private manor chapel, granted a bishop’s indult. The founders intended the chapel to serve as the family’s burial chapel as well. By 1866, those laid to rest there included Józef Orzeszko (d. 1826), his son Nikodem (d. 1843) – the chapel’s builder – Nikodem’s daughter Teofila Buchowiecka, and Jan Chrzanowski, the father of Ferdynanda Orzeszkowa. As there was no Roman Catholic church in the vicinity, the chapel was also made available during services to the local, small community of the Latin rite. Next to it, on the northern side of the chapel, a small cemetery was established.

According to a legend repeated in many publications, in the summer of 1863, Eliza Orzeszkowa, sister-in-law of the then owner of Zakoziel, Kalikst Piotr Orzeszko, hid Romuald Traugutt, the military commander of Kobryn County, in the chapel.

Following the fall of the January Uprising, the chapel shared the fate of the estate, which was confiscated due to Kalikst Piotr Orzeszko’s involvement in the uprising. In 1866, the provincial authorities ordered it to be closed, and the parish of Braszewicze was also abolished. The Governor of Grodno ordered the chapel to be converted into a branch of the Orthodox church in Wołowl. However, the handover of the chapel was delayed, presumably as a result of appeals by Ferdynanda Orzeszkowa (née Chrzanowska), who fought for its return. In May 1867, she was informed that the chapel could not be restored to worship; however, permission was granted to return the building and its furnishings to the former owners, on condition that it be used exclusively as a family burial chapel and that the altar and the bell turret be removed. Since then, the chapel’s status has not been entirely clear. Ultimately, it was not converted into an Orthodox church, although in 1868 it was placed under the care of the parish priest of the Orthodox church in Wołowle. In 1895, it was referred to as the former chapel of the defunct parish of Braszewicze, and in the diocesan directories of the Diocese of Vilnius from 1904 to 1920 – as the chapel of the parish church in Janów, one of the two active Roman Catholic churches in the Kobryn deanery. During the Second Polish Republic, it was opened up more widely, serving military settlers and colonists. Initially, it was attached to the parish of the Most Holy Trinity and St Josephat in Torokania, and subsequently to the newly established (1922) parish of Our Lady of Sorrows in Popin.

In 1915, the chapel lost its roof covering, from which the German army had stripped the copper sheeting. After 1920, the new owner of Zakoziel, Karol Tołłoczko, planned to carry out renovation work at his own expense. At the same time, the chapel was designated a listed building, and as a result the authorities ordered work to be suspended until plans approved by the Polesie Province conservation officer had been submitted. The extent of the work ultimately carried out is unknown. It is most likely that the spire crowning the roof was reconstructed, whilst the interior was not fully renovated.

The chapel was probably in use until 1944 or 1945. Following its closure, some of the furnishings were transferred to Pinsk Cathedral, including, reportedly, the sculptures from the façade turrets and the organ. Left unused, it gradually fell into disrepair, becoming a ruin over the last two decades. It was completely stripped of its furnishings, the roof partially collapsed, the stucco decoration suffered serious damage, and the sculptures of the apostles in the niches of the turrets’ chapels disappeared. The crypt containing the graves of members of the Orzeszek family was vandalised.

In 2008, the local authorities decided to undertake restoration work. With the help of pupils from the secondary school in Wołowl, the underground areas and the interior of the chapel were tidied up. At the same time, under the supervision of staff from the company ‘Brześćrestawracjaprojekt’, archaeological investigations were carried out in the crypt. The human bones discovered were transported to Brest for anthropological analysis, after which a reburial was organised for the remains of the Orzeszków family, which were laid to rest in the small cemetery near the chapel.

A comprehensive restoration of the chapel began in October 2019. In 2020, using funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (the ‘Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad’ programme) and with the participation of the ‘Help for Poles in the East’ Foundation, technical studies were prepared, along with a programme of conservation work and measures to safeguard the building. The roof structure was secured and the roof was re-tiled.

Architecture and interior design of the chapel

The brick chapel was built in the English Gothic style. It is situated on the edge of a landscape park in the south-western part of the village, almost on the axis of the road leading towards Wołówl, on a small, artificially mounded hill. To its north lies a small cemetery containing the gravestone of Jan Szlachetka (1856–1933) and a more recent (2008) grave holding the remains of the Orzeszków family, which were transferred from the chapel’s crypt.

The chapel has a square plan and twin single-storey façades; on the central axes are tall, blind gables with pointed arches, in which windows have been cut, and an entrance in the front façade. All are crowned with tall triangular gables, featuring three pointed-arch windows flanked by a pair of similarly arched recesses. The lightness and soaring character of the chapel are defined by the high triangular gables crowning the façades and the strongly articulated corners. The tall turrets framing them are encircled at the base by tiered buttresses and extended at the top by slender pinnacles. The hipped roof was crowned by a tall turret housing a bell, topped with a spire. Originally, a marble staircase led up to the chapel. The interior of the chapel has a square plan with cut corners. It was crowned by a crystal vault. In the basement there is a large, vaulted crypt.

Both the exterior and interior of the building featured rich stucco and cast-iron detailing, some of which has been preserved. The façades featured stucco mouldings curved into tendrils, rosettes and frieze arcades in the gables, whilst the interior boasted an intricate vault filled with a network of slender ribs and tracery, as well as ornate window frames. These were complemented by sculptural leaf-motif corbels, fleurons and a prominent overhang adorning the keystone of the vault. The tracery set into the windows (which once held stained-glass panes), the crosses crowning the gables, the chapel niches in the turrets—which originally housed life-size figures of the Evangelists— as well as large medallions adorned with the coats of arms of the owners and founders (Korab – the Orzeszków family and Nowina – the Chrzanowski family), which distinguished the façade. The high altar and the choir were also made of cast iron. Stucco mouldings arranged in a rosette pattern adorned the gables of the façade. Inside, the vault was filled with a dense network of thin and slightly thicker ribs forming lozenges and blind tracery; the keystones were decorated with leafy rosettes, and a fleur-de-lis with a pine cone hung in the centre.

Artistic value of the building

The chapel was situated on the edge of a spacious, freely laid-out park adjoining the former Baroque manor complex, becoming the focal point of its composition. Set on a small, artificially mounded hill, towering above the picturesque, sprawling pond that forms the heart of the park, it was also clearly visible from the public road, from which one could reach it through a gate in the low fence surrounding the park. Set against the backdrop of the park’s greenery, this elegant, central, soaring structure was built in the English Gothic style. The harmonious yet opulent impression made by the building was evidenced by its lavish ornamental detailing, executed in stucco and in a material that was considered modern at the time of its construction – cast iron. Both the exterior and the interior were densely ‘clad’ in linear, openwork decorations.

The designer of both the Zakoziel chapel and the park was most likely Franciszek Jaszczołd (1808–1873), an architect active in Podlasie and the Grodno Governorate. He was the creator of original designs for country estates set within parkland. The Zakoziel chapel is his only religious building.

The chapel in Zakoziel is regarded as one of the finest examples of Neo-Gothic architecture in Belarus.