Historical outline

The village of Siemakovce (or Siemiakowce) is located about ten kilometres north-west of the much larger Chortkov. The earliest recorded information about this village dates back to the 19th century. The owners of the estate include primarily the Ochocki family, who ruled the estate from at least the second decade of the 19th century.

Originally, the village belonged to the parish in Chomiakówka, and in 1937 it was attached to the parish in Białobożnica. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a chapel was built in the village on the initiative of, among others, Chomiakowka's parish priest, Father Leonard Moczarowski, and the then owner of the estate, Wladyslaw Ochocki.

Under Soviet domination, the Soviets closed the building, which stood empty and unused from 1960 to 1989. In 1990 the chapel was reconsecrated and five years later the renovation of the building was completed. Interestingly, some of the original furnishings survive in situ.

Architecture

The building is located on the road from Bialy Potok, in the northern part of the village, on a hillside, on an artificially levelled terrace, which has been walled in from the east. The presbytery faces west. The chapel was built of stone and plastered. It consists of a two-bay nave and a semi-circular apse, forming the altar area. A rectangular sacristy with a vestibule is attached to the main body to the south.

The external elevations are set on a plinth. They are articulated by lisens, which, among other things, mark the division between the bays of the nave. The lisens support a broken cornice that encircles the entire building.

The façade is tri-axial, single-storey and topped with a triangular gable. Above the rectangular entrance opening on the axis is a tympanum with the inscription: LORD IT IS GOOD FOR US TO BE HERE. | MAT. XVII. 4. | 1895. On the sides of the entrance there are rectangular niches closed with a semicircle. A similar, slightly smaller niche is located in the gable field.

The nave is covered by a gable roof, the apse by half a pyramidal roof. The sacristy, on the other hand, is covered by a pent roof. The signature turret is covered by a pyramidal roof with a knop and cross. It is covered with sheet metal, as are all the roof slopes.

The interior walls have no articulation. The arcade of the rainbow is semicircular and supported by keystones with capitals in the form of sections of moulded cornice. The entire interior is covered with ceilings. The windows in the nave and altar sections are rectangular, closed with a semicircle. There is a circular window in the front and a rectangular window in the sacristy. The wooden music choir was constructed as a simple balcony. Above this part is an inscription recalling the restoration of the chapel in 1995.

Highlights related to the furnishings, decoration and surroundings of the building include :

• The main altar on a stone mensa in the shape of a sarcophagus with the image of the Transfiguration in the central field;
• Wicker woven confessional (dated before 1939);
• Neo-Gothic feretron with images of the Transfiguration and the Heart of the Virgin Mary;
• Stations of the Cross dated 1897 and other paintings including Christ Crucified, Christ holding a palm tree, Our Lady with Child, Anthony of Padua with Child;
• Lithographs dating to the 19th century, including Christ Carrying the Cross (copy of painting from the Carmelite Church in Lviv, Sacred Heart of Jesus;
• Sculptures, including Christ Crucified, Sacred Heart of Jesus, among others;
• A plaque commemorating the construction of the building, located on the northern echelon of the rainbow arch, and bearing the inscription:
• THIS SANCTUARY WAS ERECTED UNDER THE EFFORTS OF FR. LEONARID MOCZAROWSKI, MIJKOŁAJ DUTKIEWICZ | HEAD OF THE MUNICIPALITY WITH | HELP OF MR. WŁADYSŁAW OCHOCKI OWNER OF SIEMAKOWIEC | IN THE YEAR | 1895;
• The bell tower, in the form of a section of wall located to the south of the chapel.

In her study of the building, Catherine Brzezina describes it as modest. The author of the building is most probably the same designer who created the chapel in nearby Byczkowce. The furnishings of the church, although mostly original, do not stand out for their artistic level or richness. However, the author draws attention to the wicker confessional, which is one of the few artefacts of this type that have survived to this day.

Name: Public chapel of the Ascension of the Lord in the city of Lachen. Name: Public chapel of the Ascension of the Lord in Siemakovce

Name currently in use: a.k.a.

Division: architecture

Location: Ukraine, district: Ternopil, town: Semyakovce

Author: Unknown

Date of construction: 1895 r.

Technical data: Object made of stone and plastered