The castle church in Brzeżany (Sieniawski chapel) is considered to be the most important family mausoleum in the former Republic of Poland, after the collegiate church in Zhovkva. After the Sieniawski family died out in the early 18th century and Brzeżany passed into the hands of their heirs, the castle and the church began to deteriorate. This process continued for over 200 years. Significant damage was also caused by both World Wars and the subsequent actions of the Soviet authorities.

At present, the castle church is in a state close to total destruction. For several years it has been secured with makeshift scaffolding to support the stability of the walls. Little remains of the rich interior furnishings on site. The stucco decoration has mostly collapsed together with the vaults and is preserved in the form of rubble. Partially preserved are the sculptures from the tombstones, transported after World War II to the storage facilities of the Lviv National Art Gallery. The unique carved tin sarcophagi of the Sieniawski family were taken to Poland before the Bolshevik invasion in 1920 and luckily survived in Pieskowa Skała.

Preparatory works have been carried out for three years. In the course of them, a structural expertise, a construction project and a detailed design for the strengthening of the structure, designs for the restoration of the vaults and roofing of the chapel have been financed, clean-up work has been carried out and the buried foundations of the sacristy have been uncovered.

Work carried out in 2020.

In 2020, POLONIKA Institute financed the carrying out of the cleaning and structural work on the Sieniawski Chapel. First of all, the old wooden scaffolding erected along the walls of the chapel on the side of the inner courtyard formed between the chancel and the castle walls on the eastern side was dismantled. Then the excess ground layers (humus) and embankments were removed. The foundations uncovered during the work were secured by setting up a wooden structure with a tin roof over them. Once the site was tidied up, the construction work inside the chapel began. The existing wooden scaffolding was supplemented with platforms, ladders and handrails to enable work at height.

These initial clean-up measures were necessary in order to be able to proceed with saving the building in the future.

Executor: Foundation for Central and Eastern European Partnership

Work carried out in 2021

In 2021, work was carried out to remove the rest of the external scaffolding (front and sides of the chapel), built by Ukrainian contractors after 2000 in connection with the repair of the lanterns and domes of the side chapels and the construction of the temporary roofing of the nave. The scaffolding was in a poor state of repair, had almost no function any more and hindered the architectural survey of the chapel, including 3D scanning. During their inspection, it was discovered that the temporary roofing had serious workmanship flaws and did not protect the chapel walls from rainwater flooding. Large sections of the roof between the domes and the temporary roof had to be filled in and the roofing of the domes completed.

The structure of the temporary roof is essentially supported by the walls and internal scaffolding, but in several places it is supported by elements of external scaffolding - these elements required the roof support to be transferred to the walls and internal scaffolding. An underground power line from the nearest transformer station to the chapel was also installed: the presence of a power source will be essential in the future to enable research and conservation work requiring the use of electrically powered equipment. Bringing in the power line required archaeological supervision, due to both Ukrainian and international standards for carrying out earthworks at historic sites.

Executor: Partnership for East Central Europe Foundation

Works carried out in 2022

In 2022, the work started in the second half of last year and related to the inventory of the Sieniawski Chapel using the 3D scanning method and the development of a digital BIM model was completed. This is a modern, extremely advanced technology, which allows not only for the creation of a faithful, virtual model of the building, but also to make changes in it, resulting from research conducted in the object or conservation work. It is a tool that facilitates conservation design and the control of the effects of conservation work.

Contractor: BIM Monuments

Conservation work carried out between 2020 and 2022, Conservation Programme, Polonica Institute