Historical outline

The village is situated on the Seret River, five kilometres from the much larger Trembowla. Historical sources are silent on the origins of Semenovo. The oldest mention of the village dates back to the 15th century. The owners and leaseholders of the estate over the centuries include Jakub of Malice, Jan Siemionowski, Zygmunt Kierdejowicz, Mikołaj Kierdej (15th and 16th centuries), the Basilian brotherhood (17th century), the Dzieduszyckis (18th-19th centuries) and the Koziebrodzkis (20th century).

According to Marcin Biernat in his study of the village and the site, Semenów contained prehistoric monuments such as barrows and "old trenches (...) having the shape of a polygon" by folk referred to as a "castle".

Semenov originally came under the authority of the parish in nearby Trembowla. A local parish was established here in 1937, but the sources do not provide any detailed information. The church in the village was built as a public chapel, thanks, among other things, to the support of Jozef Koziebrodzki, who donated the site for construction and "considerable monetary assistance". The end of construction must have been around 1906, with the consecration taking place a year later. From the very beginning, the temple was planned to be built with a view to establishing a parish on the site.

The Second World War, especially at its end, proved to be a very dangerous time. Ukrainians of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army murdered six inhabitants in Semenovo. At the height of the terror, Father Brunon Pokorny commuted to the village from Trembowla.

Under the domination of the USSR, the church was turned into a warehouse for a souvenir factory. In 1991, the church was taken over by the Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church and since then it has borne the name of Sts Peter and Paul. From the 1990s to the late 2000s, the church was renovated. At the same time, certain elements (e.g. the cupola of the tower) were transformed into features characteristic of Eastern churches.

Architecture

The building is situated on a hill. It was set on a stone foundation, built of brick and plastered. It consists of a three-bay nave and a lower and narrower chancel, which faces south. At the front, the attention is drawn to the square-shaped tower. In the ground floor it houses the porch and on the first floor the choir. On its eastern side is a triangular-shaped annex with a staircase leading to the choir. On the west side, on the other hand, an open arcaded portico was placed, which has been preserved to this day. A square-plan annex containing the sacristy was attached to the altar area. Its walls extend beyond the outline of the nave.

The front elevation, closed with a triangular gable, is almost completely obscured by the tower and the annexes flanking it. The tower is two-storey (although without visible horizontal divisions) with rusticated corners, closed with a profiled cornice. It is topped by a cupola, formerly pyramidal in shape, now in the shape of a dome, typical of Eastern churches.

The side elevations of the main body are framed by single-sided buttresses. The rear elevation is enclosed by a profiled cornice above which is a triangular gable topped by a pedestal. The elevations of the altar section have no articulation, nor do those of the sacristy.

There is a gable roof over the nave and altar area, but this changes to a pyramidal roof at the close of the chancel. There is a pent roof over the sacristy. All the slopes were originally covered with tiles, today with metal sheets.

Inside, attention is drawn to the articulation of the nave walls, which was carried out with pillars (half-pillars in the corners) topped with profiled cornices and tripartite roofs. The nave, altar area and porch were covered with cross vaults, and the sacristy and music choir with ceilings. The icosahedron arcade is semicircular.

The building is dominated by rectangular, pointed-arch windows of various dimensions. There is a rectangular window in the sacristy. The music choir was preceded by a shallow wooden balcony supported by a pair of consoles, with an openwork balustrade of boards imitating balusters.

As Marcin Biernat writes in his study of the building, the church in Semenovo is a typical project for Tadeusz Obminski, realised according to the scheme of a temple of "medium" size, i.e. seating four hundred people. Similar buildings were erected in Zadrzwórz and Yaremcze, among other places. However, this does not mean that Obminski is the author of the plans. Historical sources are silent on the subject. Biernat also draws attention to certain asymmetrical elements reminiscent of the building located in Podhajczyki Justynowe by Teodor Talowski. The temple is currently in good condition. After a renovation carried out for almost two decades, it has acquired the characteristics of eastern churches.

Name: Semenov Parish Church

Name currently in operation: Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Semenovo

Division: architecture

Location: Ukraine, district: Ternopil, locality: Semeniv

Author: Unknown

Date of construction: 1906 r.

Technical data: Brick object, plastered