It has all the characteristic features of the ecclesiastical architecture of the Hollander style found in Mazovia, in the form of, among others, the complementarity of the technique and the material and the separate gable roof over the nave and a lower one over the chancel, as well as a steeple located in the roof ridge.

History

The village, initially named Secymin Niemiecki, was funded in grubbed up wilderness under the Dutch law in the early 18th century. It belonged to the Secymin property, consisting of three villages and a manor. In 1827 it included 29 houses and 260 inhabitants, while in 1889 it included 333 residents. Around 1842 a filial church of the Evangelical-Augsburg parish in Wyszogród was established; after several years a wooden church was erected; however, it was destroyed by the waters of the Vistula river. The current temple (along with a brick parish house) was built upon donations of residents - Evangelicals, using the local materials and foundation stones delivered by boats from the northern fragment of the Vistula. After the end of World War II, on 8 September 1945, on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a parish priest from Leoncin, Józef Krawczykowski, consecrated the temple of Secymin and Roman-Catholic masses began to be celebrated in it (however, the building still belonged to the Evangelical-Augsburg consistory). Later, the building was purchased for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish in Nowy Secymin, belonging to the Warsaw-Praga deanery and diocese. In years 2002-2003 the church underwent full-scale restoration, together with a replacement of parts of structural materials of the walls, floors in the nave and the steeple.

Description

The chapel is located latitudinally, along the flow direction of the Vistula river, while the chancel faces the west. The chapel is surrounded by a picket fence. In the south-western part of the plot a new, a metal bell tower was built, in which a bell removed from the church tower was placed, with a date “1923”. On the south side, there is a contemporary, brick shrine in the fencing.

The chapel is made of poplar wood, on a stone foundation, in a log and post-and-plank structure, with a compact silhouette covered with a gable roof (main body) and shed roof (sacristy) clad in sheet metal.

Within the plane, there is a steeple covered with a six-sided cupola. The feature was erected on a rectangular floor plan, with two rooms separated on the eastern side and stairs leading to the choir gallery resting on octagonal pillars. At the west end, a two-room sacristy on a rectangular floor plan was added to the nave body. The façades are decoratively covered with weatherboards, with a fretwork decoration of bargeboards in the eaves section. The façade with two symmetrically arranged windows, between which the main entrance to the church is found, obscured by a gable roof resting on two decoratively cut supports. A steeple crowned with a metal crucifix on a sphere, pierced by bell openings terminating in a full arch and obscured by wooden shutters, rises above it. The side façades are symmetrical and five-axial. The west façade features an added sacristy, with an entrance on the south side.

The interior of the nave is covered by a faux barrel vault; in other rooms board ceilings are laid on floor beams. The interior fixtures and fittings date back to the construction of the chapel, except for ceramic tiles on the nave floor made in 2003 in place of boards.

The building is accessible to visitors following previous arrangements with the parish priest.

Author of the note Jerzy Szałygin, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Regional Branch in Warsaw 20-07-2017

Bibliography

• Szałygin J., Katalog zabytków osadnictwa holenderskiego na Mazowszu, Warsaw 2004, p. 56.
• Record sheet of monuments of architecture. Kaplica p.w. Narodzenia Najświętszej Marii Panny, prepared by Jerzy Szałygin, Warsaw 1998.