Bozkov: Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows (Sejkora Chapel)
The Baroque niche Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows from 1693 is located in the village of Cimbál on the yellow hiking trail from Bozkov to Semily. The chapel is generally known as the Sejkora Chapel, as it is located in a place known as “Na Sejkoří”. There are two explanations for how this name came about. The historical sources state that the chapel was named after the site on which it stands, as the word ‘sejk’ referred to the lobed shape of the plot of land. Legend then has is that the name is associated with the construction of the grand Church of the Visitation of the Virgin May in Bozkov, which was commissioned in 1690–1693 by Countess Marie Polyxena Desfours, the owner of the local estate. When the Countess set off for the church opening ceremony, she stopped by the little chapel and noticed that the Bozkov church was not built along the lines of the church in Stará Boleslav, as she had wished. She was furious at this and ordered the carriage driver, whose name was Sejkora, to turn around and take her home. On top of this, she held a grudge against Bozkov until her death. It was only when the heir to the estate, Ferdinand Ignatius Magnus, Count Desfours forgave the Bozkovskýs and had a separate parish established in Bozkov in 1746.
There is a modest altar inside the chapel and a bell hangs in the small bell tower. The chapel has a square ground plan, measuring roughly 3 × 3 metres. The pitched roof that connects to the belfry is covered in shingles. The masonry of the chapel has a cornice running all the way around it. There is a metal cross attached to the highest point of the belfry.
What we do know for sure is that the Sejkora Chapel was visited twice by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. He was here first in 1906, and then again in 1922 as President of Czechoslovakia. Not far from the chapel the Semily ramblers club renovated the viewpoint and named it in honour of this esteemed guest. The Masaryk viewpoint offers beautiful views not only of Bozkov, but also of the Giant Mountains and the Bohemian Paradise.
The Sejkora Chapel stands at the crossroads of hiking trails. The yellow, blue and green footpaths lead here, and while the green route ends here, the blue one continues northwest towards Medenec and Spálov while the yellow path leads to Bozkov and through Jesenný towards Návarov.
