House with Chimeras. Sights of Kyiv
House with chimers, perhaps the most famous building in Kyiv. Now the house is located in the center of Kyiv, in a pair of tens of meters from the Palace of the President of Ukraine, and at the beginning of the 20th century everything was different.
Then in this part of Kyiv, rather uninhabited and neglected, work on improvement was carried out. At the place of the dried goat swamps built the building of the Solovtsov Theater (the current theater them. AND. Franco), and a plot of land on the cliff, towering over the theater, was sold at the city auction at a symbolic price, t.To. According to experts, it was absolutely not suitable for construction. Therefore, universal surprise caused the decision of the architect Vladislav Gorodetsky to build a house in this place for his family.
The full name of the Polish architect – Leshek Dezideriy Vladislav Gorodetsky, which is how the author of the modern building of the era of Modern, which became one of the main architectural monuments of Kyiv. One of the versions, the idea of building a house gained unexpected reinforcements due to a dispute. It is said that in 1902, three architects met in Kyiv restaurant: Alexander Kobelev, Vladimir Leontovich, and Vladislav Gorodetsky. During the friendly conversation, it turned out that Gorodetsky bought a cheap plot of land on the bank, and is going to build a house there. Knowing about the unsuitability of this site for the construction of anything, colleagues were extremely surprised, and expressed skepticism about the James of Gorodetsky. Immediately architects were betraying, according to the terms of which Gorodetsky had to build a house on the slope of the hill for 2 years, which he fulfilled with unprecedented scope and success just on the eve of his forty-eyed. Himself Gorodetsky at the reception organized on the occasion of the end of construction, said these words: "The house, of course, is strange, but there is no one person in Kyiv, who passing by, did not stop his view on it". He turned out to be right, impossible to pass in this house indifferent. The Palace of the President, located next door, receives much less attention from tourists and delighted looks than this amazing fabulous castle.
House with chimerers built in modern style, he grew up on the street of the bank in the period 1902-1903. During the year, the building was built, and two more years was spent on an external and internal finish. It was the first house in Kyiv, built using a new material – cement. The implementation of such a project could also serve as an advertising campaign of products of the Richter Industrialist, which occupied cement production. To create a sustainable base for the house, about 50 concrete piles were killed in the hill to a depth of 5 meters. From the side of the street, the building has three, and by the theater. Ivan Franco – six floors.
And external registration of the house, and the internal interiors are not repeated anywhere else, they reflected not only fantasy and the skill of the architect, but also his passion for hunting. Outside the building is an unforgettable spectacle. The facade is richly decorated with figures of the real creatures of hypertrophied sizes. Here and girls are riding in fish (they are often taken for mermaids), spread their networks; and dolphins, and sea reptiles, crocodiles, huge toads, jewish of unprecedented sizes, heads of rhinos, antelope; rapidly running for slim columns lizards; Eagles, predatory prostrate wings; Elephants whose trunks serve waterproofs during the rain. All these elements of the decor in their drawings performed the sculptor Elio Sala famous in those years.
Initially, the house was built as profitable. Six of the seven apartments were leased to wealthy people – another guest house was not affordable. And one floor – the third of the courtyard and the first on the part of the central entrance from the street of the bank, held the apartment of the Gorodetsky himself. The layout of the rooms was calculated in such a way that the first sun rays shone in the windows of the servants: cooks and maids. This is logical, because the service personnel was supposed to wake up the first to cook all the necessary residents. By noon, the sun fell into the Cabinet of Gorodetsky, where he usually worked at this time, and in the evening he looked into the living room.
On the left side of the central facade there was an alpine slide with a fountain. For the residents of Gorodetsky tried to create the most comfortable conditions. In addition to the fact that the house was equipped with all the necessary amenities, from the rooms of the lower floors there were exits to the inner courtyards (usually no such excesses were provided in the income houses). Near the house there was a small garden, and in the garden stood hlev. Here, in the center of Kyiv, the cow lived, and Gorodetsky was very proud that each stayed had a coffee with fresh cream or milk.
As for the inner decor – it is even more whimsical than decorations outside. According to the rules that Modern dictated, the house should be beautiful not only outside, but also inside, and Gorodetsky brilliantly coped with this task. If you enter the main entrance – it is from here that the current high-ranking guests of the President of Ukraine fall into the house, the first premises causes genuine admiration. Walls of the hallway covered with paintings, on which the underwater world is depicted with sunken ships. In the center of the ceiling decorates stucco in the form of a spruit. Decorative octopus tentacles are made in the form of a combination of sea shells, heroes, plants, all of them are degraded in different colors and coated with pearl. Made of this huge octopus from the gypsum, his tentacles are descended to the walls. If the stucco in the first hall is original, the chandelier was lost, and the current is a copy restored by photographs. It is also made of pearl and gypsum elements.
The rooms belonging to the family of Gorodetsky. In this part of the house and on the stairs leading up, during the restoration work, which was held on old photos made by Gorodetsky himself, the appearance of the house was restored, and part of the premises of the decor in the second half of the 20th century were simply repaired.
In the former living room of Gorodetsky now there is a small negotiating room. The brightest detail of this room is also a stucco, depicting the plexus of irises. It is performed in white, pink and light green tones. In addition, this room, like everyone else decorated with hunting attributes – on the walls here are hanging deer horns – Counter-shaped architectural cargo. In the former living room, as in the rest of the rooms, there is a furnace laid out by ceramic articles of amazing beauty. All furnaces in the house are good and can be melt at any time, but since the building has long been functioning a centralized steam heating, then the furnaces are not used even with a demonstration purpose.
The main accent of the dining room can be called a chandelier – in its manufacture, large dog horns were used. The stucco in the dining room is also very intimidated – it depicts various vegetables: here you can consider garlic, and artichokes, and beets, and much more. In good condition, the room in which the wardrobe is now preserved to this day. Tableware and paintings in these rooms and in the rest of the premises are not original objects of the situation – these are exhibits from the Museum Collection.
From the hall-hallway with the pitcher, on the upper floors leads a staircase from white marble. And the staircase itself, and the handrails, and the gypsum decor are perfectly preserved. Balaasins of staircases are made in the form of eagle paws, the walls are fixed with sculptural images of hunting weapons and trophies: here and a baked deer, and hare, and whole garlands from partridges and other diothes, as well as from spruce branches and cones. Between 4 and 5 floors on the stairs, the electric lamp was installed in the form of a giant catcher – it works and now. It is characteristic that if outside the building is decorated with live animals, then inside all of them are already presented in the form of hunting production.
It is known that Gorodetsky acquired a number of one more plot for the construction of the second house, but the addiction to the hunt was abandoned by the architect in Africa. Safari in Kenya was worth a lot, so in 1912 Gorodetsky laid the mansion to the Kyiv society of mutual loans, and he could no longer regain him.
In 1913, the house with chimers acquired Danil Balakhovsky, who served the agent of the French consulate in Kyiv. In the period after the October Revolution and to the Great Patriotic War, the house with chimerers was a communal, and, during these years he was the least injured, t.To. He lived in it teachers, art workers who respect the architect skill respect.
After the Second World War, the house became the hospital CPU Central Committee. It was the most unhappy period for the building. All walls were painted with oil paint. In some rooms, the number of layers reached 16 – all this restorers had to wash off to reveal the surviving paintings. Medical apparatus attached to the walls created vibration, and deep cracks appeared in them. To stabilize the building, the lower floors fell asleep the earth, but this was not saved by the situation. Started concrete figures, adorning the facade of the building (inside they were hollow). House with chimers – one of the most interesting sights of Kyiv, killed.
At that time, the residence of the President of Ukraine was closed for repair – the Mariinsky Palace, and to transfer it to be decided in the old building on the bank. In 2003-2004.G. The reconstruction of the building was carried out, which was estimated by experts by 30-40 million hryvnia. Sculptures from the facade removed, filled from inside with a special composition and covered paint, which for 25 years guaranteed to protect them from the effects of atmospheric phenomena. The walls of the building also strengthened with the use of modern technologies. The volume of restoration works included both the revival of the internal interiors of the house, painting, parquet. At the end of the restoration, the house acquired the status of a small residence of the President of Ukraine, intended for the reception of foreign delegations.
On the basis of the house with chimers, a museum and cultural center "Masterpieces of art of Ukraine", which is a branch of the National Museum. Among the exhibits of the museum, various objects of decorative and applied arts, picturesque canvas, sculptures. The museum is pride "Ostrog Bible" Print Ivan Fedorova (1581), bronze dishes, the manufacture of which dates back to the 16th century BC, as well as other rarities. Museum works only on Saturdays. Four tours per day by appointment.
Legends and myths:
Residents of Kyiv and guides came up with a romantic and tragic history of such an amazing house. They said that Gorodetsky built this house in memory of his daughter, which was drowned in the Dnieper (in another version – in the Mediterranean Sea) or from unfortunate love, or because of the troubles in family life. Here, they say, distraught from Grief Father, and erected this crypt. Although, in fact, the daughter of Gorodetsky lived a long life, waiting for grandchildren.
The most scandalous myth says that the author of the project is not at all Gorodetsky, but the engineer Nikolai Kdajekhevsky. But there is no evidence to this. All drawings are signed by Gorodetsky himself, who has already declared itself as an original and original architect, in their earlier work.
Address: ul. Bank, 10. How to get: take a metro to st. Khreshchatyk with access to ul. Institutskaya, then go up to the street of the bank; Go to Art. Metro Khreshchatyk (Gorodetsky) and go on ul. Gorodetsky, through the square and. Franco, past theater. Franco top.
