Strolling around center of Kharkov

Have you ever asked yourself why, whenever we come to a city for the fist time, we go for a walk in its streets as soon as we can? This occurs probably because each city is a kind of “stone chronicle”. In fact, each single street and each particular building is able to impart us its unique story. This is vividly confirmed by our city.

For this walk, we have selected the most interesting, in our opinion, route, which will start from the very centre of the city, viz. from the Pokrovskiy monastery and the University Hill, and will lead us further across the Constitution Square, Roza Luxembourg Square and Proletarskaya Square, then along the Poltavskiy Shlyakh Street, Sumskaya Street, Pushkinskaya Street and Moskovskiy Avenue. This is the historical centre of the city. In this particular place, just between the Lopan and the Kharkov rivers, the year 1654 saw foundation of a fortress, to which our City owes its origins.

It is a long time since the beautiful Nikolayevskiy temple was destroyed, the very temple that provided the original name (Nikolayevskaya) for the square that is known nowadays as the Constitution Square. Located here is a magnificent ensemble of former bank buildings constructed in accordance with the modernist style as well as neo-renaissance style.

On the Constitution Square, there is a variety of buildings that create the image of Kharkov's centre, viz. Kotlyarevskiy University of Arts, City Administration building, Labour Palace, etc. Each of them has a story of its own. For example, the building that accommodates the mayor and his staff as well as today's City Council used to be the building of the former City Council, having been erected as early as 1885. In the 1930s, it was reconstructed in the so-called constructivist style, which was popular at the time, while in the 1950s the building was redesigned to meet the requirements of the national architecture style. The Labour Palace used to belong to the former Rossiya Insurance Company. The monumental neo-classicism of this building with its allegorical statues, arched passage and tracery gratings has aroused photographers' inspiration for many years.

The sky-scraping Aleksandrovskaya belfry of the Uspenskiy Cathedral can be easily seen not only from the Constitution Square, but also arguably from any place in Kharkov. Catherine the Great herself offered her prayers here during her visit to our city.

Roza Luxembourg Square, which used to be called initially the Torgovaya Square and then the Pavlovskaya Square, neighbours the Sergiyevska Square, nowadays called the Proletarskaya Square. It is the Proletarskaya Square that enables the visitors to enjoy a good view of the Blagoveshchenskiy Cathedral, one of the most ancient of Kharkov's temples.

Having walked across the Lopan river by the bridge, we shall find ourselves in the Poltavskiy Shlyakh Street, which is still called 'Sverdlov Street' by the inhabitants of Kharkov, this being its previous name, while just a few people know that its original name was Ekaterinoslavskaya Street. Located along this street before the October revolution of 1917 were houses of well-to-do merchants. Amazing as it is, the fact is that the house of the former merchant Muravyov, who used to trade in bread products, was used for a bakery until recently. Looking at the street over-filled with motor-cars, one can easily imagine numerous horse-drawn carriages that used to dash to and fro in this very street.

Many vehicles join in the motorcar torrent coming from the Privokzalnaya Square, which has been transformed so dramatically for some years. The Kharkov Railway Station built in 1869, soon after the arrival of the first train in Kharkov, was considered to be one of the most beautiful railway stations in the Russian Empire.

The Sumskaya Street appeared simultaneously with the Kharkov fortress as a road towards the town of Sumy. It is noteworthy that a part of the street, although a small part, is still a cobbled roadway.

The Liberty Square represents a different rhythm and a different epoch. Here one can see the so-called Gosprom, a monumental and simultaneously amazingly dynamic building, which is an embodiment of the image of Kharkov as the first capital of the Ukraine.

The Pushkinskaya Street and the adjacent streets and side streets constitute a very specific Kharkov, in which one can feel the cosiness and fascination of the quiet yards and even hear the birds singing. Here one can come across almost all styles of architecture of the past and present time, so this district is a kind of architecture museum.

Moskovskiy Avenue, which traces its history back to the epoch of foundation of Kharkov fortress, starts in the historical centre of the city and stretches for many kilometres eastwards. This is the longest thoroughfare of Kharkov. We shall part with you at the initial point of the avenue where one can still come across beautiful ancient buildings in the midst of the up-to-date and ever-young city of Kharkov.