Turning the pages back... June 4, 1863 (06/01/97)

Turning the pages back...

June 4, 1863

One of Ukraine's most versatile modern architects, Vladyslav Horodetsky, was born on June 4, 1863, in Sholudky, a village near Bratslav, about 40 miles southeast of Vinnytsia in the Podilia region of western Ukraine. He studied at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, graduating in 1890.

He then moved to the Ukrainian capital, where he designed and built many landmarks. His most famous works include the classical National Art Gallery (formerly known as the Kyiv Art and History Museum) on Hrushevsky Street (1897-1900); a Karaite synagogue in a Moorish style (1899-1900) and a residential building now simply known as No. 10 Bankova Street (1902-1903). He also designed the building that houses Ukraine's National Bank (1902), damaged in a fire in April 1996.

Horodetsky's Roman Catholic Church of St. Nicholas, built in a stylized Gothic style (1899-1909), is cited as a leading example of Kyiv's turn-of-the-century European eclecticism. Under the Soviet regime it functioned as the Organ Hall, but has since been reopened as a Roman Catholic shrine.

Horodetsky also built numerous schools, churches and industrial edifices in the Kyiv region, Uman, Cherkasy and Symferopol, leaving his mark on Ukraine's urban landscape.

After the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1920, Horodetsky emigrated to Warsaw, and thence, in 1928, to Iran, which had begun to boom thanks to oil discoveries there. In Tehran, Horodetsky built the palace of the shah and other structures. He died in the Iranian capital on January 3, 1930.

Since 1991, the address of The Ukrainian Weekly's Kyiv Bureau had been 11 Karl Marx St., sharing the quiet avenue (with many examples of the Viennese style) branching off from the Khreschatyk with several buildings the late Podilian architect had designed. In fact, Horodetsky once resided on that street.

In 1996, Kyiv's City Council recognized the contributions of a man who added to the capital's flavor by renaming Karl Marx Street (formerly known as Nikolaievska or Mykolaivska after Tsar Nikolai II) in his honor. As such, the address of our Kyiv Press Bureau is now 11 Horodetsky St.

Sources: "Horodetsky, Vladyslav," "Architecture," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vols. 1, 2 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984, 1988); Marta Kolomayets.

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