You're reading: Then & Now: A century of change on Podil

More than 100 years separate these two photographs of Kontraktova Square, located in Kyiv’s oldest district of Podil near the Dnipro River.Although called Kontraktova (contract) now, at the beginning of the 20th century, the place was known as Oleksandrivska. It was named in honor of Romanov-era Russian emperor Aleksandr II, since Ukraine was part of the czarist empire at that time.

 

The photograph above of Kontraktova Square in Kyiv’s Podil district was taken sometime near the start of the 20th century, although the date and photographer are unknown. (Courtesy of the Central State CinePhotoPhono Archives of Hordiy Pshenychniy in Ukraine)

The photo shows Kontraktova Square today. It was taken by staff writer Oksana Faryna.

In the historical black-and-white photo, a bell tower clock shows the exact time of day when the picture was taken by an unknown photographer. It is about 8:25 a.m. Unfortunately, the date, month and year were not recorded. But the picture is believed to have been snapped at the beginning of the 20th century. A few people are milling around the square. Horses and electricity-powered street cars provided transportation in the pre-automobile era. This is the first tram line in the Russian empire, launched in Kyiv in 1892 by German engineer and entrepreneur Amand Struve. That electric tram connected Czar Square – now European Square – with Kontraktova.

Podil was always known as a city trade center. The proof is found in several signs on the two-storied semi-circular building. The inscriptions are written in old Russian, which still contained the unpronounced “yat” letter at the end of some words. The sign on the right side is for the shop of Jacob & Josef Kohn, who were widely known Austrian merchants of fashionable furniture. Other inscriptions are for a Russian furniture shop and a stockings shop. The two-storied building was rented to entrepreneurs by Bohoyavlenskiy or Bratskiy monastery, which owned it. The Bohoyavlenskiy Cathedral, built in the 1690s by Ukrainian architect Yosyp Startsev, and a bell tower built, by Stepan Kovnir in the 1750s, also belonged to the monastery. Near Bohoyavlenskiy, the great Cossack hetman Petro Sahaydachniy was buried.

The three-story building at the right of the cathedral was constructed in the 1820s as a campus for the newly opened Kyiv Seminary that existed until 1918. This building survived. The Bohoyavlenskiy Cathedral and the bell tower were not spared by time and people. They survived the civil war that followed the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, but were destroyed by communists in 1933. In its place, the Soviet authorities built a new campus for a naval college and a plaza for parades of soldiers. The Ecclesiastical Academy campus was handed over to the naval college. In 1953, an additional two stories were built over the semi-circular building. Asphalt long ago replaced cobble stones.

After Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, both buildings became a part of the renewed Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The plaza over the old cathedral basement is now a favorite place for modern university students to take breaks.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].