Looking around Kyiv through a bus window, listening to a guide drone on, is boring. If you decide to take time to go sightseeing around the city, you’re better off with a good map and the Kyiv Post as a guide. Kyiv has plenty of places and buildings surrounded in mystery and exciting tales. And we’re about to tell you some of them.
Bluebeard’s castle
One of the most romantic and enigmatic places in Kyiv is “knight’s castle” or the “Bluebeard’s castle” on 1 Yaroslaviv Val Street by Zoloti Vorota metro station. It’s really difficult to get into because it’s private property, and it’s currently up for sale. The medieval-looking castle, done in English Gothic style, has a tall metal spire and two huge chimeras guarding the entrance. Built in 1896 – 1898, the building stands out in appearance and history.
Some say a tobacco factory owner named Salve lived there. “The legend came from the Latin word ‘Salve’ depicted in a mosaic on the floor at the castle’s entrance and which, in fact, in Latin means ‘Hello’,” said Mykhaylo Kalnytsky, a Kyiv historian. According to the legend, Salve made cigarettes under the trademark of his name. This is one legend that may have been true — such cigarettes by that name really existed and were popular in Kyiv in the 19th century.
Being wealthy, Salve is rumored to have built the castle for his lover and visited her secretly. Maybe that is why the castle is also nicknamed the Bluebeard’s, after the name of a famous Charles Perrault’s fairytale character who had a dark and secret room in his castle where his wife was not allowed.
Others say the castle belonged to baron Magnus Carl Alexander Steingel, a famous wine-making business owner whose family owned Swallow’s Nest in Crimea before the World War I. “However, Shteingel never actually [owned] the place. He lived in the house nearby on 3 Yaroslaviv Val, where the Indian Embassy is located today. The knight’s castle was built for Mykhail Podgorsky, a Polish landowner who had private estates in Kyiv and Volyn,” Kalnytsky said.
Podgorsky commissioned this exotic project from architect Mykola Dobachevsky, famous for taking part in the construction of the Panama Canal, which joins the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. The building housed a popular coffee and pastry shop called By Zoloti Vorota. Starting from 1912, the ground floor of the castle housed one of the very first cinemas in Kyiv.
A few years later, Podgorsky died and the castle changed hands a few times. Its owners included nobleman Karl Yarochynsky and the famous “sugar king,” the richest Ukrainian sugar manufacturer, Lev Brodsky.
Since the 1920s, during the Soviet times, the gorgeous castle in the Kyiv center was nationalized and turned into a dormitory with communal flats. Old bathrooms, Soviet wallpapers and Soviet communal atmosphere still linger in the building, contrasting oddly with fancy ancient fireplaces, oak doors, stained-glass windows and handmade luxurious decor and stucco work on the high ceilings of its huge rooms.
“There are tiny narrow rooms on the first floor which were made for servants and huge wide light halls on the second,” said Arseniy Finberg, head of Kyiv historical and excursion project ‘Interesting Kyiv’ www.interesniy.kiev.ua.
It took more than 10 years to evict old communal residents from this building. Aspiring new owners had to use both sticks and carrots to persuade old residents to move. Witnesses said it looked like a small war at times, with water and electricity cutoffs.
“A woman who owned a room on the first floor told me she bought three flats and a car after she finally decided to take cash and sell her room,” said one of the castle’s guards who did not want his name mentioned because he’s officially not allowed to talk to the press or let anyone inside the building.
Richard’s Castle
Another famous Kyiv castle is located at 15 Andriyivsky Uzviz, the historic tourist street. Despite the fact that Richard the Lionheart has no relation to the building in any way, it carries his name. This castle is considered to be one of the most mystical places in the city.
“It was built in English neo-Gothic style in 1902-1904 for Dmitry Orlov, a manufacturer, who decided to increase his profits by renting a flatted castle,” Kalnytsky said. After Orlov was killed in 1911, the house was sold. And that’s when funny things started.
The owners of flats in this building started to spread rumors that evil spirits wander the castle at night. Blood-chilling sounds rang through the castle every time it was windy outside. But eventually the mystery was dispelled by one of the residents who – during one of those windy days – stuck his hand into a chimney and discovered some egg shells (or bottlenecks, depending on the source of the story) that resonated in the pipe. Some people said the objects were left by the disgruntled workers who were either underpaid, or mistreated. But the truth will probably remain one of the history’s little secrets, as it should in any decent old castle. “Human imagination can work wonders,” Kalnytsky laughed.
During Soviet times the castle, again, was nationalized and its luxury suites were turned into communal flats. In 2001, the Kyiv City Council leased the castle out for 50 years to an American firm to build “objects of social infrastructure.”
“It can turn into a boutique, a restaurant, a sauna – anything. We have not approved any of that, but the issue is still on the agenda,” said Tetyana Melykhova, head of the city council’s working group in charge of Richard’s Castle.
House with Chimeras
Architect Vladyslav Gorodetsky is sometimes referred to as Kyiv’s Antoni Gaudi. He is the author of one of the most exotic castle-like buildings in Kyiv, namely the House with Chimeras, an Art Nouveau style structure on 10 Bankova Street, across the road from the president’s office. This peculiar mansion is lavishly decorated with sculptures of huge frogs, rhinos, crocodiles, lizards, sea monsters and mermaids that attract many tourists any time of the year.
The building reflects Gorodetsky’s eccentric character. “He was often seen walking round Kyiv with a tamed monkey in his hands, had a passion for hunting and often went on African safaris. He was a daring person and made a bet that he would complete the House with Chimeras in two years. He won the bet right on his 40th birthday anniversary,” said Natalia Pinchuk, a Kyiv guide. “He had the kind of talent that can never pass into nothingness.”
Gorodetsky spent his free time hunting in the African savanna. His hobby contributed plenty of decor to the House with Chimeras, both outside and inside. All rooms were decorated with animal skins. Also, Gorodetsky used pioneering technologies for this building, including cement and concrete.
The buildings quickly became surrounded by legends and rumors. Some said the house was built in the memory of Gorodetsky’s daughter who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Others claimed it was built for his lover. From 1903 to 1917 there were seven rooms in the house, including Gorodetsky’s own office which now serves as the president’s cloakroom.
There was going down to the basement where utility rooms were located, including a laundry room, firewood storehouse, a wine cellar, a shed for vehicles and a cowshed. “Gorodetsky used to serve fresh cow milk to his guests,” Pinchuk said.
However, in 1913 Gorodetsky ran up large debts and was forced to sell the house, which was then turned into dormitory and communal flats. In 1944 it was turned into a medical clinic. The walls were painted white and holes punctured in them to plug in various medical equipment.
From 1998 to 2004 the clinic was moved, the house underwent major restoration costing the budget some $ 30 million. These days Gorodetsky’s house is part of the president’s administrative buildings, welcoming foreign delegations on par with Mariyinsky Palace.
Steingel brothers’ house
If baron Steingel did not live in the castle on 1 Yaroslaviv Val Street, where did he live then?
There is an advertisement in old Kyiv newspapers about Steingel’s wine cellar in a cozy two-storied building under number 3 on Yaroslaviv Val Street which stands beside Bluebeard’s castle. The Indian Embassy is located here today, but in 1858 it used to be the house of Serhiy Alferiev, a councilor of state (rank in civil service in pre-1917 Russia).
Alferiev was well-known in Kyiv. However, he owed too much money to the Kyiv Credit Union and had to sell the house to baron Magnus Steingel. He turned the upper floor into living quarters, turned the first floor into a sugar-mill, and made a wine cellar in the basement of this house. In 1917 the Steingels moved away to the Caucasus and their house was expropriated by the Soviet government. It housed the German consulate between 1923 and 1938.
The Steingels owned one more building in Kyiv on 27 Vorovskogo Street. Its refined Gothic style stands out among the large boring Soviet buildings. In 1877 to 1892 it was not Magnus Steingel’s house but his younger brother Rudolf’s, who was a railway engineer from Tallinn, Estonia and a councilor of State. “If you come closer to the stained-glass windows on the ground floor you will see extant metallic inscriptions of the Steingel family initials: ‘RS’ for Rudolf and ‘MS’ for his wife Maria,” Kalnytsky said.
At that time the building was surrounded with an English-style park with walkways, flowerbeds, fountains, lakes and black swans. In 1890 baroness Maria Steingel died and was buried at Askoldova mohyla, one of oldest necropolis for rich people in Kyiv which was destroyed during the Soviet times. Two years later baron Steingel also died and was buried in the same family necropolis made by Vladyslav Gorodetsky, the creator of the House with Chimaeras on 10 Bankova Street. In 1901 the family estate on Vorovskogo street was bought by neurologist Mykhailo Lapynsky who turned it into his medical clinic and physiotherapeutic sanatorium.
“In 1970-80 the property was roughly divided into two parts and a huge Soviet clinic building of industrial style was put between them. There were no public protests against that cruelty to Kyiv’s historical heritage, because in Soviet times there were no such things as protests,” Kalnytsky said.
Today, the front part of the former Steingels’ estate is easily visible. The other part is hidden behind a huge hospital building. Its gothic patterns on half-ruined walls, trees growing inside the former halls and baron’s rooms are breathing with grand decrepitude.
Sulymivka
This enigmatic house in classical style on 16 Luteranska Street was built in 1833 – 1835 by offsprings of noble and popular hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks Ivan Sulyma. His grandson, landowner and amateur architect Akym Sulyma started building the house for his family according to his own architectural design.
Massive classical front columns and a huge dome of Sulymivka were seen from Besarabska square. But the house stood unfinished and unpopulated for a long time. Some attributed it to devilry inside the building that made blocks fall down on the heads of passers-by, and wild laughter sounding from the attic.
In 1840 Sulyma died and his widow, Ulyana, bequeathed the estate to the Kyiv Charitable Society which turned it into an orphanage, shelter for the elderly and a cheap canteen. For four years, starting in 1862, Sulymivka was looked after by many local philanthropists. But then the building was severely damaged by fire and stood empty for a long time. It was restored in 1884-1887 by Ivan Tolly, a merchant and Kyiv city mayor. Sulymivka then looked like a small town with its own church, shops and a free school class. However, in Soviet times it all was closed down. “In 1928 all the rooms of Sulymivka were turned into communal flats and its church was completely destroyed.” Kalnytsky said. “Today none of the parts of Sulymivka look like they had in those days. And formers rooms for the orphans and the poppers belong to businessmen.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Iryna Prymachyk can be reached at [email protected].
