While many enjoy hanging out on Kyiv’s main square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, (Independence Square), others criticize it for the gaudy, pretentious makeover it acquired during the latest reconstruction in 2001.
Some even go as far as calling it ugly.
But it turns out that the ugliness started way before our time – with a fountain called Freak (Urod) that stood there in the 1840s and 1870s.
Freak fountain stood on Khreshchatytska Square, the site of the modern Maidan Nezalezhnosti, from the 1840s through the 1870s. It is shown at the bottom center of the historic photo taken in the early 1870s by photographer O. Kordysh and courtesy of the Central State CinePhotoPhono Archives of Hordiy Pshenychniy.
A modern-day look is from Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna. A yellow building on Instytutska Street in the center of both photos is now the Culture and Art International Center October Palace, the former Institute for Noble Maidens.
There have been 10 different fountains decorating the square at various points in time, not counting the current set. But none of them were even close to Freak, in either name or looks. It was wooden, octagonal in shape, and had a tiny sprinkle of water that barely shot up. It was used for watering horses and other household needs.
According to one theory, Kyivans called the fountain Freak because of its ugly look and poor design. Another theory put forward by historians attributes the name to the donor who gave money for its construction. The donor was one-armed governor Dmitry Bibikov.
Freak contrasted sharply, in both name and looks, with another famous fountain located on a nearby square that is now called Yevropeyska. Its centerpiece was a fountain called “Ivan,” which was named in honor of the Kyiv governor and respectable city patron Ivan Fundukley.
Freak was, of course, the colloquial name of the fountain on the Maidan, but it even appeared in official documents. Historians quote the Kyiv province statistics committee’s protocol of June 11, 1869, which orders to give the name Khreshchatytska to a square “on Khreshchatyk, where Freak fountain stands,” because “the square is located on Khreshchatyk Street.”
Khreshchatytska Square was the first official title of the square, which is now marked in tourist guides as Maidan Nezaleshnosti and is famous as the site of the 2004 Orange Revolution. Freak was taken down, though, before the construction of the city council building, called the Duma, started in 1874.
Over the years, the square carried different names, including Dumska, Soviet and Kalinina (in honor of the first chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., or leader of the Soviet state) then October Revolution and, finally, it got its current name.
The square hosted monuments to Petro Stolypin, third prime minister of the Russian Empire, known for conducting a major agrarian reform; Karl Marx, the founder of Marxism; and Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Red October Revolution in 1917. It has been reconstructed several times and has seen many fountains come and go.
Kyiv historian Mykhaylo Kalnytsky attempted to study the history of the fountains on the Maidan. He concluded in his Livejournal blog (http://mik-kiev.livejournal.com/23946.html ) that: “As we can see, the history [of the fountains] began from the small Freak fountain. And it finished with … you know what.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].
