Kyiv, Ukraine: Evenings in the Parks

August 2010

According to my friends who were renting an apartment in Kyiv, apartments tend to be small and very few have air conditioning.  So, once the intense heat of the day passes (I was there for a heatwave),  life spills out into the over 70 lovely parks of Kyiv.  My souvenir booklet of Kyiv says that the city has 1,000 square meters of greenery for each Kyivite and countless benches for quiet moments.  The summer greenery provides a rich backdrop for the golden domes and a cooling cover for activities in the parks.

My friends and I headed to the City Park along the banks of the Dnipro River in the early evening for a free classical concert which for a reason unknown to us (not speaking much Ukrainian)  was canceled.  Nevertheless,  it was a lovely evening for a stroll.  Along the river bank, one park flowed into the next in unbroken succession.  We rapidly ate cold ice cream bars  before they melted at a stand near the pastel blue Mariinsky Palace (named for Tsar Alexander II's wife in the 1750s) in Mariinsky Park.   There were pleasant paths for skateboarding and skating; a vendor selling his Bach CDs; a couple posing for wedding pictures; and others just enjoying an evening stroll or view over the river.  Near the empty amphitheater where the concert was supposed to be, there were old men playing an intense, timed game of chess.

We crossed the  pedestrian "Lover's Bridge" where couples attach padlocks to the iron work railing to seal their commitment and write graffiti love messages.   I think the city discourages it, but who can stop true love?  We saw their soccer team practicing in Dynamo Stadium; a large kissable frog; folks filling bottles of "good water" at the  park's free spigots.  Some people believe the park water has more minerals, though tests have shown it's like the other city water of Kyiv.  (I stuck to the bottled kind.)  But when we arrived at the famous and fanciful State Academic Puppet Theater, I stumbled upon my favorite scene:  a beautiful young girl in ballet shoes lost in her fantasy with George and the Dragon.  Becoming aware that she was no longer alone, she slipped silently away.

The next night, we enjoyed an after- dinner stroll through Shevchenko Park.  Taras Shevchenko was born into a serf family in 1814, but his talent in painting got him into a university in St. Petersburg. He later returned to the Ukraine to make a series of paintings about Ukrainian life and became involved with other intellectuals, seeking freedom and liberation for the serfs.  He is considered the father of Ukrainian literature and influenced the development of the Ukrainian language through his poetry.  He was imprisoned by the Tsar for his seditious and inflammatory poems and died in 1861 just before the the serfs were emancipated.

I was surprised to find that his sedate statue not only overlooks his garden in Kyiv, but that a statue of him as  a more passionate young man watches over Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. Traveling around Kyiv, you can't miss the prestigious Shevchenko University in its bright red building.  The park across from the university had brightly colored benches and charming plant arrangements in the shapes of animals.  There were ponies for the kids to ride and pavilions for water and  refreshments.  What wonderful park places for the end of the day!


Click Link Below for Slideshow:
Kyiv: Summer Parks

Ukrainian Bandura Players,  "Bukovenian Youth Dance,"  Songs and Dances of Ukraine 

The House with Chimeras or "Animal House" Ukrainian Style

August 2010













 It is clear the House with Chimeras in Kyiv, Ukraine, has nothing to do with the movie about American fraternity students acting badly.  However, I did get the impression that there were some wild parties held here.  Vladislav Gorodestsky (1863-1930), the renown architect and major partner in the cement factory, designed and constructed this fantastic house in 1902-1903.  You may remember him enjoying a cup of coffee on a fashionable  boulevard from my previous post, On the Streets of Kyiv.

Gorodetsky was reportedly a "bon vivant" in his time.  He was among the great game hunters of that era--Hemingway, Teddy Roosevelt, and many other notables.  Having seen the magnificent African wildlife roaming the grassland of Tanzania,  I despise the needless slaughter of those animals, but I have to remember to judge a man within the context of his times.  I heard that Gorodetsky had the first car in Kyiv and rode around town with a monkey on his shoulder.  But then again, he apparently liked to start outlandish rumors about himself to keep things interesting.









Looking up at the menagerie of animals and mythical figures that were added by his request to the house by sculptor Elio Sala, I felt like I had entered someone's strange and magical dream.

The top of the house is covered with  an interesting mix of animals: deer, rhinos, elephants, fish, lizards, snakes, frogs, eagles, octopus, mermaids--I'm sure there are more.We arrived late in the afternoon when the contrast of shadows and bright sun created interesting and sur-real effects 

The house was quite remarkable for its time.  It was built on the edge of a steep hill with 3 stories in the front, but 6 stories in the back, and used the "new" building technologies of reinforced concrete.  While it has elements of cubist and Art Nouveau style, it is totally unique and delightfully "over the top."   Gorodetsky kept one floor of the house for his apartment and rented the others to wealthy associates.

Gorodetsky also designed jewelry and a number of structures in Kyiv, notably the St. Nicholas Cathedral and the Ukrainian National Art Museum.  But his expensive tastes eventually caught up with him, and he had to sell the house a decade after it was finished.  It was perhaps just as well, for winds of the Bolshevik Revolution had started to stir, and the austere era of communist utilitarianism  was approaching.




The Ukrainian Parliament building was later built across the street in Soviet style, and 10 families ended up housed in Gorodetsky's one-floor apartment (reminds me of Dr. Zhivago).  Perhaps the most amazing thing about The House with Chimeras is that this highly  individualistic structure was not destroyed along with beautiful churches and other "unnecessary structures" during the bleak communist period.

Gorodetsky, who was from the  Polish area of the Ukraine, moved to Warsaw, then to exotic Tehran, Iran, where he died and was buried in 1930.  Today the inside of his famous house is only seen by those invited by the President of the Ukraine to special receptions and events. But from my glimpse of the outside, I just want to say, "Thank you, Mr. Gorodetsky" for reminding us to imagine things fantastical  and improbable.