What Kyiv looked like 100 years ago: a selection of rare photos that will surely surprise you

The capital of Ukraine has always impressed with its color and authenticity. Today, retro photos remain almost the only opportunity to see what Kyiv was like many decades ago.

It is interesting that many locations that are now famous and popular among residents and guests of the capital looked completely different in the past. After all, old photos are the bridge between the past and the present.

The photo below shows a panorama of the Left Bank of Kyiv in 1960. Here, instead of the residential massif of Bereznyaka, you can see a hamlet that entered the borders of Kyiv on October 21, 1923, and in 1941-1943 was completely destroyed by the retreating German and advancing Soviet troops.

The modern development of Bereznyaki was formed in 1967-1975, and the territory of the massif during development was washed up 3-4 meters – to the non-flooding marks.

Trukhaniv Island is located opposite the historical center of Kyiv between the main channel and the branch Dnipro Desenko. In the middle of the 19th century, the first buildings appeared on it, when the city administration allocated about 1 hectare of land here for the construction of a steam mill.

In the 1880s, working villages arose in connection with the creation of the 1st and 2nd associations of the Dnipro shipping company on the island. Shipyards, a yacht club, Hermitage Park were located here, and in 1895 a telephone appeared – the connection was made to the dacha of the steamboat magnate Margolin. .

Kyiv's main street — Khreschatyk — looked exactly like this in 1900-1910. It is interesting that in the 19th century a real creative center with theaters, cinemas, music schools and libraries was located here.

The first wooden theater in the city, designed for 470 spectators, was built in 1807, and it stood on place of the Ukrainian House. In 1875, Mykola Murashko's Kyiv School of Painting worked on Triochsvyatitelska Street – the author of “Black Square” Kazimir Malevich studied here.

In this photo, in the left corner, you can see the building on the site of which the Center of the Capital Market is now located.

< p>The central capital department store was built in the Art Deco style in 1936-1939, and reconstructed with the preservation of the historical facade unchanged in 2012-2016.

The famous avenue of chestnut trees on Khreshchatyk was planted after the Second World War. Although connoisseurs claim that young trees were brought to Kyiv from abroad as early as 1842 and planted on Bibikivsky Boulevard — the current Shevchenko Boulevard.

It is believed that the seedlings did not take root, and the townspeople began to actively dig them up and take them away, and then plant them next to their houses.

This is what Khreschatyk looked like in the 1960s – already beautiful, crowded and very green.

Khreschatyk stretches for 1.3 kilometers, and the central part of the road here is 75 meters. This street is the widest in the capital — to walk along and across Khreschatyk, you need to take 1,800 steps!

The architectural monument of the 11th century Golden Gate in the early 1950s. The postcard from the family archive was published in the Internet community “Kyiv. One day, one photo” on Facebook.

The Golden Gate is a monument of defensive architecture of Kyivan Rus during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise. Historically, they served as the main entrance to Kyiv's Upper Town from the south.

Nowadays, the reconstruction of the Golden Gate in 1982, which includes some preserved medieval elements, is one of Kyiv's attractions.

Taras Shevchenko Park in the 50s was a favorite place for city dwellers to stroll. This is how this place, known to many Kyivans, looked then.

The Taras Shevchenko Park is located in the center of Kyiv. It was opened in 1890 under the name “University Square”. Before the park was broken up, its place was a wasteland.

In 1939, for the 125th anniversary of Shevchenko's birthday, the Kyiv monument to Taras Shevchenko by Matvyi Manizer was opened here.

The National Art Museum of Ukraine (now the Museum of Ukrainian Art) is the largest art museum in our country. It is located in a building on Hrushevsky Street, which was specially built for this purpose by the architect V. Horodetsky.

The museum was founded in Kyiv in 1899 as the “City Museum of Antiquities and Arts”. Initially, the collection of archaeological finds of Vikentii Khvoyka was exhibited in the premises of the first floor.

The museum's holdings include about 40,000 exhibits, including masterpieces of Ukrainian and foreign painting, sculpture and graphics from the times of Kyivan Rus to the present day. The museum has one of the richest icon painting collections in Ukraine. The museum is currently temporarily closed.

This is what the entrance to the Museum of Ukrainian Art looked like in the early 1950s. His building really makes an impression at all times.

Taras Shevchenko Boulevard as a city street arose in the 1830s. Simultaneously with the construction of the Kyiv University building on nearby Volodymyrska Street, an alley was planted in the middle of the street – first with linden and chestnut trees, later – from the 1840s – with pyramidal poplars.

The first stone building on the street was the current building No. 25 (the former house of the detention companies), which for some time was outside the official city limits. In 1839, a botanical garden was laid along the left side of the street – now the Botanical Garden named after O. V. Fomin.

Taras Shevchenko Boulevard in the 50s looked quite lively and very green.

Kyiv-Pasajyrskyi is the main passenger railway station of Kyiv. There is a passenger station consisting of the Central, Southern and Suburban railway stations. There are also locomotive and wagon depots on the territory of the station.

Kyiv railway station was built in 1868-1870 to serve two railway branches. The discovery took place in the 1870s.

In the summer of 1877, a major fire broke out in the building of the Kyiv railway station. The building was restored, but, taking into account the expansion of railway connections, it was decided to reconstruct both the station and the entire station, which was supposed to improve the quality of passenger service and expand the capabilities of the entire railway hub.

In 2001, the station was completely reconstructed. The South Station was built, the platforms were rebuilt, the Central Station building and Station Square were reconstructed, underground pedestrian tunnels, an expanded pedestrian gallery above the tracks connected the buildings of the Central and South Stations.

In 2011, a museum of historical history was opened at the station rolling stock.

This is what Kyiv-Passenger station looked like in 1942.< /p>