Formation of the Architectural Space of Central Ukrainian Cities. The Example of Kropyvnytskyi (Yelisavetgrad)

The Ingul River (a tributary of the Southern Bug) and its tributaries – smaller rivers Gruzka, Chechora, Sugokliya and Biyanka – form the hydrographic system of the area of the future town of Kropyvnytsky (Yelysavetgrad) [13].

On the western bank of the Ingul River, there is a plateau with slopes towards the shore, which is cut by gullies with channels of the Gruzka, Chechora and Sugoklia Rivers. The plateau on the left bank has a gentle south-westerly slope towards the valley of the Ingul River and is bounded on the north by girders and on the south by the Biyanka River. Both plateaus consist of several promontories formed between ravines and small rivers flowing into the Ingul River. The water surfaces of the rivers with wide valleys served as natural barriers around the future fortress. (Fig. 2).

Figure 2.

The territory of the town has fertile soils, sedimentary and mineral resources suitable for industry.

From the 10th century, the territory of the region was successively occupied by Slavic (Uglich) and Turkish tribes. In the twelfth century the area was a hunting ground for the Kievan princes. In the 14th century, it served as a border with the Bratslav Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This is reflected in the toponymy of the founded settlements and geographical objects.

Since the seventeenth century, the area of study in southern Ukraine has been inhabited by Ukrainian Cossack settlements such as Lelekivka, Tsybuleve and Zavadivka, and by schismatic Old Believer villages of immigrants from Poland and Sivershchyna: Klintsy, Vyska, etc. [4].

In the middle of 1754, the construction of the outpost began, consisting of the St. Elisabeth fortress with its inner part and the surrounding urban periphery (forstadt), which was surrounded by a circular fortified belt (retranchment) [5].

The earth fortress was built in 1754–1759 under the direction of the engineer colonel I.L. Menzelius according to the principles of the construction of the defensive lines of the Russian Empire in the 17^th and 18th centuries and the Cossack earth fortresses of the 17th century [6]. It had six bastions surrounded by moats, six ravelins and six escarp curtains forming a firing zone from the open side and covered an area of 20 hectares.

Inside the fortress, in the central square, there was the wooden church of the Holy Trinity (1755) with a bell tower and the military administration building with a central tower, both of which served as urban planning dominants. Around the square, 12 quarters of soldiers’ barracks [13] were built according to the “exemplary” projects of the “Building Commission” [11]. The bastions housed engineering, artillery, warehouses, etc.

On the right bank of the Ingul, according to the plan of the surveyors of the engineering expedition of the Military Department O. Guryev and S. Leontyev [14] for the military settlements of Permske – for the Perm Dragoon Regiment and Bykovo – for the Pikiner Regiment, prefabricated wooden “mazanka” houses were built in half a year according to the “exemplar” designs of D. Trezini. They were arranged in a chessboard pattern on the ground “for protection against fire” (Figs 3.2; 3.3) [6:11].

Figure 3.

The main streets of the slobods V. Permska (Evropeyskyy Avenue) in Permsky; M. Sadovsky (N. Bykivska); V. Bykivska – in Bykovo; and Ostrivska (in modern Podil) were laid parallel to the coast and formed terraces.

To the north of Bykovo, according to the possibilities and tastes of the owners of the houses [1], a civilian Greek settlement (later called Chechora) was spontaneously built to serve the military units.

The wooden churches of St. Sign and St. Volodymyr were built on the outskirts of Bykovo, marking the boundaries of the settlement and, together with the Trinity Church of the Fortress, serving as urban dominants of the right bank.

The Cossack settlement of Lelekivka was situated north of the military fortifications.

To the south of the fortress on the Sugoklea River, in 1764 General O.P. Melgunov ordered the existing orchard of the Zavadivka Cossack winter quarters, located further south, to be transformed into a “state garden” to supply the High Court with fruit and vegetables.

The layout of the streets of the left bank part of the fortress town, inhabited by craftsmen and merchants, corresponded to the location of the fortress redoubts [20]. It was planned in 1766 by ensign S. Leontiev and had rectangular quarters of close size and narrow (10–12 m) streets [4]. The centre – V. Perspektyvna Street, which passed by the fortress between the suburbs of Permske and Bykovo on the right bank of the Ingul river and divided the left bank fortress town into two parts, which was distinguished by its width (20 m). On the corner of St. V. Perspektivna and Preobrazhenska (Kupetska) a market square was built within a few blocks, around which the magistrate's office, the parade ground, the guardhouse and the fire brigade were located. On the corner of Khrestovozdvizhenska (Pokrovska) and Olexandrivska (A. Tarkovskogo) streets a wooden church of intercession was built, and on the corner of Kupetska and Pashutynska streets a wooden church of the Transfiguration. Thus, in the city centre facing the fortress, on the banks of the Inhul River, a civil administrative centre dominated by churches was established (Figs 3.1; 3.4).

At the beginning of the 19th century, the town suffered from fires and floods as a result of military operations during the war with the French. The city had 4,746 inhabitants in 1787. Further development of the city began in the 1830s.

During the 1820s and 1850s, the city had been receiving general plans from the “Commission from Buildings”, showing the market squares that were created with the development of fair trade in the town were indicated: Hay and Skotopriginna – on the right bank of the Ingul; The Big Bazaar, Kinna Square – on the left bank. Near to them were located small repair workshops, the mills, the food and processing manufactories. Brick production developed in the Chechora suburb. The military settlements on the right bank expanded and were complemented by civilian buildings.

In 1835–1836, by order of the head of military settlements in the region, General D. Ye. Osten-Saken, a city hospital and a garden were built in the abandoned fortress.

In order to protect the city from floods, the canal and the banks of the Ingul River were arranged: in 1841 the straightening of the Ingul River canal began, and in 1845 a large stone bridge was built connecting the left and right banks of the Ingul River at V. Perspektyvna Street.

In the middle of the 19th century, there was a transition from the universal and finished language of classicism to the various styles of world architecture, appropriated for the expression of the appointment of a building. In 1843, the decree “On the Ununiform Appearance of the Facades of the Buildings of the Capital” (yказ “O даче фасадам столичных домов вида неединообразия” (rus.) [12] was published, which led to the spread of historicist architecture in the second half of the 19^th century and the development of modernism at the beginning of the 20^th century.

In 1845 the house of the landowner K.V. Sokolov-Borodkin was built under the fortress, on V. Permska Street (Everopeysky Avenue), in the romantic classicist style, which together with the fortress walls became the architectural dominant of the city, marking the location of the fortress, the Hay Square, V. Perspektyvna Street and the entrance to the Great Bridge (Fig. 4.4) [4].

Figure 4.

In the 1840s the ensemble of the military administrative centre began to form in the suburb of Kovalivka. In 1841 an aristocratic meeting house was built in the Boulevard Street (Yu. Olefirenka). In 1848–1950, on the orders of the Military Department, the Cavalry Boulevard was built nearby, surrounding the parade ground, where regular military reviews were held. On the sides of the boulevard, on Dvortsova (Theatre) and Cavalry Streets, a complex of headquarters and training buildings of the Second Reserve Cavalry Regiment was built in the empire style (architects: V. Verlon, F. Shokhin). In 1849 the construction of the Church of the Intercession in the historicist style (architect: O. Ya. Andreev) was begun on the side of Bulvarnaya Street (Fig. 4.3) [14].

In 1848–1850 the centre of the civil administration began to take shape at the intersection of V. Perspektivna and St. Dvortsova (Teatralna) Streets: the City Boulevard was planned with an ensemble of government buildings in the style of historicism (architects: P. Farafontyev, V. Verlon), to which the services previously located on the market square near the Ingul River were moved [14]. At the end of the 19th century, the complex of government offices was reconstructed with the construction of new buildings (extension of the city administration, fire station, completion of the premises of the city bank, a library designed by the city technician K.E. Shostovsky [17]).

The centre of the civil administration served as a link between the fortress with the house of K. V. Sokolov-Borodkin on V. Perspektivna str. and the ensemble of the main buildings with the cavalry park on Dvortsova str. Dvortsova Street. The best houses, shops and hotels were built on these streets (Figs 4.1; 4.5; 4.6).

Stone churches – the Church of St. Volodymyr, the Church of Intercession and the Church of the Transfiguration – were built in place of the old wooden churches of the 18^th century. A Lutheran Kirkha was built near the Church of the Transfiguration on the corner of Nevska (Pashutynska) and Gogol Streets in 1852. The wooden church of St. Peter and Paul was built in the northeast of Podol. The silhouette of the fortress, the domes of the churches and the spire of the church were the dominant features of the town.

In the middle of the 19^th century, the area of the city increased. In 1858, the city had 23,700 inhabitants. On the right bank of the Sugokleya River, a tributary of the Ingul River, the area of the City (former State) Garden was enlarged by the construction of cottages, and further west the settlement of Sokolivski Khutory was established.

To the south of the Podol, the suburbs of Kushchivka and Maslyanikyvka began to be built according to a regular plan. The regular residential quarters of the Kovalivka suburb began to form in 1850.

The settlements of Lelekivka and Zavadivka grew. Between Lelekivka and Chechora the settlement of Balashivka appeared (Figs 4.1; 4.2) [4].

In 1861 serfdom was abolished in the Russian Empire, which led to an increase in the urban population and a rapid development of the cities. In 1873 the city had 38,100 inhabitants. In Yelisavetgrad, in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the suburbs of Maslyanikyvka, Arnautovo and Kushchevka, Lelkivka, Zavadivka and Balashivka continued to grow.

The activity of the headquarters of the reserve cavalry regiment had determined the administrative and cultural dependence of the city on the centralised Russian government, which influenced the typological features of the buildings in the city, and the strict orderliness of its classicist buildings of 1860 y. designed by the city architect I.A. Shilin [19].

In 1867, at the junction of Dvortsova (Teatralna) Street and Cavalry Park, a theatre building in the late empire style was built at the expense of the engineer – colonel H.V. Trambytsky. Together with the complex of headquarters and training buildings of the Second Reserve Cavalry Regiment, with the classicist facades of the mansion of K.V. Sokolov-Borodkin (6.6) and the hotel “Versailles” (6.3) at the beginning of Dvortsova str., they formed a complete classicist ensemble of a military town (Figs. 5.3; 5.4; 5.6; 4.3; 4.5) [20].

Figure 5.

In a part of the streets adjacent to Cavalry Park, the construction of educational institutions began. In 1876, the Zemstvo Real School was built in Bulvarna Street, near the Cavalry Park, at the place of the meetings of the nobility.

In 1884, according to the project of the city technician K. E. Shostovsky, a men’s gymnasium was built in (Shevchenko) Petrovska Street. Next to it, in 1887, a gymnasium square was designed (Fig. 5.5) [4; 17]. In 1897–1901, according to the project of the city architect O. Lishnevsky, a public girls’ gymnasium was built on Petrivska (Shevchenko) Street near Cavalry Park (Fig. 6.5) [19; 22]. In 1914 in the suburb of Kovalivka on Vokzalna Street, according to the project of the city architect L. Lubelskyi, a crafts-literacy school was built [15].

The educational institutions of Yelysavetgrad were characterised by a high level of teaching and gave the inhabitants of the city the opportunity to receive a European and metropolitan education, which contributed to the formation of the creative intelligentsia of the city. At that time Yelysavetgrad was the home of writers – creators of Ukrainian literature: I. Tobilevich, Yu. I. Yanovskiy, V. K. Vynichenko, E. Malanyuk, A. Tarkovskiy, A. Shpolyanskiy, M. Khoromanskiy. World-famous musicians began their creative careers in Yelysavetgrad: K. Szymanovsky (a classic of Polish music), F. Blumenfeld, G. Neuhaus (prominent pianists – professors of the Moscow Conservatory), world-famous painters – O. Osmyorkin, I. Rybak, P. Pokarzhevskyi, I. Pokhitonov, A. Nurenberg, actors – “luminaries” of the Ukrainian theatre: I. K. Karpenko – Kariy, M., Sadovskyi, P. Saksaganskyi, M. Zankovetska, Ukrainian historian V. Yastrebov.

The cultural development of the city was reflected in the expansion of the typology of buildings: industrial complexes (factories of T. and R. Elworthy, I. Shklovskyi, E. Burghardt, etc.), shopping arcades (I. Shpolyanskyi Arcade at V. Perspektivniy str., 60), banking institutions typical of economically developed cities (the building of the State Bank of Russia at 33 V. Perspektivniy str.), the newest hospitals (I.A. Goldenberg Hydroclinic, S. Meitus Electroclinic) and the newest educational institutions.

In the streets: V. Perspektivna, V. Permska, Dvortsova, and Shevchenka (Petrovska) streets were mainly buildings for temporary accommodation – inns (Kovalenko’s Inn on Dvortsova Street, Ts. Kaminsky’s Inn on V. Permska Street), hotels (“Northern” Hotel, “Grand Hotel” on V. Perspektivnaya Street, “Mariani” Hotel on Dvortsova (Teatralna) Street, “Petrovsky” Inn on Petrovska (Shevchenko) Street) and profitable buildings with retail and office space on the first floor (Gunkina’s House and Giunter’s House on Dvortsova (Teatralna) Street). There were elegant mansions in Bulvarna, Ivanivska, V. Bykivska, Mirgorodska (Shulginykh) and Ingulska (V. Panchenko) Streets. There were elegant manor houses with reception rooms for the institutions of the city. (Figs. 6.1–6.3; 6.4; 6.8–6.9).

Figure 6.

In 1868–1869 the railway was built connecting Yelysavetgrad with Odesa, Kremenchuk and Donetsk. It ran through the northern part of the town, along the top of the hill. Near the railway station, a Catholic church was built in 1875, with a spire towering over the town. Owing to the changing character of the intercity connections, the trade fair activity in the town began to decline, and the processing, food, milling, engineering, iron and foundry industries began to develop actively [4].

The introduction of a new “city ordinance” in 1870, reforms in the legal and financial systems, education, led to economic growth and the formation of a new social class – the bourgeoisie, represented in the city by merchants (I. Makeev, O. Pashutin, A. Barsky, D. Barsky, S. Barsky, L.I. Brodsky, G. Dmitryan), by industrialists (A.L. Shklovsky, P.I. Kessler, T. Dmitryan, T. and R. Elworthy, V. Yaskulskyi, E. Burghard, I.M. Homberg, G.O. Seltzer, etc.), by dealers (N.I. Zaslavskyi, D. Shpolianskyi), by doctors and pharmacists (S. A. Weisenberg, I. Goldenberg, S. Maytus, P. P. Gaskalin and others), by lawyer I. A. Homberg, by printers (D. M. Shpolyansky, P. Zeleny, B. Brown and others), by landlords (K.V. Sokolov – Borodkin, V.V. Kelepovskyi, A.K. Dunin – Zhukhovskyi, etc.).

The Jewish community played a leading role in the economic growth of the city. The Jewish part of the city was located south of V. Perspektyvna Street. Important educational and cultural institutions were built there. The Elisavetgrad Choral Synagogue was considered one of the best in the Russian Empire. The town had well-known Jewish patrons from Kyiv (I. Fundukley, L. Brodsky) and Odesa (A. and S. Barsky). For this reason, the city was considered one of the best in southern Russia in terms of its urban landscape (by the City Garden, City Boulevard, Cavalry Park, Ottoman Boulevard and paved streets in the central part of the city) and the presence of architecturally outstanding buildings, mainly in the historicist and modernist styles.

Local merchants and the city administration invited young, talented architects to design buildings and structures, who later made a significant contribution to the architectural image of St. Petersburg, Odessa, Warsaw and other cities of the Russian Empire.

The influence of the capital’s architectural traditions is connected with the fact that most of the architects working in the city at the end of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th centuries were graduates of the St. Petersburg School of Civil Engineering (hereinafter – the Institute of Civil Engineering), the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the Moscow Art Society, as well as with the participation of the city's architects in the competitions organised by the Zodchy magazine. Among them were A. M. Dostoevsky, Ya. V. Pauchenko, O. L. Lishnevsky, O. P. Kishkin, P. V. Bartoshevych, L. A. Lubelsky [15; 21].

The industrial areas extended south of the Great Market along the Ingul River to the confluence of the Biyanka and Sugokleya Rivers. A new industrial area was built near the railway – the engineering factory of R. and T. Elworthy (1896), with a craft school and workers’ theatre nearby (1904). In the suburb of Chechora “in 1857 nine brick factories in Yelisavetgrad produced products worth 21,900 rubles” [2], which led to the development of various architectural decorations of facades and contributed to the development of the brick style.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, with the development of industry, workers’ districts were created: Novomykolaivka (1911) to the north behind the railway, and Sugokleivka (Oleksyivka) (1912) – to the west of the Permske suburb [4]. Velika Balka developed spontaneously and expanded to the vicinity of the railway The area of the regular suburbs of Kushchivka and Katranivka grew considerably. The suburb of Ozernaya Balka was created to the north of Chechora. The city had 61,500 inhabitants in 1897 and 76,000 in 1910 (Figures 6.1; 6.2) [13].