Apartment for rent in Khreschatyk Street. The history of the street. Part 1

Khreschatyk Street

The central street of Kyiv is Khreschatyk. Comparing it with the age of the city, it is rather young. In the XVIII century a way to Vasylkiv was laid through the ravine, named “Khreschaty Yar”. One of the origin versions says that the historical Christening of Rus happened exactly in this place in 988. With the lapse of time the ravine with smaller natural formations, fallen into it, turned into the streets: the central one – Khreschatyk and side ones – Instytutska, Lyuteranska, Prorizna and others.

We are glad to offer apartments for daily or long term rent in the center of Kyiv, for example Khreschatyk 15 not far from Pasazh.

Khreschatyk located quite naturally and comfortably among Starokyivska part, Podil and Pechersk, and finally became the main street of the city with reputable banking-houses, luxury tenement buildings, theaters and cinemas, various shops, fashionable restaurants and cafes. Even having changed its name into “Vorovskogo” in 1923-1927, the central essence of the street didn’t change - at the end of XIX century the tram had already run here, and since 1935 – trolleybus. We can’t but cite in this context the quotation from the book “Three Capitals” wtitten by Shulygin V.: “… so Khreschatyk. It is known that one day the river was flowing here and in the place where it fell into the Dnipro Saint Volodymyr christened ( Ukrainian - khrestyty) Russian people. That is why the street is called Khreschatyk. Now it is called the street of “comrade Vorovsky”. I don’t know when this event took place: meanwhile he lived or after he was killed by Konradi. That’s not the point. But taking into account what is happening in Khreschatyk, the name is good. (…) Now Khreschatyk is the street of thievish (Ukrainian – vorovskych) comrades”…

The awful tragedy happened in the street in September in 1941. Retreating Red Army Soldiers mined dozens of buildings (Opera Theater, university, Volodymyrsky cathedral, circus). Radio-controlled mines of delayed-action were waiting for the right time. Having marched into the city, invaders were ready to implement Rosenberg’s command to preserve the most valuable cultural monuments in Kyiv. But it didn’t work out. There was a number of explosions and fires in the buildings in Prorizna and Khreschatyk Streets. Many buildings broke out into flame. Invaders tried to extinguish fire but members of clandestine organization blocked water supply, disabled water-pump stations, cut hoses. Collector was damaged and water supply system was paralyzed. Right after the liberation it was decided to rebuild Khreschatyk and make it wider and more spacious. Before the war the street was like a “corridor” from 33 to 44 meters that is why it was planned to build high buildings and bring the width to 100 meters. Nice and majestic buildings grew in Khreschatyk Street making the significant ensemble. Very few buildings remained since pre-war years.

According to the materials of the book “My city – Kyiv” written by Kyrkevych V.