Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Otherwise various styles have come in and out of vogue. After St Petersburg proved
such a success in Russia, its planned layout and neoclassical architecture was copied in
Odesa and Poltava. In the 19th century there were revivals of Byzantine design (as seen
in St Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv) and Renaissance style merged with baroque - for
example, in the opera houses in Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv. A modern Ukrainian style based
on Art Nouveau featured in the Regional Museum in Poltava and the eclectic Metropolit-
an Palace, now the university, in Chernivtsi.
The Soviets had a penchant for pompous 'monumental classicism', with enormous
temple-like state edifices. Extensively rebuilt after WWII, Kyiv is full of such buildings.
The Soviets were also responsible for the most widespread architectural style seen in
Ukraine's big cities - the apartment block. Even these can be divided into periods, start-
ing with the so-called Khrushchyovka, a normally five-storey brick or concrete tenement
built in the 1960s during Khrushchev's tenure at the Kremlin. However, most of Kyiv
and Kharkiv's housing stock was erected in the 1970s and '80s. The acres of shabby
blocks that ring the capital are made of prefabricated concrete panels that could be
locked together in a matter of weeks. Despite their dilapidated appearance, most Ukraini-
an apartments are very comfortable inside and warm in winter, but not terribly cool in
summer. These have now been joined by plasticky high-rises, often thrown up cheaply
and with general disregard for what may be around them and the capacity of local amen-
ities to cope with more residents.
One of the finest renovation projects in Kyiv since independence must be the main train
station, which received an opulent makeover in 2001.
