一个明信片背后的谜团2 张照片

In a well-known series of postcards reimagined based on famous photographs, featuring views of the old city of Kharkov from the late 19th to the early 20th century, created by an unknown artist using these motifs, there is a postcard that many people are familiar with, titled “View from Cholodnaia Gora.” I believe that I am not alone in having trouble identifying the places depicted on this postcard. It turns out that the reasons for these difficulties are largely of an artistic nature. The artist took too much liberty in altering the outlines of some buildings, while the publisher mistakenly identified the location where the photograph was taken, which influenced the name of the postcard. In reality, the shooting was not conducted from Cholodnaia Gora but rather from the Zhuravlyovskie slopes (perhaps on Kulikovskaya Street). As a result, what flows in the background is not the Lopan River, as one might expect based on the name on the postcard, but rather the Kharkov River. Moreover, the footbridge in the right part of the image connects Chernoglazovskaya Street with Voznesensky Perewalk. The building in the center of the picture is none other than a real school, which faces the Voznesenskaya Church with its back side. The artist increased the length of this building by nearly twice, making it completely unrecognizable. The faint outlines of a church to the south of the school, near the right edge of the photograph, are likely those of the Mikhailovskiy Temple. The large two-story building on the left side of the image is the Second Women’s Gymnasium. These insights were shared with me by our fellow enthusiast, Valeriy Petrovich Boroday, while we were looking at the photograph together (not the postcard itself!). I gratefully transcribed them here for the journal.