Walking in the center: 11 facts about Khreshchatyk that you did not know

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Main street of Kiev — Khreshchatyk — keeps a lot of secrets. Its official name was received in the beginning of the XIX century. And in the middle of XX-th Khreschatyk did not become & hellip;

When the hoes were hanged on Khreshchatyk & hellip;

The name of the central highway of Kiev is interpreted ambiguously. Version number 1: in the IX century the street was not a street, but a forest, where our ancestors liked to hunt. The terrain was covered with ravines that intersected each other. Hence — Kreschaty yar, Khreshchataya valley. Version number 2: Khreshchatyk from the word & laquo; baptize & raquo ;. It was here that Prince Vladimir baptized his sons in the river Pochaina.

Photo: Dan

Khreshchatyk and & laquo; Black square & raquo ;: find the link

Now Khreshchatyk — street boutiques, shops, restaurants and cafes. And earlier, in the XIX century, it was a real creative center with theaters, cinemas, music schools, libraries. The first urban wooden theater, designed for 470 spectators, was built in 1807, and it stood on the site of the Ukrainian House. In 1875 on the Trehsvyatitelskaya worked the Kiev Drawing School Nikolai Murashko. It was there that the author of the Black Square & raquo; Kazimir Malevich.

Photo: dudeway.ru

An electric tram was chased along Khreshchatyk

In the pre-war time, a tram was running along the street, but not for long. In 1935 it was replaced with a more convenient, maneuverable and modern trolleybus, and the tram line was dismantled.

< p>Photo: Shutterstock

The street that took off in the air

World War II turned the street into ruins. In September 1941, explosions and fires actually erased all the buildings of Khreshchatyk from the face of the earth. To restore it began three years later in the style of the "Stalin Baroque" & raquo;.

Photo: Cad-Kyiv

A terrible story of the Main Post Office

The Great Post Office appeared on Khreshchatyk, 22 relatively recently — in the early 1950's. August 2, 1989, there was a tragedy: the 700-ton visor and colonnade of the Main Post collapsed. Under the debris killed 11 people. What was before the post office? In 1797 a two-storey house was erected there — the first residential building in the Khreshchatytska Valley.

Photo: Shutterstock

TSUM, it's the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade,/h2>
The central department store, which is the Central Department Store, is now unrecognizable. He is about to be opened after a long reconstruction. In the history of the predecessor of modern TSUMa — nothing epochal. It was built in the 1940s and 50s and was proudly called the department store of the People's Commissariat of Trade, then the Union of Trade Unions.
< p>Photo: Michiel2005

A house with a star on Khreshchatyk, 25

A 14-storey house, crowned by a five-pointed star, very elite. The price per square meter is 100 thousand UAH! In all its glory, the house appeared in 1954. By the way, the star — one of the symbols of the USSR — glowed for a while in the dark. In 1956, the cinema opened in the building, the Druzhba movie theater.

Photo: PRO & Aacute; lvaro Vega S & acheute; nchez

First business center in Kiev

Another attraction of Khreshchatyk, a landmark for romantic and business meetings — commercial and residential building "Passage", two long buildings connected by an arch-gate. He was rebuilt in 1913 - 1914 years. In modern terms, a business center was built. But they built, built, and did not finish because of the First World War. And then — The Second World, and the 'Passage' & raquo; did not become at all, it was blown up. Now on Khreshchatyk flaunts & laquo; Passage number 2 & raquo; — copy of the first.

Photo: farflungistan

Kiev chestnuts on in fact, not Kiev

The famous alley of chestnuts on Khreshchatyk landed after the Second World War. Although this is not the first capital chestnuts. Young trees were brought to Kiev from abroad as far back as 1842 and planted on Bibikovsky Boulevard — the current Shevchenko. If history does not lie, the seedlings do not take root, and the townspeople dismantled them. And then planted next to their houses.

Photo: Shutterstock

100 steps along and 1700 across

Khreshchatyk is often called the shortest street in Kiev, but it is not. Much shorter Stanislavsky street: its length is only 100 meters. Khreshchatyk also stretched for 1,3 km. As for the width of the central road, it is 75 meters. And the street is the widest in Kiev, it's true. To go through Khreschatik along and across, you need to do 1800 steps!

Photo: Shutterstock

The first high-rise in the history of Ukraine

The first Ukrainian skyscraper was also born on Khreshchatyk. In the year 1912. The 11-storeyed 55-meter Ginzburg House. Does not he tell you anything? Indeed, that skyscraper has long been dead: the Second World War and all that. But in place of the House of Ginzburg in 1961, another car was built, — Hotel & la Ukraina, which was first Moscow & raquo;