The courtyards in Kharkiv contain many interesting houses and places. One such courtyard is located in Summerovskiy Alley. It intersects with Kravtsov Street and is situated approximately in the middle, between Klokchkovska Street and Rymskaya Street. It was established…4 photos

The alleys of Kharkiv hide many fascinating houses and places. One such alley is located in Summerovskiy Street. It intersects with Kravtsov Street and is situated roughly in the middle, between Klotchkovsky Street and Rymskaya Street. This alley was established a long time ago, in the late 18th or early 19th century. Certainly, this alley is known to the people of Kharkiv for its dilapidated buildings and dirtiness, but there is one particularly interesting house at number 3. It used to be the residence of the merchant Harina. Alexandra Pavlovna Harina was a merchant woman, a widow of a court counselor, and she was the patroness of two women's gymnases: Mariinskaya, which offered preparatory courses and an eighth additional class on Rymskaya Street, and Drashkovskaya, which had a classroom and a boarding school on Sumskaya Street. Harina was a prominent figure in 19th-century Kharkiv, and thus the alley was originally named after her. After the October Revolution, the owner of the estate was forced to leave her home, and it remained vacant for several years. It was even considered possible to demolish it as a "remnant of the bourgeois past." However, in 1920, the All-Ukrainian Union of Consumer Cooperatives (Vukoopsoyuz) moved into this legendary house, and its chairman, Ivan Summer, settled there. After his death, the city authorities simply renamed the alley Summerovskiy Street in his honor. Everyone forgot about the real owner of the mansion, whose portraits were even painted by the artist Vrubel. The estate itself, designed in the style of late antique Gothic, was built in the second half of the 19th century; its architect is believed to have been A.K. Girsch. This residence was often visited by intellectuals, cultural figures, artists, and scientists from Kharkiv and beyond. Among its guests were prosecutor Anatoly Kony, sociologist Maxim Kovalevsky, historian Marin Stoyanov Drinov, ethnographer Nikolai Sumtsov, traveler, botanist, and the first doctor of geography in the Russian Empire, Andrei Krasnov, surgeon Wilhelm Grube, and the famous ophthalmologist Leonard Girschman. Local residents tell tales of how Catherine II once accidentally drove into this alley long ago, and later stayed in a nativity scene booth in the courtyard of the governor's palace. During Soviet times, local drunkards would queue up outside a certain corner for "triple" liquor and lily of the valley extract. Not far away, there are entrances to the city’s catacombs, where some wealthy residents of Kharkiv hid their gold after the 1917 revolution. Today, Harina’s mansion has yet to be included in Kharkiv’s list of architectural monuments, and it is slowly deteriorating. Its current inhabitants have added various outbuildings, completely altering its original appearance. Ancient tales describe magnificent interiors with ceilings over three meters high, stained glass windows, and the fact that all valuable items were removed when the Soviet Union moved its capital to Kiev. 057.ua/news/284443 vk.com/old_kharkov #1solica_history