Andriyivskyy Descent (Andriyivskiy Uzviz), Kyiv

On the 9th of September St. Andrew's Descent celebrates its birthday.

There are many art galleries, centers of contemporary art, theaters and museums along the streets. There lived prominent figures of science and culture: scientists, writers, composers, sculptors. It is likely that going a scending, you will walk the trails of the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Taras Shevchenko, Mikhail Bulgakov, Alexander Vertinsky.

What's interesting here?
Come here in the morning, to the start of the fuss. You will see St. Andrew's Church in the light of the sun and listen to Kiev's silence in the morning, which is a great luxury in this part of the city. After descending from the upper platform of the St. Andrew's Descent, you will find yourself in a small square just outside the St. Andrew's Church. There is an Artists' Alley in the square where paintings are for sale, so the walk will look like a opening day. And somewhere within a hundred meters there is a large species ground with a gazebo. From here you can see the views of the Dnieper River with the unfinished Podolsk-Resurrection Bridge and the Podil building. Here it is very quiet and it is not audible how in the daytime the Andreevsky descent noises.

St. Andrew's Church is a monument of Gothic architecture, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli on the order of Empress Elizabeth. It is the only church without bells. According to legend, once on the site of Kiev was the sea. Where the apostle Andrew the First-Called placed the cross and marked the place for the temple, the water went underground. If the bells ring again, the water will come to the surface and flood Kiev.

 

At the beginning of XX century there was a curious case. One of the local newspapers wrote on April 1st that the bells had fallen in St. Andrew's Church. It was supposed to be a April Fool's Day joke that would entertain the inhabitants. But instead, an incredible noise erupted. Only then did the locals notice that the church was indeed without bells. So the joke was taken as pure truth, which the local authorities did not like at the time.
Near St. Andrew's Church stands a favorite sculpture of guests and residents of the city - a monument to Prony Prokopovna and Golovkhastov from the comedy "For Two Hares". The characters are reflected in the moment when Svirid Petrovich, kneeling, offers Prony a hand and a heart. The movie hit the screens in 1961. The monument was opened in 1991. The choice of a monument is not accidental. It was here that the final footage of the film was shot, where they exposed the unsuspecting groom Golokhvastov. By the way, under the bells of St. Andrew's Church, which actually does not exist. But no one paid attention to such a detail because the movie became extremely popular. Comedy has become part of the gold fund of Soviet cinema. And in its frames you can see the panorama of Podil, Dnieper and Andreevsky descent. Wearing a Prony Prokopovna ring and a beetle on the holohvastov coat is a sure sign that you will be lucky in love.

Across the street opposite the church is house # 34. The Academy Theater, an art salon and exhibitions are now housed there. In black-and-white photos of old-timers it is a "house-house". For children, this is the starting point for your favorite winter fun: the kid came down from the Andreevsky descent on a sled. The sledge was often the usual door that was removed from the hinges. The house was built in 1900-1901 for the homeowner Euphrosyne Stoliarenko, later purchased by the famous Kiev merchant Andrey Slinko. He got his name back in pre-revolutionary times thanks to two tent-shaped domes decorated with sheet silver. Later, they were removed, because the building looked uneasy in the background of St. Andrew's Church, and in general, was very cumbersome in the cityscape. Art historian Sergei Gilyarov once called them "meaningless towers in the form of pot-bellied painted teapots". This home is the center of life of its once famous inhabitants. Here lived a professor at Zhitetsky University, an orientalist of Kezma, a journalist of Sovenko with his wife, opera singer Novospaska. During the Kiev tour, Chaliapin Nadiya Novospaska was his partner. Later, the writer Grigor Tyutyunnik lived in the house.

 

You can "look out the windows" of the house and see the lives of its inhabitants in detail in the "One Street Museum", located at 2b Andreevsky Descent. This is how the museum's exposition is built - you go and stare at the windows of street dwellers at different times. There are a number of store windows dedicated to building № 34.

 

Start at the museum if you came to the St. Andrew's Descent, as if at the foot of Everest, from the side of Contract Square. In 2002, he became a nominee for the European Museum Forum, an international organization sponsored by the Council of Europe and sponsored by the Queen of Belgium Fabiola. This is the only Ukrainian museum that participated in the forum. The museum has been in operation since 1991 and began collecting in 1989. There are many stories collected here about interesting cases, city fables and curiosities from the lives of prominent street residents at different times. It is there, by the way, that you can see the other side of life of the descent. It used to be a quarter of red lights. But the format of the street changed after the devout writer Ants moved here. The Red Light District then changed location and appeared on Yamskaya Street. The building of the museum appeared in the late XVII - early XX century. as part of a large estate dating from the late eighteenth century. belonged to Kiev merchant Phillip Lakerdi.

By the way, there are several interesting buildings near the Museum of one street. If you go a little round the corner where the St. Andrew's Crossing crosses Borychiv Tok Street, you can see a 15-meter mural depicting a Ukrainian woman. This monument of modern street art is called "Renaissance" and was created in 2014 as part of the French Spring Festival by muralist artist Julien Mullan (known as Seth) and Ukrainian Alexei Kislov. It symbolizes the revived spirit of Ukraine. The address of the house with the mural: Borichev Tok, 33 / 6a.

The Bulgakov Museum, also known as the Turbine House, is located on the St. Andrew's Descent. Here in the house №13 the writer spent 13 years, where he lived with his family. Later, its color, inhabitants, and fictional stories appeared in the play "Turbines Days". The building is among the twenty best literary museums in the world. Outside the museum, cast in bronze, "sits" Mikhail Bulgakov himself. A favorite guest chip is to sit next to it on a bench and take a picture. And also - to touch his nose fortunately. That is why the Bulgakov's nose is so slimmer compared to other details of the monument, which have dimmed somewhat over time.

 

A little up stands a Russian-style wooden house on Andreevsky Uzviz 19a. Apparently, he has no such ones in the city. He survived the demolition of a haze, a fire and two renovations. The latter was in 1982 dated to the 1500th anniversary of Kiev. This is a mansion consisting of two buildings: a front house and a two-storey outbuilding behind it. At the beginning of XX century. this estate belonged to the nobleman M. Chigryntsova. And now there is an art salon and a restaurant of authentic Ukrainian cuisine, where you can have a delicious meal before going up the hill, in search of interesting places. There are many places like this, and everyone has their favorite.

 

For example, mystic seekers are attracted to house # 15 on St. Andrew's Descent. This is Richard's Castle, known as the Haunted House. Built in the British Gothic style and named by Victor Nekrasov in honor of King Richard the Lionheart. The home has always scared off the new owners very quickly. After all, as one, heard the moans and howls from which the blood ran cold. So it was rumored that ghosts live in the house. But modern historians refute this theory. In fact, during construction, the workers walled the bottles to avenge the grumpy landlady.

 

Immediately behind Richard's Castle are steep old stairs that go up rapidly. The playground they lead to is a favorite spot for romantics. Even one of the benches is lip-shaped. The picturesque landscapes of Kiev are opened here and the roofs of the buildings of the oldest residents of Andriyivskyy are visible. One of them can be seen near the bottom - a two-storeyed house, around which is the usual owner's yard. The family of his current resident settled here in 1912. For the house offered a lot of money in the tens of millions of dollars. But the hostess refused. According to her, “There is a special spirit on Andreevsky that does not release its inhabitants. And it's more expensive than any money".

 

Richard's castle itself stands on Mount Sighs. It is called this because, according to legend, opposite the mountain was a military detachment of his wife. Women were not allowed here. But the ones who missed their loved ones the most, rose up here, waved their handkerchief, and sighed. And there is a simpler version: climbing a mountain people sigh with relief. The sigh is first mentioned in the chronicles of the 16th century. Once it was above Zamkova, the second mountain near Andreevsky descent. Here was the castle of the Kiev governor Vladimir Olgerdovich. To protect the castle from shelling from a higher mountain, the Sigh was "humiliated", that is, they were undermined.

 

Public executions were also carried out near the castle, so the mountain is also known as "bloody". In ancient times, the mountain was still called Kyiv. In some dictionaries, this name is synonymous with the word "witch". Kyiv is a witch city and the witches lived here well, because the official punishment under the Law on Witchcraft was not frequent here. For the most part, it was lynching. Old-timers say that a lot of aspen wheels were dug during the construction work on the mountain. It was as if they were hiding the witches killed here.

 

 

Tranlated by: Nika Toropenko