Description of the attraction
Gostiny Dvor is a trade complex located on Kontraktova Square (Kievsky Podil). The complex was erected at the beginning of the 19th century (in 1809) on the same place where the old courtyard of the 1860s was located. by the famous architect Ivan Grigorovich-Barsky.
The new Gostiny Dvor was proposed by the architect L. Ruska in 1808. The project involved the construction of a monumental shopping complex in the classicism style, which was rectangular in plan, with numerous office premises and six gates. The project was implemented with a delay - first, the great Kiev fire of 1811 became an obstacle, and then the war with Napoleonic France in 1812. Because of this, they had to be content with only the first floor (the plan provided for a two-story building). Outside, arched galleries and facades decorated with pilasters were erected.
The building was reconstructed several times. So, in 1828 the architect A. Melensky renovated the building after a fire, and at the end of the same century the galleries were walled up. The most ambitious reconstruction was carried out already in the twentieth century. In 1980-1982, especially for the celebration of the 1500th anniversary of Kiev, under the leadership of the architect V. Shevchenko, the second floor was added, and thus the building got exactly the look it was originally conceived.
Gostiny Dvor had fifty shops (and workshops), grouped in rows - cloth, silk, iron, etc., however, with the development of factory production and the abolition of Magdeburg law, their importance was lost. In the post-war period, various workshops, offices, warehouses were located on the territory of the courtyard. Now there are bars, shops, as well as the V. Zabolotny State Scientific Library, which contains literature on architectural and construction topics.
