Description of the attraction
The oldest surviving civil building in Podil, which has undergone many alterations, is the House of Peter I. According to legend, Peter I stayed here in 1706 to supervise the construction of the Pechersk Fortress. Later, the house belonged to Bykovsky, the voyt of Kiev, who contained the shinoks in it. Then there was a "restraining house", an orphanage, a parish school. The House of Peter was built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries as a residential one. After the revolution, the premises were given over to communal apartments. But in 1974 the building was restored. Now the premises belong to the Museum of the History of Philanthropy in Kiev.
The exposition of the Museum of Charity (pieces of furniture, documents, photographs, books) has been collected for several years. The most valuable exhibit of the museum is the 18th century Baroque icon of the Mother of God with the Child. The carving on it has been preserved almost completely, and experts believe that this icon may have been part of the iconostasis of some Orthodox church. The portrait of Count Leo Tolstoy is extremely curious. After a careful study of the portrait, it is clear that it consists of the words of a sonnet, which, if desired, can even be read. The exhibition also contains documents and photographs of the 19th century, reproducing the life of the Kievites of that era and charitable activities.
The main exhibit, of course, is the Peter's House itself, restored in 2007. The Museum occupies the second floor in it. It is impossible to resume the interior of the period of the Tsar's visit at the present time, since there is no archive in which this would have been described. Therefore, we took publications typical for that era, furniture, photos with various views of the city … Some of the rarities were purchased from collectors, and some exhibits were provided by the State Historical and Archaeological Reserve "Ancient Kiev" from its funds.
