Description of the attraction
The Arsenal of Arts, or Citadel, is today one of the most promising cultural projects in Ukraine. The Citadel is perhaps the largest museum, cultural and artistic complex in Kiev.
It is based on such an architectural monument of world significance as the Old Arsenal, erected at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries by Lieutenant General Johann Meller on the site that was previously occupied by the Ascension Convent. During the construction, it was supposed to achieve several goals at once. Firstly, the local garrison needed a building in which to accommodate warehouses, repair weapons and ammunition. Secondly, a purely ideological goal was pursued - to eclipse the glory of the Ascension Monastery, since it was once led by Mary Magdalene Mazepina, who is the mother of the disgraced hetman Ivan Mazepa, who did a lot to equip the monastery itself.
The idea to turn the building of the Old Arsenal into a museum complex has been put forward several times since the 90s, but only at the beginning of the 21st century, it finally began to be realized not only on paper. Since receiving the status of a cultural and artistic institution in 2003, the Arsenal of Arts has been actively restored. In parallel with the restoration, art actions, presentations, exhibitions, etc. are already taking place in the Arsenal building. In the future, in addition to exhibition halls, it is planned to place electronic libraries, art laboratories, bookstores, classrooms, information centers, conference rooms and much more, for example, collections of Kiev museums, which in the museums themselves are sorely lacking premises, which cannot be said about the very Arsenal of Arts, with an area of about 50,000 sq. M.
