Lukyanovka, which you didn't know for sure
An interesting regular free tour from Pro Ukraine (pro-ukr. com), which I sincerely recommend to everyone. On the tour you will learn the history of the area, the origin of its name, see the most interesting buildings (including a prison and barracks). Visit the Start Stadium, which hosted the historic Death Match during Nazi occupation, and find out what is true and what is false in the ideological legend.
Monument at the stadium "Start"
And also look at the only tenement house on Lukyanovka in 1904 (still inhabited), built in the Art Nouveau style, the owner of which was never able to bring her brainchild to mind. Having accumulated bank loans and not completing the house, she lost all rights to it and died a few years later. Now, they say, her ghost lives in this house.
But I want to devote my story to a completely different object.
Almost in the very center of Kyiv, near the metro station Lukyanovskaya, on Copernicus Street, 7, by some miracle, a private estate from the beginning of the 20th century survived. Truly, real Kiev homeowners can now be counted on the fingers.
Rugol's Estate
The estate was built in 1913 by a Cossack from the Chernihiv province. The house is nice but lacks architectural value. The grandson of the owner, engineer and ornithologist (by vocation) Yuri Rugol has been collecting his unique collection of birds for many years. In a hunting farm near Kyiv, I bought pheasants, built enclosures.
Birds in enclosures
I searched for nets and metal pipes in landfills, cooked fences. Pavlinov acquired in the mid-90s. I put their eggs under the hen.
Now there are ducks, geese, peacocks in his farm.
Birds in aviaries
There is an albino peacock, a mandarin duck, and an African parrot. Until recently, his collection consisted of almost 50 heads and was rare on a global scale, attracting not only Ukrainians, but also foreigners.
And so, next to the estate, they began to build high-rise buildings, a whole new residential complex. Naturally, Yury Borisovich's estate was a great hindrance to the developer. The developer has already built up directly on the roof of the estate.
Wonders of modern building in Kyiv. Photo by Segodnya newspaper
But the owner does not want to sell it. How can you offend an ornithologist? Naturally, destroying his birds. And there have been several such attempts. Birds were poisoned, and torn by dogs, and stolen. The gate to the house is usually open. "Why don't you close? " We asked the owner. “From good people who want to see the birds, why close. And you can’t stop the bad ones with a lock on the gate, ”the owner answered us.
Fruit trees grow in Yury Borisovich's yard, ducks and peacocks roam freely. Peacocks easily fly over the fence and sometimes walk in neighboring yards. The indigenous inhabitants of Lukyanovka do not object to such a neighborhood. It's so unusual!
Local schools often held biology lessons in Yury Borisovich's yard. Birds ate from their hands...
I am writing this post for people who are not indifferent. The more people know about this place, the easier it will be for the owner to resist the advance of the urban jungle on a tiny oasis in the city center.
People, think about it! Such unique places only decorate our city. Preserve its authenticity and flavor.
I want to tell one more little story, how to draw an analogy. Opposite the Kievan Rus cinema, in the square of Kosior (the people of Kiev know that this is also the Lukyanovka district), there is a small church of the Icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir.
Church of the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir
A few years ago, the church began to interfere with the developer, who had already received permission to demolish it. And this should happen, the developer died unexpectedly in a car accident on a winter Orthodox holiday!
After such God's providence, no one wants to build anything there. And the church does not interfere with anyone. So. . .
And the church is worth a visit! It was built in the old Kiev style, as it was built about 800 years ago.
Small, wooden, and the floor is stone. The altar is low.
Very cozy! It also has its own miracle: once they placed an icon of the Mother of God and the Savior on a lectern covered with velvet. And when the icons were removed, images appeared on the velvet. Now they have also been framed, and the parishioners can look at this miracle.
