Kiev Ukraine University Building

overview

Kiev city University was built in 1837-1845 to the design of Vikenty Beretti. In 1941-1942, during the Nazi occupation of Kiev, it was burnt to the ground. The university was restored in 1946-1952. The building consists of four blocks forming a quadrangle. The main entrance, with an octastyle portico, fronts Vladimirskaya Street.

Kiev Ukraine University building view

The building embodies the most characteristic features of the classicist style: lucid symmetry, balanced proportions, and the use of classical orders both inside and outside. The plinth is rusticated, the remainder of the walls is smooth. The main portico and the semicircular ressauts of the side block facing the Botanical Gardens are decorated with Ionic columns and pilasters.

Kiev Ukraine University building view

The large flat surfaces of the walls are enlivened by shallow window niches and a frieze running under the windows of the first floor. Crowning the Kiev University building is an architrave with a narrow frieze and an intricate cornice. The bases and capitals of the columns, the modillions of the cornice, the lamp-posts and railings are in cast iron whose black harmonizes well with the red of the walls. The architecture of the University building's interiors is equally strict and laconic.

Kiev Ukraine University building view