In 1881, the local merchants rented a small part of the Tsarsky Garden (now the City Garden) situated on Pechersky Hill. Soon they began building the Winter Merchant Club in 1882. The Merchant Club was built just in one construction season by a famous architect Vladimir Nikolayev who came to prominence by creating 18 churches, including the frater of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, 3 monuments, including the Bohdan Khmelnytsky monument, and 27 public buildings, not to mention a great number of private houses. The Club included a dining room, a smoking room, several suites (for playing cards and conducting negotiations) and, of course, a dance hall for 1300 people that could boast of amazing acoustics. In terms of the acoustics, this hall is still considered to be one of the best in Europe. It was rumoured that the architect placed cane inside the walls in a definite order to create additional vibration and resonance. Today, it is the National Philharmonic of Ukraine.
In 1911, a monument to Alexander II was put up next to the park entrance which was replaced by a Red Army soldier statue in 1919 and later by a monument to Stalin. There is also a park nearby, named The Merchant Garden (later — the Pioneer Garden, now the Khreshchaty Park), which was a prestigious place for middle class Kievans to spend their free time. Later, the Summer Club (known as 'vokzal', in Russian it sounds similar like 'station', but at that time the term was used to designate places for dancing parties) appeared at the back of the garden. 'All this looks so glamorous to Kievans, who are spoiled by beautiful views and landscapes but not the infrastructure improvements, that every faithful citizen considers visiting the place a few times a week, if not daily, their solemn duty,' wrote about the garden in 1901 Karl Svirsky, one of the 'Practical Illustrated Guide of Kiev' authors.
Many prominent figures of Ukrainian scene performed in the Summer Theater, Maria Zankovetska being one of them. During her performances she made cry such people as Ivan Bunin, Nikolai Sadovsky, Nikolai Lysenko, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Aleksandr Skryabin and many others. Having climbed over a high fence, local boys used to watch the performances through the cracks. Among them were Konstantin Paustovsky, as well as Mihail Bulgakov and Aleksander Vertinsky. By the way, the famous character from 'Za Dvoma Zaytsamy' comedy (literally 'if you chase after two hares, you will not catch even one', the English equivalent is 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'), to whom we will return later on this route, also visited the Tsarsky Garden where she made an appointment to another main character — Golohvastov: 'I am fond of strolling in the Tsarskiy Garden in the daytime, with a book, of course, as it»s so pleasant to read a novel'.
In 1881, the local merchants rented a small part of the Tsarsky Garden (now the City Garden) situated on Pechersky Hill. Soon they began building the Winter Merchant Club in 1882. The Merchant Club was built just in one construction season by a famous architect Vladimir Nikolayev who came to prominence by creating 18 churches, including the frater of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, 3 monuments, including the Bohdan Khmelnytsky monument, and 27 public buildings, not to mention a great number of private houses. The Club included a dining room, a smoking room, several suites (for playing cards and conducting negotiations) and, of course, a dance hall for 1300 people that could boast of amazing acoustics. In terms of the acoustics, this hall is still considered to be one of the best in Europe. It was rumoured that the architect placed cane inside the walls in a definite order to create additional vibration and resonance. Today, it is the National Philharmonic of Ukraine.
In 1911, a monument to Alexander II was put up next to the park entrance which was replaced by a Red Army soldier statue in 1919 and later by a monument to Stalin. There is also a park nearby, named The Merchant Garden (later — the Pioneer Garden, now the Khreshchaty Park), which was a prestigious place for middle class Kievans to spend their free time. Later, the Summer Club (known as 'vokzal', in Russian it sounds similar like 'station', but at that time the term was used to designate places for dancing parties) appeared at the back of the garden. 'All this looks so glamorous to Kievans, who are spoiled by beautiful views and landscapes but not the infrastructure improvements, that every faithful citizen considers visiting the place a few times a week, if not daily, their solemn duty,' wrote about the garden in 1901 Karl Svirsky, one of the 'Practical Illustrated Guide of Kiev' authors.
Many prominent figures of Ukrainian scene performed in the Summer Theater, Maria Zankovetska being one of them. During her performances she made cry such people as Ivan Bunin, Nikolai Sadovsky, Nikolai Lysenko, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Aleksandr Skryabin and many others. Having climbed over a high fence, local boys used to watch the performances through the cracks. Among them were Konstantin Paustovsky, as well as Mihail Bulgakov and Aleksander Vertinsky. By the way, the famous character from 'Za Dvoma Zaytsamy' comedy (literally 'if you chase after two hares, you will not catch even one', the English equivalent is 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'), to whom we will return later on this route, also visited the Tsarsky Garden where she made an appointment to another main character — Golohvastov: 'I am fond of strolling in the Tsarskiy Garden in the daytime, with a book, of course, as it»s so pleasant to read a novel'.