Kyiv's oldest and most romantic street hosts the One Street Museum
Spring has sprung in Kyiv, and strolling season has begun.
Kyiv abounds in scenic outdoor settings that are popular with locals, foreign tourists and visitors from the regions. Foremost among these attractions is Andriyivsky uzviz – Kyiv’s eldest and most romantic street.
Each twist and turn along the cobbled sloping street opens onto a new and different view – green, forested hills to the home of writer Mikhail Bulgakov, the majestic St. Andrew’s Church and Richard’s Castle, and finally, the blue waters of the Dnipro and the roofs of Podil below. On any given day hundreds of people make their way up and down Andriyivsky, shopping for souvenirs, lingering in its many cafes or simply taking in the sights.
But just how did Andriyivsky uzviz become such a special place? A detailed answer to that question can be found at the bottom of the hill, at the One Street Museum.
Decked out with original, turn-of-the-century placards and with sounds of tango music drifting out onto the street, the museum at 2B Andriyivsky uzviz represents a journey back in time. This museum, which is dedicated to just this single street, presents Andriyivsky’s 2,000-year history. This month it is celebrating its 10-year anniversary.
“The museum’s mission is to decipher the phrase of [Kyiv’s famous essayist] Viktor Nekrasov, who called Andriyivsky uzviz ‘the most Kyivan among all Kyiv streets’,” explained museum administrator Vladislava Osmak. “There must have been something about this street besides the beautiful views and cheap housing that attracted the artists, poets and writers who lived here and who dedicated their works to Andriyivsky uzviz.”
The museum’s collection includes 5,000 exhibits. Most are documentary archives as well as art and everyday items belonging to the inhabitants of the street. Among the most impressive items are priceless books printed in Kyiv during the first half of 17th century, a collection of paintings, drawings, postcards and photographs of the street from the beginning of the 19th century and a collection of the signatures of celebrities who lived there.
Most of the items were obtained through the help of current residents of the uzviz and the surrounding area. Several families from Podil have donated their family archives to the museum. Contributions range from such diverse items as a great-grandmother’s Sunday blouse to precious documents, such as a 1941 loose-leaf calendar with hand-written descriptions of the war in Kyiv.
Much of the credit for the museum’s success goes to its staff and its founders, including Osmak.
“I like to present not only the factual side, the skeleton, but also what makes the meat of history – the stories, legends, portraits,” she said.
And that’s how One Street’s exhibitions are constructed. They tell the story of Andriyivsky uzviz through the lives of the people who lived there – the heroes and villains – all equally interesting to a historian.
According to legend, for example, the apostle Andrew preached on the site of the future city of Kyiv in the year 1. He is said to have blessed the hills and predicted the prosperity and glory of the future city.
The museum’s collection includes drawings of the cross by Kondraty Lokhvytsky, who in 1832, was the first archaeologist to excavate the site.
For centuries Andriyivsky was mainly inhabited by craftsmen. When a huge annual fair called Kyiv Contracts first opened in Podil in 1799, some of the buildings along street were rented out. The others operated as public houses and brothels, and throughout the mid-19th century Andriyivsky uzviz was one of Kyiv’s red-light districts.
With the first major reconstruction of Kyiv in the 1830s, the uzviz became home to a greater mix of professionals and craftsmen: doctors, dentists, artists, university professors and seminary scholars.
Its ability to lend life to history through the presentation of personal stories is a trait for which the museum is often praised. Just a few weeks ago, Dr. Patrick Greene, head of the European Museum Forum, was impressed with the One Street Museum when he visited it as part of the 2002 European Museum of the Year Award program.
“[The One Street Museum] is the only museum in Eastern Europe that so ingenuously and deeply shows the private life of private people,” he said.
Admission for the One Street Museum (2 Andriyivsky uzviz) is Hr 2 per person. For more information, please call 416-0398.
