<p><br />

The building of the Kyiv City Duma,<br />

constructed in 1876, six years later after this institution became an<br />

elective body and resumed the nature of self-government (now the<br />

Maydan Nezalezhnosti square). This building indicates the<br />

co-existence of administrative, commercial, educational, and public<br />

functions in the space of a single structure. The ground floor was<br />

occupied by shops; profit from the lease of the shops was going to<br />

the city treasury. The assembly hall and the city administration<br />

rooms were located on the first floor. Certain premises were held by<br />

the famous Murashko’s drawing school and a medical night duties<br />

post. In the 1890s the third floor was added on the whole building’s<br />

perimeter. The building is planned in the shape of an unbent<br />

horseshoe. On the tower spire, there is a statue of Archangel Michael<br />

with a sword in his hands; it is the patron of Kyiv and a symbol of<br />

being ready to defend Kyiv’s self-government (a reference to the<br />

Magdeburg Rights which were lost by the city). The Archangel Michael,<br />

made by Yeva Kulykivska, a sculptor, was replaced by a red star not<br />

long after 1917.</p><p>The 1880s-1890s photo indicates also a rather free<br />

pedestrian area which was strictly divided into a pedestrian part and<br />

a carriageway; to a certain extent, this fact indicates that the area<br />

had the nature of a square rather than that of a street. On the left<br />

one can see a rather tall gas lantern post, which had a more refined<br />

shape in contrast to others; it was a kind of marking an area for the<br />

elite.</p><p>Olga Martyniuk</p>