Khreshchatyk street in 1875. A three-floor building of the Yevropeisky hotel, built in place of the burnt city theatre in 1851, can be seen on the right. This hotel was one of the most fashionable ones in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century. The square was named Yevropeiska after the hotel; in 1869, however, it was renamed as Tsarska. Near the hotel one can see cabs waiting for passengers. The hotel administration ensured the transportation of guests from the hotel to the train station and the other way around. In the foreground, the fence, the gate, and a part of the Merchant Assembly garden can be seen.

On the left one can see the so-called Iron Chapel, built in honour of the rescue of tzar Alexander II from a bullet fired by a revolutionary in 1866. The style of this small chapel imitates the typical Moscow brick architecture of the seventeenth century, which was then considered original, free from Byzantine or European influences. Its characteristic features are two rows of the so-called kokoshniks (corbel archs) over the cornice, an onion cupola with a cross and the shape of the kokoshnik roof supported by carved columns on the dormer windows. 

At some distance, the Khreshchatytska street ensemble can be seen, which was formed in about 1875 and consisted mostly of one- and two-floor housing; the carriageway was rather wide and free.

The high quality (for that time) photo creates a mood of a dull winter day. The high exposure suggests an additional effect of a snowstorm as the silhouettes of a tree near the chapel and cabs on the carriageway are fuzzy. However, the grass in the foreground indicates that the photo was taken in a relatively warm season; the “winter” effect is due to the lightening of the photo.

Olga Martyniuk