<p>One

of the earliest photos of Khreshchatyk street and the Dumska

square (now Maydan Nezalezhnosti). In the center of the photo,

there is a two-floor white house in the background; on the ground

floor of this house, there was an establishment under a sign

reading <i>Photography</i> belonging to Ivan Hudovsky. It must have been he who took this

picture. Ivan Hudovsky was Taras Shevchenko’s mate at the St.

Petersburg Academy of Arts; it was in this studio that he took

famous pictures of his colleague. The house stood there till the

1970s; the <i>Kozatsky</i> hotel stands in its place now.</p><p>To the left of the studio, a house

with a four-column portico can be seen; it was a mansion owned by

Hudovsky. On the right one can see a three-floor building of the

Nobility Assembly where a library was situated. On the horizon

line, a huge building of some state institutions can be seen while

to the right of it one can hardly see the silhouettes of the

churches of the Tithes and of St. Andrew. The

rest of the housing consists mostly of one- or two-floor buildings

with roofs made of either zinc-coated tin or wooden shingles.

Taking into account roofs made of zinc-coated tin, which can be

seen in the picture, the photo can be dated to the 1870s or even

to the 1880s.</p><p>One can also see the “Urod” fountain, which

served for water intake in the mid-nineteenth century; however,

after the City Duma (council) building had been built there, the

fountain was transferred to a square behind the building, being

also given an aesthetic function; now its place is occupied by the

fountains of the Maydan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square).</p><p><i>Olga Martyniuk</i></p><p></p>