<p>One<br />

of the earliest photos of Khreshchatyk street and the Dumska<br />

square (now Maydan Nezalezhnosti). In the center of the photo,<br />

there is a two-floor white house in the background; on the ground<br />

floor of this house, there was an establishment under a sign<br />

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

picture. Ivan Hudovsky was Taras Shevchenko’s mate at the St.<br />

Petersburg Academy of Arts; it was in this studio that he took<br />

famous pictures of his colleague. The house stood there till the<br />

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

with a four-column portico can be seen; it was a mansion owned by<br />

Hudovsky. On the right one can see a three-floor building of the<br />

Nobility Assembly where a library was situated. On the horizon<br />

line, a huge building of some state institutions can be seen while<br />

to the right of it one can hardly see the silhouettes of the<br />

churches of the Tithes and of St. Andrew. The<br />

rest of the housing consists mostly of one- or two-floor buildings<br />

with roofs made of either zinc-coated tin or wooden shingles.<br />

Taking into account roofs made of zinc-coated tin, which can be<br />

seen in the picture, the photo can be dated to the 1870s or even<br />

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

served for water intake in the mid-nineteenth century; however,<br />

after the City Duma (council) building had been built there, the<br />

fountain was transferred to a square behind the building, being<br />

also given an aesthetic function; now its place is occupied by the<br />

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