<p>

The building of the Kyiv City Duma,

constructed in 1876, six years later after this institution became an

elective body and resumed the nature of self-government (now the

Maydan Nezalezhnosti square). This building indicates the

co-existence of administrative, commercial, educational, and public

functions in the space of a single structure. The ground floor was

occupied by shops; profit from the lease of the shops was going to

the city treasury. The assembly hall and the city administration

rooms were located on the first floor. Certain premises were held by

the famous Murashko’s drawing school and a medical night duties

post. In the 1890s the third floor was added on the whole building’s

perimeter. The building is planned in the shape of an unbent

horseshoe. On the tower spire, there is a statue of Archangel Michael

with a sword in his hands; it is the patron of Kyiv and a symbol of

being ready to defend Kyiv’s self-government (a reference to the

Magdeburg Rights which were lost by the city). The Archangel Michael,

made by Yeva Kulykivska, a sculptor, was replaced by a red star not

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

pedestrian area which was strictly divided into a pedestrian part and

a carriageway; to a certain extent, this fact indicates that the area

had the nature of a square rather than that of a street. On the left

one can see a rather tall gas lantern post, which had a more refined

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

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