Richard's Castle in Kiev.
"Castle of Richard -Lion Heart" - poeticized name house number 15 on Andrew Descent in Kiev - the architectural monument of the XIX century, built in the Gothic style of the British. Named in honor of Viktor Nekrasov, King Richard the Lionheart, the hero of Sir Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe." House in a historic castle is set in the complex terrain of the former chronicle Vozdyhalnitsy mountains just below the St. Andrew's Church. The monumental facade decorated with architectural elements of the castle-fortress - a variety of towers, spiers, jagged tops of the walls, etc. On the left side of the house rises a high tower with fortification features.At various times, lived in the house of famous Ukrainian artists Krasitsky F., I.Makushenko, F.Balavensky. On the facade of the house is a memorial plaque Ukrainian artist G.P Dyadchenko (where he lived in 1909-1921 gg.).
We are renting an excellent two-room apartment near St. Andrew's descent.
Legends and Richard Castle
At Andrew's descent, which in my spare time flocks lyrically minded people, remarkable for three buildings: St. Andrew's Church. Memorial House - Museum of Mikhail Bulgakov and the Castle of Richard the Lionheart. If the historical realities of the first two, thank God, understood, then the latter is shrouded in riddles and fables. Talking about the "medieval castle", some citizens are not without pride, reported that, say, the English king, who lived in the 12th century, famous for his courage and went down in history as Richard the Lionheart really been in this castle.
Alas, will disappoint those who strongly believes in this beautiful legend. So, look at the facts.
According to the documents. Richard's Castle appeared on Andrew Descent in 1902 1904gg. And land with a house owned by the contractor Kiev Dmitry Orlov. It was on his request building technician A. Krauss built in the style of English Gothic. For the family nest castle with pointed spiers and battlements, covered gallery - stairs leading to the courtyard, is the best fit, but it is curious that the original house sroilsya as profitable (at the beginning of the XX century Kyiv experienced a period of rapid urban development: wood, more part of a one-story buildings were torn down, and in their place built high-rise on those standards, and spacious apartments, which the owner after the lease). That Eagles decided to invest in this highly profitable business, but fate decreed otherwise.
Contractor Orlov, doing construction in the Far East, was shot in 1911, and the field of his sudden death the house was soon sold. And this is where the fun begins! Immediately after the new owner of the apartment house passed the apartments for rent, spread across Kiev chilling rumors that the castle on the Andreevskom settled devil. Rumors have been caused by confusing the sounds in the furnace and vent pipes, which occurred just in robes, as the wind rose. Kiev inhabitants were literally paralyzed by fear. The most drastic threatened to smash the cursed house brick by brick, destroying in this way and ghosts, and their terrible voices. Only through the intervention of a remarkable personality, as the Kievan tradition, this story came to a saving of fracture.
One of the occupants of the house number 15 was a professor at the Kiev Theological Academy, the renowned historian Stepan T. Golubev. It is to him a legend ascribes the role of brave savior. Rumor has it that once, utterly worn out mournful howl in the pipes, Golubev put his hand up the chimney, and there was an eggshell. It - that was the cause of the unpleasant to the ear sounds: through small holes in the shell passed the air, and played the role of the shell cavity. As she got into the pipe, we can only guess. Rather, it planted there working, something which angered the contractor ...
With the establishment of the Soviet government nationalized the house and its comfortable apartments rebuilt in the populous communal. When he was in Kiev, the writer Viktor Nekrasov's somewhere in the late '60s, Richard Castle, as Turbin House, attracted like a magnet Kiev bohemia. Indeed, among other things for the house was way out on one of the steep hills that flank the St. Andrew's descent, - the Castle and the stunning views out to the hem, and further, with a panoramic view of the Left Bank.
Tourists are usually held courtyard, and then, climbing stairs and walking a covered area in front of the house, as a bridge connecting it with the upper floors, turned out to be nose to nose with the tenants, who looked at evaluating the newcomers. Immediately dried clothes, and from the open windows came the sound of a symphony of kitchen odors. Richard Castle is an interesting and began to live a different life - the joy of "most of all Kyiv streets of Kiev" and those who loved her.
