Safeguarding Kyiv's Architectural Legacy: An Urban Center Rebuilding Itself Amidst the Onslaught of Conflict.

Lesia Danylenko beamed with pride as she displayed her freshly fitted front door. Volunteers had playfully nicknamed its graceful transom window the “crescent roll”, a lighthearted tribute to its curved shape. “I think it’s more of a peafowl,” she stated, appreciating its branch-like features. The refurbishment initiative at one of Kyiv’s early 20th-century art nouveau houses was supported by residents, who celebrated with a couple of impromptu pavement parties.

It was also an expression of opposition against a neighboring state, she clarified: “Our aim is to live like ordinary people regardless of the war. It’s about arranging our life in the most positive way. We have no fear of staying in our homeland. The possibility to emigrate existed, moving away to a foreign land. Conversely, I’m here. The new entrance symbolizes our commitment to our homeland.”

“Our aim is to live like normal people despite the war. It’s about shaping our life in the most positive way.”

Preserving Kyiv’s built legacy may appear strange at a moment when aerial assaults routinely fall the capital, causing death and destruction. Since the onset of the current year, bombing campaigns have been significantly intensified. After each attack, workers board up shattered windows with plywood and attempt, where possible, to salvage residential buildings.

Amid the Bombs, a Fight for Beauty

Despite the violence, a band of activists has been striving to conserve the city’s crumbling mansions, built in a distinctive style known as Ukrainian modernism. Danylenko’s house is in the central Shevchenkivskyi district. It was built in 1906 and was first the home of a wealthy fur dealer. Its facade is embellished with horse chestnut leaves and fine camomile flowers.

“These buildings represent symbols of Kyiv. These properties are increasingly scarce today,” Danylenko noted. The mansion was designed by a designer of Central European origin. Several other buildings nearby display analogous art nouveau features, including asymmetry – with a gothic tower on one side and a small tower on the other. One popular house in the area displays two unhappy white stucco cats, as well as owls, masks and a imp.

Multiple Threats to Legacy

But armed conflict is only one threat. Preservation campaigners say they face unscrupulous developers who demolish historically significant buildings, corrupt officials and a governing class apathetic or opposed to the city’s profound architectural history. The bitter winter climate presents another challenge.

“Kyiv is a city where wealth dictates. We are missing genuine political will to save our heritage,” said Dmytro Perov, an activist. He alleged the city’s leadership was friends with many of the developers who bulldoze important houses. Perov added that the concept for the capital comes straight out of a different time. The mayor has refuted these claims, attributing them from political rivals.

Perov said many of the civically minded activists who once defended older properties were now fighting on the frontline or had been fallen. The protracted conflict meant that all citizens was facing financial problems, he added, including those in the legal system who inexplicably ruled in favour of dubious new-build schemes. “The longer this continues the more we see decline of our society and state bodies,” he remarked.

Demolition and Disregard

One glaring demolition site is in the historic Podil neighbourhood. The street was lined with classical 19th-century houses. A developer who acquired the plot had agreed to preserve its picturesque brick facade. A day after the 2022 invasion, excavators tore it down. Recently, a crane dug foundations for a new retail and office development, watched by a surly security guard.

Anatolii Pohorily, a heritage supporter, said there was little optimism for the remaining turquoise-painted houses on the site. Sometimes developers levelled old properties while claiming they were doing “scientific study”, he said. A previous regime also inflicted immense damage on the capital, rebuilding its central boulevard after the second world war so it could facilitate large-scale parades.

Upholding the Legacy

One of Kyiv’s most notable defenders of historic buildings, a heritage expert, was killed in 2022 while serving in a eastern city. His colleague Nelli Chudna said she and other volunteers were persevering in his vital preservation work. There were originally 3,500 stone mansions in Kyiv, many erected for the city’s wealthy business magnates. Only 80 of their authentic doors remain, she said.

“It was not external attacks that destroyed them. It was us,” she lamented. “The war could continue for another 20 years. If we fail to protect architecture now little will be left,” she added. Chudna recently helped to restore a characterful vine-clad house built in 1910, which functions as the headquarters of her cultural organization and doubles as a film set and museum. The property has a new vermilion portal and period-correct railings; inside is a historic washroom and antique mirrors.

“The war could continue for another 20 years. If we fail to protect architecture now little will be left.”

The building’s tenant, artist Yurii Pikul, described his home as “quite special and a little bit cold”. Why do many citizens not cherish the past? “Sadly they lack education and taste. It’s all about business. We are trying as a country to move towards the west. But we are still some distance away from such cultural awareness,” he said. Soviet-era ways of thinking persisted, with people unwilling to take personal responsibility for their built surroundings, he added.

Resilience in Preservation

Some buildings are crumbling because of bureaucratic indifference. Chudna pointed to a once-magical villa hidden behind a modern hospital. Its roof had collapsed; pigeons made their home among its broken windows; debris lay under a storybook tower. “Often we don’t win,” she admitted. “This activity is a form of healing for us. We are trying to save all this past and splendour.”

In the face of destruction and commercial interests, these citizens continue their work, one building at a time, believing that to preserve a city’s heart, you must first save its stones.