BUKOVYNA COGNITA - HOLOVNA ST.

HOLOVNA STREET

It won’t be unusual if a Chernivtsi guide starts introducing the city from its old part, the crossing of Holovna and P.Sahaydachniy streets. It was once Fountain square named so for a natural spring which was flowing out here.

The Austrian administration erected its first building, the so-called General’s House, in 1780 at the corner of today’s Holovna, Shkilna and Sholem Aleichem streets.

It neighbours on the austere Roman-Catholic Cathedral of Saint Cross Erection (1787). The high spire of this catholic temple was used as a fire watch point for a long time.

The square formation was finished in the early XX century by an original building at the corner of Holovna and Sholem Aleichem decorated by the fountain in the form of lion head and clam bowl. This "ship” house is finalized with a tower and survey veranda on the cone-shaped mansard floor covered with coloured roof. The sharp-cornered building as if cuts the surrounding space thus giving an edge to its exact name.

Close to Fountain square in the mid XIX was Moldavia hotel being then the center of the city art events. It had a concert hall in which Franz Liszt gave a concert on 24^th May 1847. Today Chernivtsi Puppet theater is located here.

Chernivtsi Art Nouveau style in Holovna st. is well represented by numerous apartment buildings (so-called "profitable” houses) and single-family villas, as well as hotels built in 1890-1910.

When we follow on the street we’ll see House No.42, an apartment house built in early XX century with wooden balconies, mouldings and verticals of glazed bricks. The ground floor of the building is occupied by Passage department store which gave its name to the whole building. The house neighbours on Kyiv (former Palace) hotel and houses No. 48 and 50, another secession architectural ensemble.

GALLERY (click photos to enlarge)