Central Park of Culture and Rest named after Maxim Gorky (Kharkov)

The Nikolaev suburban park was laid in 1893 - 1895 . and solemnly opened when the trees grew a little, in 1907 . Funding was provided at the expense of city residents, many of whom, especially students and gymnasium students , were directly involved in tree planting. As a result, the originally planned size of the park (20–40 acres) was increased to 90 acres (98 ha). The layout of the alleys imitated the Bois de Boulogne : the Chestnut and Linden alleys (also called Crew), combined into an elongated ring, were intended for horse walks.

In 1932, the area of ​​the park, which appeared in the city, was increased to 130 hectares . In 1938 (or 1936 ?), After the death of the writer, the park was named after Maxim Gorky . An extensive infrastructure has been created, completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War and restored in the post-war years. In 1952, a colonnade was built at the entrance (architects A. G. Krykin, E. A. Svyatchenko).

In the territory of the park there are a fountain, numerous attractions and cafes, a Park cinema, a children's railway , a cable car , at least three playgrounds (at the pizzeria, to the right of the fountain and to the left in front of the Park cinema), tennis courts, and In the 1960s and 80s, the Green Variety Theater and the only dynamic lighting painting hall in the Ukrainian SSR worked.

In 2006, by the Day of the city , the colonnade at the entrance to the park from the Sumy side was demolished, demolished in the summer of 2001 , and the monument to Maxim Gorky, which was dismantled in the late 1990s , was also restored. Celebrations on the occasion of the opening of the monument and the colonnade were opened by Eugene Kushnaryov .

In 2007, the fountain was restored at the end of the Main Alley.

• † Monument to V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin white - both sit and talk. A copy of the monument, located at the South Station . It was located at the beginning of the central alley, almost on the very spot where a monument to Gorky would later be erected. It was opened in the 1930s; completely destroyed in November 1941 after the capture of the city by Nazi troops .
• † The monument to Maxim Gorky by sculptor L. E. Belostotsky was erected in 1980 . In the late 1990s, when it was dismantled, in 2006 , on August 23, it was restored on a new pedestal, after the reconstruction of the park on August 23, 2012, it was again dismantled, replacing the squirrel with a figure. In the Lucky Story series on this spot, Lucky met a sneezing dog.

By decision of the Kharkiv City Council No. 185/07 of February 27, 2008 , the development of 23 hectares of the park was allowed. The City Council provided 9.9 hectares of the park for the construction of the road, hotel complex and apartments to the Department for Construction, Repair and Reconstruction of the Department of Construction and Road Facilities of the City Council. Another 12.8 hectares of the park was granted the status of land for residential and public buildings. The city council called the reason for the change in the park’s borders the unloading of automobile flows. To do this, it was planned to pave a road parallel to Derevyanko Street - between Novgorodskaya and Sumskaya Streets. Contrary to the General Plan of Kharkov in 2004, which involved the further punching of Vesnin Street to Dinamovskaya and along the current Aviation Street further to Novgorodskaya, the construction is in accordance with the 2007-2010 plan. laid along a new route in the depths of the park, intersecting with such unique objects as the children's railway , cable car . From May to June 2010, activists of the green movement opposed punching ^{[2] [3]} . A tent camp was built at the construction site of the new road, rallies and protests were held, and clashes regularly took place. On May 27, the driver of the excavator hit a bucket on two activists who were later taken away by an ambulance ^[4] . On June 2, 2010, in the early morning, municipal guards pushed activists and forest advocates from their territory of Gorky Park ^[5] .

In 2010, it was decided to reconstruct Gorky Park. The layout of the new "amusement park" at the site of Gorky Park was installed in December 2010 on the platform of the metro station "Historical Museum" ^[6] . In the spring of 2011, the park was closed - its global reconstruction began. Pavilions are dismantled. The rides were dismantled in February-March, the old ones were decommissioned, the rest were transferred to the Victory park at Saltovka and to Mayakovsky park at KhTZ . The first stage of the reconstructed Gorky Park - the Retro Zone was opened on May 9, 2012. The full reconstruction of Gorky Park was planned to be completed by June 1, 2012 (by the beginning of the EURO 2012 championship). However, the completely reconstructed park was opened on August 23, 2012, on the day of the liberation of Kharkov.

The monument to Gorky was removed for reconstruction on March 18, 2011. It was originally promised to restore and put it in place by June 1, 2012 ^[7] , but in the end it was placed on the territory of the Kuryazh colony for minors . In its place on August 23, 2012 a new emblem of the park, the squirrel, was installed.

As a result of the reconstruction of the park, carried out by the City Council on the credit line money secured by the property of the Kharkiv Metro , all attractions were replaced, the largest Ferris wheel in Ukraine with a diameter of 55 m was installed, the pavement was replaced with an avenue, a sports complex with football and basketball fields was built, old trees were thinned out and planted new trees, flower beds and flowerbeds are broken, new alleys are laid, the park is surrounded by a fence.

In 2013, Gorky Park received the Golden Pony Awards-2013 international award ^[8] for its modern concept and theme design.

Gorky Park has more than 30 attractions from Italian, German, American manufacturers. They are designed for visitors of all ages. The rides are open all year. The park is divided into several thematic zones: Children's Park, Extreme Park, Family Entertainment Zone, French Park, Retro Park, Medieval Square, Sports Complex, Lake. An all-weather children's entertainment center with rope mazes, pneumatic zones, a climbing wall, and trampolines operates on Medieval Square.

The children's park is stylized as a Flower City with sculptures of the heroes of fairy tales Nikolai Nosov. Attractions here are designed for children from 3 years.

Extreme Park is stylized as a primitive village, lost in the jungle. There are roller coasters with a maximum height of 24 meters, a fall tower; Attractions "Salto" and "Catapult".

In the Family Entertainment Zone, the rides are decorated in the style of various countries of the world: the House of Horrors, a vertical 40-meter roundabout "Arabia"; chain carousel "India"; carousel-regatta "Tortuga"; mega-disco "Egypt"; pirate galleon "Barbados"; children's slide "Old Mine"; aircraft with laser weapons "Japan" and others.

Retro park - a green zone with a large rose garden, park sofas, forged rotunda. A scene was set up here, stylized in the 1950s and 60s, there is a place for dancing, an arbor for fans to play chess.

• Before the war , the park had the only cedar grove in the city. She was near the Crew Alley. Destroyed during the war, in 1943 ^[9] . In the spring of 2016, Kharkov residents planted a new cedar grove in the park. ^{[10] [11] [12]}
• Before the war , a parachute tower was built in the park, which existed until at least the mid-60s.
• In the early 1970s, in the park, outside the amusement park, immediately behind the now defunct amusement rides-planes “ Loop Nesterova ” and “ Immelman ”, at the exit to ul. Dinamovskaya was opened the first in the Ukrainian SSR unique color music hall led by Yuri Alekseevich Pravdyuk ^[9] . Abandoned in the early 1990s, it fell into disrepair and was demolished in 2008 ; in its place in 2010 the restaurant "Kazan" was built.
• The previous Park cinema was wooden. It was located to the right of the central alley, on the site of the fountain. After the opening of the new three-screen cinema “Park”, the old one was demolished, and a “Circuit” with Czech contact electric cars was built in its place (previously a similar attraction with the same name was located in the area of ​​the current (new) cinema, not far from the Park station of the cable car ) , and after the reconstruction of 2012 - "Entertainment Center".
• In 2012, the largest Ferris wheel in Ukraine with a diameter of 55 meters was installed in the park ^[6] . The wheel opened on August 23, 2012.
• On January 6, 2015, the prosecutor's office of the Kharkiv region launched an investigation of millions of thefts by the leadership of the Central Control and Security Camp named after M. Gorky ^[13] . As of November 2017, no fault has been proven.

• Klein B.G., Lavrentiev I.N., Leibfreyd A. Yu. Et al. Kharkov: Architecture, Monuments, New Buildings: A Guidebook. - Kharkov: Prapor, 1987 .-- S. 58.
• E. Zvonitsky , V. Matvienko. Green city outfit. - Kharkov: Our town, 2004. - 152 p. - (350 years to Kharkov). - not a decree, copies. - ISBN 5-237-00297-8 .
• Gorky Park will change beyond recognition (inaccessible link) . Mail.ru, April 2, 2012
• JSC SPAERO Plus, Ukrgeodezkartografiya. Kharkiv. City plan. M 1: 20,000 = tenth edition / ed. Vl. Nikolaev. - Kharkov: SPAERO Plus, 2009. - 120 p. - not specified copies.