Bessarabian Market

The place where the market is now located was ennobled only in 1869. Before that, Bessarabka was a wasteland. It was constantly flooded with water running from all the surrounding hills (even the “pipe”, laid here to receive sewage and all kinds of sewage, could not save) and was strewn with household waste. The place was famous for the fact that tramps and people gathered here were robbery and robbery. Appearing in the Bessarabka area in the evening was dangerous. On the site of the former wasteland with a bad reputation, an area was organized on which they planned to erect a monument to Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Trade on the square was carried out long before the construction of the market building. By the beginning of the 20th century. The besarabka turned into a trading area, completely covered with various trading pavilions. Animal-drawn transport poured into Bessarabskaya Square from Khreshchatyk and Bibikovsky Boulevard. By 1902, it became apparent that trade in the area needed to be streamlined. The most logical thing was to do this by building a covered market. The construction cost was estimated at 500,000 rubles , despite the fact that the entire city budget was 2,000,000 rubles.

In 1904, the largest sugar factory, Lazar Brodsky, bequeathed to Kiev 500 thousand rubles for the construction of a covered market.

The detailed development of the construction program began only in 1908 due to lengthy coordination with Brodsky's relatives of the conditions for receiving money. For a long time the city did not want to take the sugar factory’s money because of the additional conditions that it stipulated in the will.

Initially, the city planned to arrange food and flower markets, as well as a city public library in one building, but later this idea was rejected (it was later erected in the Tsarsky Garden, now the National Library of Ukraine ).

In the final version, the market was intended only for trading. The building was supposed to accommodate 31 outdoor stores, a restaurant and an extensive trading room. In the hall 88 places were allocated for trade in meat, lard, sausage; 88 places - for the sale of greens and vegetables, dairy products, bread; 27 places - for the sale of fish. According to the calculations of the commission in charge of future construction, net profit from the market was expected to reach 10-12% per annum. In the summer of 1908, a closed competition of indoor market projects in Bessarabka took place. The first prize was awarded to Heinrich Guy. When choosing a project, the commission took into account that the architect already has experience in building such a market in Warsaw (the market on Vitkovsky Square (now Casimir the Great), destroyed in 1944). The projects of E. Bradtman , A. Kobelev (III place), A. Krivosheev ( uk ), A. Minkus (II place) were also considered. It took a year to finalize the project and prepare the area for construction, and in 1910, the company Gugel and Kalmanovsky, who won tenders for a contract, launched work under the supervision of civil engineer Mikhail Bobrusov ( uk ).

The design of the market was incredibly complex. Thick brick walls were combined with a multi-ton metal vaulted frame, on which the ceiling of the glass roof rested. The translucent roof, supported by a metal truss, made it possible to achieve the illumination of the inner space, which was inaccessible until that time. Local architects did not have experience in the construction of such structures, and in order to better prepare for work, the engineer supervising the construction, M. P. Bobrusov, was even sent to Europe to inspect and familiarize himself with the construction of covered markets that exist in large cities in Western Europe.

Bessarabian market is built in the style of late Art Nouveau . The facades of the market are decorated with reliefs on pastoral themes: “Thrush”, “Peasant with bulls”, “Pisces”. Arches of entrances crown the heads of the bulls. Relief authors are sculptors Tatyana Rudenko, Alexei Teremets, students of Fedor Balavensky and Peter Snitkin ( uk ). The gate grilles are decorated with ducks taking off from the lake surface, and even the rivet heads are made in the form of flowers.

The authors of the book “Art Nouveau Kiev” describe the mood in which the Bessarabian market was created and lives today as follows: “A peasant woman carrying luggage full of fresh milk; rural peasant, harnessed in yoke a pair of his best oxen; the head of a long-horned bull in the castle stone of an arched entrance - among the harsh reality of modern Kiev, they are even sweeter to the heart than a hundred years ago. The building of the market, this fabulous Ukrainian farm in the middle of a bustling city square, breathes peace, harmony and pastoral idyll. It seems that this is a trap into which time has landed and forever ... "

The Bessarabian market was consecrated on July 3, 1912.
In the 1930s, the forensic laboratory of the People's Commissariat of Health was located on the market (obviously, because it needed the underground refrigerators of Bessarabka, once discharged from Revel).
In the 1960s, the market was reconstructed, but it has survived carefully to this day, having remained almost unchanged.
In the 1980s, the market was nearly destroyed. It was assumed that in its place to build a traffic intersection ^[1] .
Currently, the market building is a communal property - belongs to the Bessarabian Market communal enterprise (KP).
According to the general opinion of Kiev residents and guests of the capital of Ukraine, the Bessarabian market is the most expensive in Kiev. The idioms of “expensive as in Bessarabka”, or “we are not in Bessarabka” (meaning “bargaining is inappropriate”) have firmly entered the everyday life of Kievans.
From time to time, the question arises of reprofiling the Bessarabian market. Sometimes they propose to make a hotel out of the market, sometimes an art gallery or a passage with shops ^[2] . For the sake of this, it is proposed to build it up, destroying the historical appearance of the Bessarabian market, but the market is still alive and working, as it did a hundred years ago.

• “Kiev in Art Nouveau style” Alexander Maslyukov, Marina Gantseva. - K.: Our time, 2013
• "Architecture of Ukraine at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries" V. Yasievich
• "Bessarabian indoor market in Kiev." Perunova N. // Architecture of Ukraine. - 1991. - No. 2. - Page 40-42

• Secrets of Bessarabka
• Bessarabian market on the map of Kiev: photo, description