Preserving Kyiv's Heritage: An Urban Center Rebuilding Its Foundations in the Shadow of Conflict.

Lesia Danylenko beamed with pride as she displayed her newly installed front door. The restoration team had given the moniker its ornate transom window the “pastry”, a playful reference to its bowed shape. “I think it’s more of a peafowl,” she remarked, admiring its twig-detailed features. The renovation effort at one of Kyiv’s early 20th-century art nouveau houses was funded through residents, who celebrated with several lively pavement parties.

It was also an expression of defiance towards a neighboring state, she clarified: “We are trying to live like ordinary people regardless of the war. It’s about shaping our life in the optimal way. We have no fear of remaining in our country. I could have left, moving away to another European nation. Conversely, I’m here. The new entrance shows our commitment to our homeland.”

“Our aim is to live like ordinary people in spite of the war. It’s about organizing our life in the optimal way.”

Safeguarding Kyiv’s built legacy could be considered strange at a time when aerial assaults routinely fall the capital, resulting in death and destruction. Since the onset of the current year, offensive operations have been significantly intensified. After each attack, workers seal blown-out windows with plywood and endeavor, where possible, to save residential buildings.

Within the Conflict, a Fight for Beauty

In the midst of war, a group of activists has been striving to preserve the city’s deteriorating mansions, built in a playful style known as Ukrainian modernism. Danylenko’s house is in the downtown Shevchenkivskyi district. It was erected in 1906 and was originally the home of a wealthy fur dealer. Its exterior is decorated with horse chestnut leaves and intricate camomile flowers.

“These structures stand as symbols of Kyiv. These properties are increasingly scarce nowadays,” Danylenko said. The building was designed by an architect of Austrian-German origin. Several other buildings close by exhibit comparable art nouveau elements, including a lack of symmetry – with a pointed turret on one side and a turret on the other. One much-loved house in the area features two forlorn white stucco cats, as well as owls, masks and a imp.

Dual Dangers to History

But military aggression is only one threat. Preservation campaigners say they face unprincipled developers who raze protected buildings, dishonest officials and a administrative body indifferent or resistant to the city’s vast architectural history. The harsh winter climate imposes another burden.

“Kyiv is a city where capital prevails. We lack substantive political will to save our heritage,” said Dmytro Perov, an activist. He alleged the city’s mayor was friends with many of the developers who bulldoze important houses. Perov added that the concept for the capital is reminiscent of a different time. The mayor rejects these claims, stating they come from political rivals.

Perov said many of the community-oriented activists who once defended older properties were now serving in the military or had been fallen. The protracted conflict meant that the entire society was facing financial problems, he added, including judicial figures who mysteriously ruled in favour of suspect new-build schemes. “The longer this goes on the more we see degradation of our society and public institutions,” he contended.

Demolition and Abandonment

One glaring demolition site is in the riverside Podil neighbourhood. The street was lined with classical 19th-century houses. A developer who purchased the plot had agreed to preserve its charming brick facade. A day after the 2022 invasion, excavators demolished it. Recently, a crane prepared foundations for a new retail and office development, observed by a stern security guard.

Anatolii Pohorily, a heritage supporter, said there was little optimism for the remaining turquoise-painted houses on the site. Sometimes developers destroyed old properties while claiming they were doing “archaeological research”, he said. A previous regime also caused immense damage on the capital, redesigning its central boulevard after the second world war so it could accommodate official processions.

Continuing the Work

One of Kyiv’s most notable champions of historic buildings, a cultural activist, was fell in 2022 while serving in the frontline. His colleague Nelli Chudna said she and other volunteers were persevering in his important preservation work. There were originally 3,500 stone mansions in Kyiv, many built for the city’s prosperous industrialists. Only 80 of their original doors remain, she said.

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

“The war could last another 20 years. If we don’t defend architecture now not a thing will be left.”

The building’s tenant, artist Yurii Pikul, described his home as “quite special and a little bit cold”. Why do many locals not cherish the past? “Unfortunately they are without education and taste. It’s all about business. We are attempting as a country to move towards the west. But we are still a way off from such cultural awareness,” he said. Soviet-era ways of thinking lingered, with people hesitant to take personal responsibility for their architectural setting, he added.

Hope in Preservation

Some buildings are falling apart because of official neglect. Chudna showed a once-magical villa tucked away behind a modern hospital. Its roof had collapsed; pigeons made their home among its smashed windows; debris lay under a storybook tower. “Many times we don’t win,” she acknowledged. “Preservation work is therapy for us. We are attempting to save all this history and splendour.”

In the face of conflict and neglect, these citizens continue their work, one facade at a time, believing that to rebuild a city’s soul, you must first save its stones.