Protecting Kyiv's Heritage: An Urban Center Reconstructing Its Foundations Under the Threat of Conflict.

Lesia Danylenko showed off with satisfaction her recently completed front door. Volunteers had affectionately dubbed its ornate transom window the “crescent roll”, a lighthearted tribute to its bowed shape. “Personally, I believe it’s more of a showy bird,” she commented, appreciating its twig-detailed ornamentation. The refurbishment initiative at one of Kyiv’s pre-World War I art nouveau houses was funded through residents, who marked the occasion with two lively pavement parties.

It was also an expression of defiance towards a neighboring state, she elaborated: “We strive to live like normal people in spite of the war. It’s about arranging our life in the most positive way. We have no fear of remaining in our homeland. I could have left, relocating to a foreign land. On the contrary, I’m here. The new entrance symbolizes our allegiance to our homeland.”

“We are trying to live like ordinary people despite the war. It’s about arranging our life in the optimal way.”

Preserving Kyiv’s historic buildings seems strange at a time when missile strikes frequently hit the capital, bringing death and destruction. Since the start of the current year, aerial raids have been notably increased. After each assault, workers board up broken windows with plywood and try, where possible, to save residential buildings.

Among the Bombs, a Fight for Identity

Amid the bombs, a collective of activists has been striving to preserve the city’s decaying mansions, built in a whimsical style known as Ukrainian modernism. Danylenko’s house is in the downtown Shevchenkivskyi district. It was constructed in 1906 and was initially the home of a prosperous fur dealer. Its exterior is decorated with horse chestnut leaves and delicate camomile flowers.

“They are symbols of Kyiv. These properties are uncommon in the present day,” Danylenko said. The building was designed by an architect of Austrian-German origin. Several other buildings nearby display similar art nouveau elements, including an irregular shape – with a medieval spire on one side and a turret on the other. One much-loved house in the area boasts two unhappy white stucco cats, as well as owls, masks and a devil.

Multiple Threats to Legacy

But armed conflict is only one threat. Preservation campaigners say they face unprincipled developers who knock down listed buildings, unethical officials and a governing class unconcerned or hostile to the city’s rich architectural history. The harsh winter climate imposes another burden.

“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 flatten important houses. Perov added that the plan for the capital comes straight out of a bygone era. The mayor has refuted these claims, stating they come from political rivals.

Perov said many of the community-oriented activists who once defended older properties were now engaged in combat or had been lost. The protracted conflict meant that all citizens was facing financial problems, he added, including those in the legal system who mysteriously ruled in favour of suspect new-build schemes. “The longer this persists the more we see decline of our society and state bodies,” he contended.

Loss and Neglect

One notorious example of destruction is in the historic Podil neighbourhood. The street was home to classical 19th-century houses. A developer who purchased the plot had agreed to preserve its charming brick facade. In the immediate aftermath of the onset of major hostilities, heavy machinery razed it to the ground. Recently, a crane prepared foundations for a new retail and office development, monitored by a stern security guard.

Anatolii Pohorily, a heritage supporter, said there was not much hope for the remaining blue-green houses on the site. Sometimes developers levelled old properties while stating they were doing “scientific study”, he said. A former political system also wrought immense damage on the capital, reconstructing its central boulevard after the second world war so it could facilitate official processions.

Continuing the Work

One of Kyiv’s most notable defenders of historic buildings, a cultural activist, was killed in 2022 while engaged in the frontline. His colleague Nelli Chudna said she and other volunteers were carrying on his crucial preservation work. There were at one time 3,500 masonry mansions in Kyiv, many erected for the city’s successful industrialists. Only 80 of their period doors are still in existence, she said.

“It wasn’t foreign rockets that got rid of them. It was us,” she said with regret. “The war could last another 20 years. If we don’t defend architecture now nothing will be left,” she continued. Chudna recently helped to restore a unique ivy-draped house built in 1910, which acts as the headquarters of her cultural organization and operates as a film set and museum. The property has a new vermilion portal and authentic railings; inside is a historic washroom and antique mirrors.

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

The building’s resident, artist Yurii Pikul, described his home as “very cool and a little bit cold”. Why do many citizens not value the past? “Unfortunately they are without education and taste. It’s all about business. We are trying as a country to move towards the west. But we are still not yet close from that standard,” he said. Soviet-era ways of thinking persisted, with people unwilling to take personal responsibility for their architectural setting, he added.

Therapy in Action

Some buildings are crumbling because of institutional abandonment. Chudna showed a once-magical villa concealed behind a modern hospital. Its roof had collapsed; pigeons nested among its broken windows; refuse lay under a storybook tower. “Often we lose the battle,” she conceded. “Preservation work is therapy for us. We are striving to save all this heritage and aesthetic value.”

In the face of war and commercial interests, these citizens continue their work, one door at a time, stating that to rebuild a city’s heart, you must first save its stones.