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 The private house of architect V.V.Gorodetskiy was built in 1901-1902. It's the most famous house built during the construction boom in Kiev. Citizens also call it "the house with chimaeras". This house has been always connected with legends, though actually it was just an original form of advertising of new material - cement. Facade of the building is decorated with images of mythical animals and hunting motives also made of cement.
 Fortunately, "the house with chimaeras" became one of the most recognizable places of Ukrainian capital as the Mariinskiy palace. Appartment house and home of famous architect after the revolution and before the Second World War it was a living house and hospital. After the renovation "the House with chimaeras" will become the residential place of Ukrainian president and for some time it will replace the Mariinskiy palace, that also needs some renovate work. The cost of renovation is about 40 millions grivens. The work will be finished next summer. Now some floors and chimaeras are already renovated. It is planned to renovate the building's interior fully, including renovation of parquet floor and paintings. For nowadays "the House with chimaeras" is quite unique not only for Ukraine but also for the whole former Soviet Union.
 There are a lot of legends about construction of this house. Guides and folk create the most fascinating one: the architect's daughter committed suicide in Dnepr river because of unfortunate love (or maybe because of family feud). Architect went slightly mad and built this gloomy house for her memory. Another scandalous legend says that actually another architect - Nikolay Dobatchevskiy, built the house. However, Gorodetskiy signatures were under the drawings. There is another romantic version - a bet with other architects, who tried to prove that it's impossible to build a house on such breakage (there was a lake on the place where now Ivan Franko Theater stands). A strictly practical motivation of construction also seems quite real. This was the first house built with cement. So it was great promotional action for cement manufacturer Richter.
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