Geography
[edit]
The city is in the center of Ukraine and within the Dnieper Upland. The Inhul river flows through Kropyvnytskyi. Within the city, several other smaller rivers and brooks runs in the Inhul; they include the Suhoklia and the Biyanka.
Urban layout[edit]
The city began as a settlement built in adjustment to a fortress called "Yelizaveta Fortress". At the end of 1757, the earthen fortifications were almost ready. Only the internal layout has changed, retaining its dimensions (55x55 sazhens). North of the fortress of St. Elizabeth, behind a small ravine on the banks of the Ingul, a soldier's settlement arose under the name of Grechesky or Bykovo, named after captain Bykov who was the commandant of the fortress. The main streets of Bykovo were Nizhne-Bykovskaya (Pushkin St.). Verkhne-Bykovaya (Chapaeva), Ostrovskaya, Vasilievskaya, Andreevskaya (retained its original name), Artem, Kakhovskaya, Tobilevich, Pushkina Lane, Znamensky, and Sibirskaya.
To the east of the fortress, the Permskoye suburb appeared. It got its name from the camp of the Perm (Carabinieri) Regiment (Russian: Пермский карабинерный полк), called in 1754 to cover the working people and eradicate the Gaidamaks. Permskoye was located between the river and the esplanade zone, it was a small residential area, numbering a dozen blocks with straight streets and lanes. The main streets of Perm were - (Bolshaya Permskaya), Fisanovich, Sverdlov, Bobrinetskaya, Gorky, International, lanes Krepostnoy, Postal, Ogorodny.
Soon, buildings appeared on the other side of the Ingul. This part of the settlement was called Podil and is today forming the central part of the city. The drawings of 1762 indicate that a large residential area arose here, cut by streets 10-12 sazhens wide into a grid of square and rectangular quarters. It became the core of a rapidly growing village. The main streets on Podil were Marksa Street (Bolshaya Perspektivnaya, Nikolaevsky Prospekt), Dzerzhinskya (Moskovskaya), Lenina (Dvortsovaya, Verkhne-Donskaya), Timiryazeva (Nizhne-Donskaya), Gogola (Uspenskaya), K. Liebknecht (Preobrazhenskaya, Merchant ), R. Luxembourg, (Pokrovskaya), Kalinina (Mirgorodskaya), Decembrists (Ingulskad), Company (Nevskaya, Pashutinskaya), Volodarsky (Aleksandrovskaya), Kirov (Mikhailovskaya), Krasnogvardeiskaya (Arkhangelskaya), Karabinernaya (retained its original name).
While Bykovo and Permsky quarters were built up by the headquarters department for soldiers and officers, then in Podil they are occupied by houses of merchants and artisans. The settlements of Kovalevka and Balka, apparently founded by the Cossacks, adjoined the outskirts (in the territory of the modern part of the Balka, there is still a lane called Cossack). These settlements, which eventually merged with the suburban development into a single planning structure, initially had a picturesque, free tracing of the street network. But, if over time the layout of the Balka was subjected to only partial regulation, then only small fragments remained of the original layout of Kovalevka (Bebel St., Transportnaya St., Molodezhny Lane).
Almost simultaneously with the appearance of the suburb, the following were built: the city market (on the site of an existing shopping center), the wooden Assumption Church (on the site of the regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine), the wooden Vladimirskaya (Greek Church), the wooden Znamenskaya Church (on Bykovo), the schismatic prayer house. These objects with ordinary, mainly wooden manor buildings, as well as with fortress structures, determined the appearance of the city in the first ten years of its development.
The planning architectural and spatial composition of the central part of the settlement consisted in the hierarchical subordination of its main street (B. Perspektivnaya, K. Marksa) with the square on it and ordinary low-rise buildings. Among this development, public houses and shops were sharp accents, and the Assumption and Vladimir churches served as dominants. The street served as the main axis of the entire composition. It divided the suburb into two equal parts and the direction of its route almost coincided with the center of the fortress. Thus, the fortress with the church in it turned into the third main dominant of the street, although it was located outside its boundaries.
In plan, the area was rectangular with an aspect ratio of 1:3 (50x150 m.). On one of the smaller sides, it adjoined the main street (Bolshaya Perspektivnaya), and on the wide side it adjoined the market and a small quarter, like the square, which is now included in the territory of the market.
From the side of the market on the square there were a gostiny dvor and butcher shops, and on the opposite and smaller sides - public buildings. Within the retranchement, the city occupied an area of 2.3 sq. km. (1.8 x 1.5 km.). From the period of the formation of the city the fortress of St. Elizabeth was the town-planning core of the settlement, the place of concentration or attraction of all its main functions. The central administrative function was concentrated in the fortress. This is the administrative management of the fortress, the subordination of the chiefs of the suburbs and settlements to the commandant of the fortress, the presence in it of the regimental office of the Cossack regiment. The religious center was also located in the fortress of St. Elizabeth, the Trinity Cathedral Church (ruined in 1813). The central trading function also gravitated towards the fortress. Its place of concentration is the main square. The trade function developed with the settlement of lands by artisans and merchants. And their appearance was due to the need to service military units inside a large fortress.
Soviet period[edit]
Parallel to the Biayanka river, new streets were formed in the settlement of Balka. New quarters have grown in the village, such as Kushchevka and Novo-Alekseevka. Former village Balashovka merged with the city and organically entered its planning structure. In 1930, a general plan for the development of the city was developed. According to this plan, on the site of the square in front of the former town hall, the main square of the city was formed with a monument to Kirov in its center. In the 50s, The construction of 2-storey buildings began in the areas of Lunacharskogo and Mira streets. Also in the late 40s - early 50s. 3, 5-storey houses are being built on the Marksa Street. From the 60s, construction of massive housing estates was commenced, with Cheryomushki located in the south-west of the city being first such district, designed according to the plan of architect A.A. Sidorenko. Such housing estate was constructed also in Novo-Nikolaevka District. New master plan for the city was developed by the Kharkiv Institute Ukrgorstroyproekt, taking into account the placement of a residential multi-storey buildings in the new territories of the south-west. New residential areas were built along Heroyev Ukrainy Street (formerly Volkova Street). In the 60s, the industrial district along Balashovsky district was developed.
Architecture[edit]
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From 1878 to 1905 Oleksandr Pashutin served as mayor of the city. Under his administration, advances were made in the areas of education and medicine, construction of the water-supply system and several public buildings, the introduction of the first tram and the establishment of numerous marketplaces. Kropyvnytskyi is noted for the quality of its architecture, with European-style sculptures and antique windows. A range of classical and modern monuments, Moorish and Baroque palaces, and buildings that combine Gothic, Rococo and Renaissance motives are extant to this day. Today[when?] a high level of building technology of Kropyvnytskyi's masters encourages further construction and restoration.
Great Choral Synagogue
Craft school
Mansion I.M. Marushchak
Early 20th century Art Nouveau architecture
Square in front of the city council
Kropyvnytskyi city council
Security service building
Art Museum
Osmyorkin museum
Old court building