Safeguarding the Capital's Architectural Legacy: A City Reconstructing Its Foundations Amidst the Onslaught of Conflict.

Lesia Danylenko showed off with satisfaction her freshly fitted front door. The restoration team had affectionately dubbed its graceful transom window the “pastry”, a lighthearted tribute to its bowed shape. “In my opinion it’s more of a peacock,” she remarked, appreciating its twig-detailed features. The renovation effort at one of Kyiv’s turn-of-the-century art nouveau houses was funded through residents, who commemorated the work with several impromptu pavement parties.

It was also an expression of opposition towards a neighboring state, she elaborated: “Our aim is to live like ordinary people in spite of the war. It’s about organizing our life in the best possible way. We’re not afraid of remaining in Ukraine. The possibility to emigrate existed, moving away to a foreign land. Instead, I’m here. The new entrance represents our allegiance to our homeland.”

“We strive to live like ordinary people regardless of the war. It’s about arranging our life in the most positive way.”

Protecting Kyiv’s built legacy may appear paradoxical at a period when missile strikes routinely fall the capital, causing death and destruction. Since the onset of the current year, offensive operations have been notably increased. After each attack, workers board up blown-out windows with plywood and try, where possible, to secure residential buildings.

Among the Conflict, a Battle for Beauty

Despite the violence, a collective of activists has been attempting to preserve the city’s decaying mansions, built in a distinctive style known as Ukrainian modernism. Danylenko’s house is in the downtown Shevchenkivskyi district. It was built in 1906 and was initially the home of a affluent fur dealer. Its facade is embellished with horse chestnut leaves and delicate camomile flowers.

“These buildings represent symbols of Kyiv. These properties are quite rare nowadays,” Danylenko said. The residence was designed by an architect of Central European origin. Several other buildings in the vicinity display similar art nouveau characteristics, including a lack of symmetry – with a gothic tower on one side and a small tower on the other. One popular house in the area boasts two sullen white stucco cats, as well as owls, masks and a devil.

Multiple Challenges to Heritage

But military aggression is only one threat. Preservation campaigners say they face profit-driven developers who raze historically significant buildings, corrupt officials and a governing class indifferent or resistant to the city’s vast architectural history. The bitter winter climate adds another burden.

“Kyiv is a city where wealth dictates. We lack real political will to save our heritage,” said Dmytro Perov, an activist. He claimed the city’s leadership was friends with many of the developers who destroy important houses. Perov stated that the vision for the capital comes straight out of a bygone era. The mayor rejects these claims, stating they come from political rivals.

Perov said many of the civically minded activists who once defended older properties were now engaged in combat or had been killed. The lengthy conflict meant that the entire society was facing monetary strain, he added, including judicial figures who curiously ruled in favour of suspect new-build schemes. “The longer this persists the more we see degradation of our society and public institutions,” he argued.

Demolition and Disregard

One notorious example of destruction is in the riverside Podil neighbourhood. The street was lined with classical 19th-century houses. A developer who purchased the plot had committed to preserve its charming brick facade. In the immediate aftermath of the full-scale invasion, heavy machinery razed it to the ground. Recently, a crane dug foundations for a new shopping and business centre, monitored by a unfriendly security guard.

Anatolii Pohorily, a heritage supporter, said there was faint chance for the remaining blue-green houses on the site. Sometimes developers levelled old properties while stating they were doing “archaeological research”, he said. A former political system also caused immense damage on the capital, redesigning its central boulevard after the second world war so it could facilitate large-scale parades.

Carrying the Torch

One of Kyiv’s most notable advocates 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 initially 3,500 brick-built mansions in Kyiv, many constructed for the city’s successful industrialists. Only 80 of their original doors are still in existence, she said.

“It was not aerial bombardments that got rid of them. It was us,” she lamented. “The war could continue for 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 period bathroom and antique mirrors.

“The war could continue for another 20 years. If we neglect architecture now little will be left.”

The building’s occupant, artist Yurii Pikul, described his home as “quite special and a little bit cold”. Why do many residents not cherish the past? “Regrettably they do not have education and taste. It’s all about business. We are trying as a country to go to the west. But we are still some distance away from such cultural awareness,” he said. Previous ways of thinking persisted, with people hesitant to take personal responsibility for their built surroundings, he added.

Resilience in Restoration

Some buildings are crumbling because of institutional abandonment. Chudna showed a once-magical villa concealed behind a modern hospital. Its roof had collapsed; pigeons roosted among its smashed windows; refuse lay under a storybook tower. “Many times we are unsuccessful,” she conceded. “This activity is therapy for us. We are striving to save all this past and splendour.”

In the face of war and commercial interests, these citizens continue their work, one building at a time, arguing that to preserve a city’s soul, you must first save its stones.