Hardly anyone—except perhaps the laziest of guides—has failed to lead a tour of this stunningly beautiful Kharkiv mansion, located at Kontorska Street, 26. The number of articles dedicated to the house on various websites is countless. But alas, neither the stories nor the texts shine with originality and are all exactly the same. So, all in all, this is the story we end up with.

“The mansion of Belgian industrialist Boris Shapara. It was built for him in the 1880s. Shapara himself lived in the house with his entire family, various governesses, and servants. After the 1917 Revolution, the communist authorities confiscated the building from its owner…”

For this reason, the residents of our city persistently refer to the house at Kontorska Street, 26 as “Shapara’s mansion.” However, the true history of both the building itself and its owners turned out to be far more interesting. A few years ago, while working with a book published in 1913 (“Jubilee Historical and Artistic Publication in Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the Reign of the Romanov Dynasty”), I was fortunate enough to come across some extremely interesting material.

B. V. Shapara

Boris Vladimirovich Shapara, owner of a well-equipped metalworks in Kharkiv, was born in 1866 in Vienna, where he also received his early education. Boris Vladimirovich gained practical experience in his field at German factories, after which he moved to Kharkiv and opened his own factory in 1886, which manufactures: machinery for leather processing plants, metal mesh, nails, shovels, wire, and so on. The factory enjoys an excellent reputation among its numerous customers, and has gained enviable popularity among the local peasants whom Boris Vladimirovich trained in this new trade. Office: Kharkiv, Ekaterinosl. St., 18

Thanks to these documents, we can finally see what the industrialist himself looked like. And the claim that the mansion was built specifically for him in 1880 sounds completely ridiculous and absurd. After all, there were still six years left before Boris Vladimirovich arrived in our beloved city.

However, this is not the end of our little investigation. Let’s see what the “Guild Lists of Merchants Who Renewed and Did Not Renew Their Merchant Certificates” for 1909, 1910, and 1912 have to say about Shapara. Undoubtedly, some will say that there may be errors in the records stored in the State Archives of the Kharkiv Region. However, personally, I have no reason not to trust this document. So Boris Shapara had neither a wife nor children.

And what do the exceptionally informative reference books *List of Homeowners in the City of Kharkiv* tell us about the owners of this house? It turns out that in 1882, the owner of the property at Kontorska Street, 26 was Anna Ivanovna, the widow of the merchant Shatunov. In 1887 and 1892, her daughters Nadezhda and Natalya are listed as the owners. However, by 1901, the Shatunov family is no longer found on Kontorska Street. Instead, Lieutenant Ivan Pavlovich Kharinsky is listed as the owner of this address.

The exact date when merchant Ivan Fedoseevich Romanenko became the owner of the courtyard where the “Shapara’s Mansion”—so beloved by many—is located is unknown. However, he is listed as the owner in 1909. According to archival documents, the financial affairs of the confectionery factory (better known to the residents of our city by its first owner, D. Kromsky) were going very well. In 1907 and 1912, the building—which by that time employed more than 300 workers—was renovated and expanded, thereby acquiring its final architectural appearance.

It goes without saying that the financial success of the only confectionery company capable of competing in our city with the well-known Georges Borman factory allowed the owner to build a magnificent mansion right across from the factory. When my colleagues and I raised the question in 2016 and 2017 of whether it was correct to call the building at Kontorska Street, 26 the “Shapar’s Mansion,” given that the merchant Romanenko was in fact the first owner of the apartment building, we heard all sorts of things directed at us. Help in the fight for the truth came completely unexpectedly. In an article dedicated to the architect and artist Valentin Avgustovich Feldman, researcher E. V. Solovyov writes, in particular, the following:

…It seems that only painstaking archival research or truly unexpected discoveries can shed light on Feldman’s “world” in Kharkiv. And such discoveries do happen. The V. G. Zabolotny Library (Kyiv) has put on display the design drawings for an apartment building that Feldman created for Romanenko:

From the drawing of the main facade, it is easy to recognize the facade of the “legendary” Kharkiv building on Kontorskaya Street, commonly known as the “Shapar’s Mansion.”

Kharkiv historians A. Paramonov and A. Bondarev have devoted considerable effort to restoring historical justice and returning the building’s name to its true founder—I. F. Romanenko. The blueprints for Romanenko’s house are dated 1906–1907, from which one can easily deduce the approximate date of construction of the apartment building—1907.

Thus, the painstaking work of our colleagues in Kyiv made it possible not only to determine the date of construction but also to identify the architect. Around 1913, Romanenko, apparently unable to withstand the growing competition from Borman, sold the house. Boris Shapara did indeed become the new owner. However, there is absolutely no evidence confirming that he lived at Kontorska Street, 26. Boris Andreevich owned other properties in our city as well. And in the 1915 edition of the “All of Kharkiv” directory, Shapar’s place of residence is listed as the “Marseille” Hotel.

So, as we can see, the actual history of the mansion at Kontorska Street, 26 has nothing to do with the story concocted by who knows whom.

Whether to call this undeniably beautiful mansion “Romanenko’s Mansion” or “Shapar’s Mansion” is a matter of personal preference.

After all, one could talk and debate endlessly about the history of this most beautiful city…

The building was damaged by Russian missile strikes in 2022 and lost some of its windows.