There are as many as two buildings of the former Azov-Don Bank located on Constitution Square.
The first one was built in 1896 according to a design by architect Oleksiy Beketov at its current address, Constitution Square, 14. The building is a architectural landmark.
A keen eye, upon glancing at the facade, will notice something amiss—and will be right: Oleksiy Beketov disliked Art Nouveau and was a proponent of the Neo-Renaissance and Neoclassical styles.
Originally, this building looked like this:
Over time, the bank began to run out of space, so in 1914 it moved to a new building at Constitution Square, 18 (designed by architects F. Lidval and L. Terven).
The facade of the former bank at Constitution Square, 18 is extremely difficult to see due to the abundance of advertising banners. The building is currently owned by the AVEC Group; it previously housed the third academic building of the H. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University (Faculty of Physical Education and Music Education).
The entrance is adorned with a bas-relief bearing the year “1871,” which leads many to believe that this is the year the house was built. However, it is actually the year the bank was founded. The Azov-Don Bank, founded in Taganrog, was one of the largest banks in the empire.
In 2003, a sculpture of a violinist (by sculptor Seifaddin Gurbanov) was installed on the roof of the building at Constitution Square, 18. The Violinist on the Roof is a reference to the stories by Sholem Aleichem and the Broadway musical of the same name. In 2017, a conflict widely covered in the press arose between Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes and AVEC Group Chairman Oleksander Feldman, resulting in the violinist sculpture being moved to the roof of the Platinum Plaza building at Sumska Street, 72, “further away from City Hall.” Nevertheless, the conflict was soon resolved, and a replica of the first violinist by the same sculptor appeared in its original location.
The “Beketov” building at Constitution Square, 14 was renovated in 1915 in the Art Nouveau style by the architect L. Terwen, mentioned above.
The facade design has become more austere. The driveway to the courtyard has been blocked off.
It’s hard to say how Oleksiy Beketov felt about the Art Nouveau-style renovation of his brainchild, but Terven’s work is also interesting.
During the Soviet era, there was a men’s suit store on the ground floor of the building.
Both buildings were damaged as a result of Russian missile strikes on the Palace of Labor and the Nikolsky shopping center in 2022 and lost their windows. On December 13, 2025, the roof of the building at Constitution Square, 14 was damaged again by a strike from a Russian “Molniya” drone; the fire was quickly extinguished by Kharkiv firefighters.
