The Proviant Store, also known as the Proviant Warehouse, is a national architectural landmark, located at Mar’yanenka Lane, 4. Until 1972, this lane was known as Proviantskyi.

This imposing two-storey building (with a semi-basement) in the neoclassical style was constructed between 1785 and 1787 to a design by architect Petro Yaroslavsky to store reserve grain stocks, which were particularly important in years of poor harvests. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the square onto which the building faces changed its name three times: initially it was called Zolochivska (where firewood was traded), then Khlebna (where grain and foodstuffs were traded), and in the 1820s it received its current name – Teatralna – when the first building of the Kharkiv theatre appeared opposite the warehouse. It was wooden and has not survived; today it is located at Hryhoriia Skovorody Street, 22 and 24.

In fact, the Proviant Store is one of the few 18th-century stone buildings still standing in Kharkiv. At that time, the city was almost entirely built up with wooden houses, which, of course, have not survived to the present day.

The strategic importance of preserving grain stocks necessitated the construction of a stone warehouse. It differs from the surrounding buildings in its very thick walls and small windows – typical of utilitarian buildings of the 18th century.

Over time, the warehouse was extended with annexes, which were demolished in the 20th century. In the early 2000s, an electronics supermarket opened in the building, but it did not last long, and subsequently an ‘ATB’ grocery supermarket was established in its basement. History has come full circle – the building has once again taken on a ‘grocery’ function.