Many residents of Kharkiv are familiar with and fond of the historic mansion located at Myronosytska Street, 58 (at the intersection with Karazin Street).

Most residents of Kharkiv consider architect A.M. Ginzburg to be its creator.

In the 1990s, this building housed the “Camellia” Tea House, which is why Kharkiv residents know it better as the “Tea House.”

As everyone knows, between 1893 and 1917, there were seven foreign consulates in our beloved city.

In 1909, the Royal Swedish Consulate was opened in Kharkiv. It was headed by Consul Adolf-Gustav Albertovich Münch. It is believed that the “Tea House” was built specifically at his request and that he was its owner.

In any case, that’s the most widely circulated story. But it all turned out to be nothing but a myth. The real story behind this mansion is completely different.

Thanks to the information kindly provided to us by Andriy Paramonov, it turns out that:

1. The architect of the mansion is unknown; his name has not been preserved in the design documents;
2. According to records dating back to 1908, the mansion belonged to Pavel Vasilyevich Mikhin, a professor of medicine, who purchased it from the daughter of Court Counselor Ekaterina Vasilyevna Ivanova.

The surnames Münch and Mikhin sound very similar, which may have led to the confusion that sparked the widespread myth about the Swedish consul’s house.

It is quite possible that a historian or journalist made a typo in the text. Subsequently, without checking it, everyone who writes about the mansion at Myronosytska Street, 58 began mindlessly repeating it en masse.

Thus, a minor oversight or act of incompetence gave rise to one of the greatest myths in the history and architecture of Kharkiv.