One of Kharkiv’s most famous Art Nouveau buildings is located at Pavlivskyi Sq, 10. We have already provided a detailed post about the building’s design.

Architect Oleksandr Rzhepishevskyi was invited from St. Petersburg to Kharkiv to oversee the construction of the Merchant Bank building, which he had designed in collaboration with Nikolai Vasilyev.

Construction took place from 1909 to 1913. The facades were designed by N. Vasilyev, while Oleksandr Rzhepishevskyi was responsible for the interior spaces and the building’s structural design.

The talented architect received many commissions in Kharkiv and decided to stay there.

The merchant bank building was constructed using state-of-the-art technology—on a reinforced concrete frame.

During the construction process, Rzhepishevskyi had a falling out with Vasilyev, and the scandal made headlines…

Nevertheless, the building was opened in 1913.

The façade was adorned with numerous bas-reliefs and sculptures by St. Petersburg artists V.V. Kozlov and L.A. Dietrich.

“Astoria” occupied the top four floors.

The lower level housed a bank and various other institutions.

The building sustained serious damage during the first liberation of Kharkiv in the winter of 1943, but was meticulously restored by the Kharkiv “Voenproekt” Institute (architect P. E. Shpara, led by Evtushenko).

In 1951, the “Melodiya” music store opened in the former “Astoria” building, and that is the name by which most Kharkiv residents remember it.

At first, the “Melodiya” sign was on the ground floor, but then it was moved higher up, to the spot where the “Astoria” sign used to be.

In 2011, the music store, which had already been located in the basement of the side wing, moved out of the building for good, and the sign disappeared along with it.

The back of the building is red.

A test of your attention to detail and keen eyesight: among the other large bas-relief sculptures, the building is adorned with inconspicuous but intricately detailed miniature Atlanteans suspended from the wall by chains. Can you spot them? 🙂

The building was damaged as a result of a Russian missile strike on the Palace of Labor on March 2, 2022, and lost some of its windows.