If you open the 1915 Kharkiv guidebook, you’ll find that there was a mansion on the corner of Dmytrivs’ka and Blagovischenska Streets whose art collection would have been the envy of many museums at the time.

The guidebook states that back then, it was possible to visit by appointment.

On the corner of Dmytrivs’ka and Blagovischenska Streets stands the Filonovs’ house, painted dark gray—almost black—an old mansion of fine Empire-style architecture built in the early 19th century. In a niche by the gate stands a “stone woman,” an ancient sculpture; such figures were scattered across the burial mounds of the southern Russian steppes. The house contains a small but very interesting collection of paintings and porcelain; among other things: paintings by T. Shevchenko, Bryullov, V. Vasnetsov, Aivazovsky, and Sverchkov. The painting by Nikolai Ge, “Pushkin in the Village of Mikhailovskoye,” known from copies and long considered lost, depicts a visit by Pushkin’s Lyceum classmate Pushchin to the “Exile”;

Pushkin is reading a newly arrived literary work: “Woe from Wit”; Arina Rodionovna is seated behind him. Visits to the collection required special permission from the owner each time.

The estate itself, built in the Neoclassical style, was constructed in the 1790s according to a design by P. Yaroslavsky for Court Counselor Georg (Yuri) von Minster. The estate was sold to the Filonov family after von Minster’s death in the 1830s.

The estate is one of the few surviving 18th-century stone buildings in Kharkiv and is a national architectural landmark.

You can still see a stone statue from the Cumans era (1100-1200s) in the fence wall, though it is covered in a thick layer of paint. It was installed to decorate the estate during its construction.

The former estate now houses the Kharkiv Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination. The building’s current address is Dmytrivs’ka Street 14/30.