The Presidential Administration of Ukraine is an administrative body set up to provide analytical, advisory and legal assistance to the President. It is colloquially known as "Bankova", because it is located on Bankova Street in a massive building across from the House with Chimaeras. Fourteen state residences are allocated for official Presidential use.
This is the building from the lower level street shot up through the lovely gardens of the House with the Chimeras.
The main purpose of the Administration is to provide administrative, advisory, analytical, and legal assistance to the President. The Administration arranges communication and official statements between the President and the Ukrainian parliament the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Constitutional Court, local government bodies, and other institutions.
Across the street is the House with Chimaeras as you can see just in the right of this photo.
It is built into the hill so at this level it is 3 stories, but at the base of the hill it is 6 stories. The gardens seen in above pictures are built on the hill by the side of the house.
House with Chimaeras or Gorodetsky House is an Art Nouveau building in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Originally an upmarket apartment building, it was built in the period of 1901–1902 by noted architect Vladislav Gorodetsky, who was regarded as the Gaudí of Kiev. Situated on No. 10, Bankova Street, across from the President of Ukraine's office in the historic Lypky neighborhood, the building has been used since 2005 as a presidential residence for official and diplomatic ceremonies.[3][4]
The "House with Chimaeras" derives its popular name from its ornate decorations depicting various scenes of exotic animals and hunting scenes, which were added because Gorodetsky was an avid hunter. The name does not refer to the chimaera of mythology, but to an architectural style known as Chimaera decoration in which animal figures are applied as decorative elements to a building.
The Italian sculptor Emilio Sala was responsible for both the internal and external sculptural decorations, such as mermaids, dolphins, and frogs on the roof of the building, sinking ships and hunting trophies on the exterior walls, and exuberant interior decorations, such as grand stairways and chandeliers depicting huge catfish strangled in the stems of lotus flowers. The exterior sculptures created by Sala were made out of cement.
This is a statue of Gorodtsky with Flat Stanley checking out his cup of hot chocolate!
This historic district of Lypky has areas which were not damaged in WWII. Here are some lovely buildings
Another lovely builidng down the Bankova street is this one where the first meetings of the church in Kyiv were. Pres. Neuenschwander along with the first two missionaries, Elders Stratov and Bradbury, held a fireside on Oct 9, 1990, just two days after their arrival in Kyiv. At that time it was the Writer's Union Hall. Subsequently, they arranged to rent the hall every Sunday. Pictured are Sister Simanovskaya (who remembers attending church here) and Sister Ubyiko.
We walked over to the Pechersky hills overlooking the Dnieper river where there are mulitple parks. The war memorial is located in one; the Lavre, the Motherland statue, the Vladimir statue, and a botanical garden we will visit soon, are also along the ridge. Here we visited the site of the Mariyinsky palace and the Ukraine parliament building. We also wandered through the Mariyinsky park.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( Supreme Council of Ukraine) is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman (speaker). It meets in the Verkhovna Rada building in Ukraine's capital Kiev. Next to is is the Mariyinsky Palace.
It is obvious that the Mariyinsky Palace is in repairs. The Russian Empress Elizabeth (daughter of Peter the Great) ordered it built in Kyiv in 1744 following the pattern of a palace she liked. She did not live to see it completed. Catherine II the Great lived there in 1787 for 3 months. The building was then mostly wood and was severly damaged by fires in the early 1800's. Czar Alexander II ordered is restored in 1868 and his wife, Mariya Alexandrovna donated much of her own money and had a park constructed to the south where there was previously a parade ground. So the park and the palace were named after her. Since then thru wars, revolutions, etc. it has been damaged and renovated several times, more recently in the 1980's. Today the whole building is surrounded by construction fence and this is the best looking part.
