Contractor Bakhmutsky's mansion

What? - House of Naum Bakhmutsky

Description

    In Poltava in the early twentieth century, the mansion became a widespread type of urban housing for the wealthy population. Along with other types of buildings, mansions formed the compositional and spatial environment of the central part of the city. The architectural design of mansions in Poltava is represented by a variety of styles that reflected the preferences of their owners. A striking example of the historical stylization of that time was the Neo-Moorish style house of contractor N.S. Bakhmutskyi, built in 1906. This atypical trend in Poltava's architecture, represented by a single object, was designed using oriental and Jewish ornamentation.
   The mansion is located on the former Dvorianska Street (now Pylyp Orlyk Street), which in the early nineteenth century was built up mostly with one-story houses with 3 to 5 to 7, and sometimes 9 windows. The so-called standard projects of the St. Petersburg architect D. Trezini, designed specifically for residential quarters of provincial cities, were used. 

   At the beginning of the twentieth century, a well-known local contractor Naum Bakhmutskyi, who performed contracts for the construction of the Noble and Peasant Bank, a home for the disabled of the Russo-Turkish War on the Swedish Grave, purchased a plot of land on Dvorianska Street on which he built a mansion as a gift for his wife Isabella. The house is asymmetrical in terms of its spatial structure, with three lancet windows in the composition of the main façade, and has a developed crown part. It is formed by a rectangular attic with three tower-like elements, one of which imitates the shape of a minaret. The main portal is decorated with a two-column portico and a figured ornamental arch, decorated with arabesques with floral ornaments and geometric patterns. Moorish motifs and stucco ornaments are used in the facade decoration. Originally, the building's interiors consisted of 13 rooms with a total area of almost 300 m².
    After the October Revolution of 1917, Naum Bakhmutskyi left Poltava and emigrated to France. In the early 1920s, the building was nationalized by the communist authorities.
   Over the years, the building housed a workshop, a church, and a registry office. During the Second World War, during the Nazi occupation of the city, the building housed the German military headquarters. During the shelling, the building was damaged, but the facades were largely preserved. During the reconstruction in the mid-twentieth century, the building was converted into communal apartments. Since 2008, the building has not been used.

   Some local researchers, including Poltava architect Valerii Trehubov, suggest that the famous Kyiv architect Vladyslav Horodetskyi was involved in the construction of the Bakhmutskyi mansion. A comparative analysis of the house in Poltava and the Karaite kenesa in Kyiv conducted by researchers indicates that Horodetskyi was the author of both buildings. In addition, the architect suggests that the facade of the house was decorated by the Italian sculptor Elio Sala, who also decorated the Kyiv kenesa. Doctor of Architecture Yuliia Ivashko also uses comparative analysis to consider the possible authorship of Oleksandr Kobelev, with whom Bakhmutskyi worked on the construction of the Noble and Peasant Bank, or Oleksii Beketov, who also worked in Poltava at the time.

 

 

 

Speciality

The Moorish-style residential building (Contractor Bakhmutskyi's Mansion) is a newly discovered cultural heritage site of the type “historical and architectural object” according to the order of the head of the Poltava Regional State Administration of 16.07.2021 No. 529.