Well,
maybe not everybody loves 'em, but Theresa and I have always felt a special fondness for what’s known in
architecture as a “folly” – defined in our dictionary as “an often extravagant picturesque
Or it might be the Gorodetsky
House, also known as the House of Chimeras, right here in Kyiv.
Named for its architect,
Vladislov Gorodetsky, who lived in a grand apartment on the top floor when the
house was completed in the first years of the 20th century, the “folly”
here is not so much the shape of the building, but the adornments. Gorodetsky
(and we are drawing on a detailed Wikipedia entry here if you want to know more
– including why they call it “chimeras”) was a big-game hunter, and decided he
wanted this luxury apartment building to reflect his passion.
 |
| Eagle conquers dragon whilst rhinos look on. |
With quite a bit of imagination
thrown in. Yes, there are the traditional game animals – elephants,
large-antlered deer, etc. But there are also fat-bellied frogs on the rooftop,
an eagle conquering a dragon on the side corner, various sea monsters.
The house is on a street that
now also includes some official buildings of the office of the president of
Ukraine (which also owns Gorodetsky House), which means the street is closed to
vehicle traffic. That makes it much more user-friendly for tourists like us,
leaving us free to stand in the street, look up in amazed appreciation,
discover new detail after new detail, and shoot lots of picture.
You can’t go inside – otherwise I’m
sure we would have shared a photo of what Wikipedia says is chandeliers “depicting
huge catfish strangled in the stems of lotus flowers.” Well, no matter. There
was more than enough on the outside to satisfy our love of a good folly…and add
one more exclamation point to our time in Kyiv.
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