The House of Joseph Drozdov, which now houses the Rehabilitation Center for People with Disabilities
Molyavka House - one of three representatives of Art Nouveau in Chernihiv
The house of Joseph Sikorsky, who held the position of staff doctor at the Chernihiv Theological Seminary
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the whole of Chernihiv looked like the photo above. Imagine: among the thin candles of noisy pines and strong, sprawling Polissya oaks and beeches, whose leaves change with all shades of emerald, the roofs of hundreds of houses of rich colors - indigo, snow-white, ocher, violet, crimson - shine like gems scattered in the grass. The buildings with carved decorations, turrets and weathervanes seem like elements of a large lace mosaic, carefully laid out by the hand of an artist-storyteller.
This image is not an artistic exaggeration: according to historical documents, at the end of the 19th century, only public buildings in Chernihiv were not wooden and not decorated. As for the earlier picture, unfortunately, it is currently impossible to build a chronology of the development of the style, because historians simply lack data for this. The oldest surviving example of the "net" style dates back to the 17th century, but, unfortunately, it is only a log house without carved elements.
The Ratskevich estate in the Art Nouveau style, which originated in Vienna in 1897, and the house built in 1913 by Sofroniy Popovsky: authentic fittings have been preserved here, including hinges, handles, and unique window cremones.
The Ratskevich estate in the Art Nouveau style, which originated in Vienna in 1897, and the house built in 1913 by Sofroniy Popovsky: authentic fittings have been preserved here, including hinges, handles, and unique window cremones.
Anatoly Novak, a historian from Chernihiv and a researcher of old Chernihiv, says: all that can be said for sure is that the "fashion" for carved architecture traveled through the forested areas of Kyivan Rus for centuries, and the Severshchyna and Chernihivshchyna remained almost unchanged zones of influence of the tradition. In fact, it was Chernihiv that was the southern "outpost" of this architectural area.
So, what is a typical house that can be considered a representative of the "wooden lace" style? It is a one-, occasionally two-story house made of pine logs. It is covered with shingles and sheathed with boards, has a hipped roof and windows with shutters, and optionally a porch with a beautiful canopy. And, of course, carved decorations.
Chernihiv residents often paint their houses in bright colors
Chernihiv residents often paint their houses in bright colors
Anatoliy Novak: "On Chernihiv houses there are both real mythological and magical symbols and simply beautiful ornaments. And it is impossible to say exactly what is what and what meaning the master put into the work and why the owners ordered this or that symbolism."
Of course, not all buildings of that time can be considered works of art, because not every family had the money for rich decoration. However, decoration became something like “good taste” for the inhabitants of the city, which was rapidly growing its own unwritten traditions, so most houses have at least a few interesting elements: carved shutters, doors, dormers (boards that insulate the ends from moisture), pilasters, window sills, cornices or cornices (elements that decorate the roof).
The activists have not yet learned the history of the first of the houses; the second photo shows a house fighting for life. It may once have been a hospital and there was definitely a ward for venereal patients.
The activists have not yet learned the history of the first of the houses; the second photo shows a house fighting for life. It may once have been a hospital and there was definitely a ward for venereal patients.
These details are called wooden lace because they are not ordinary figured wood carving, but a cutout on a board, similar to a children's cardboard cutout. "This method is cheaper, easier and faster than traditional carving. The craftsmen who used it used bow saws," explains Stanislav Ivashchenko, head of the public initiative "Wooden Lace of Chernihiv."
Some of the townspeople keep the vintage style, while others try to give their homes a more modern look.
Some of the townspeople keep the vintage style, while others try to give their homes a more modern look.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of documents, it is currently impossible to establish who carried out the carving order. Most likely, Anatoliy Novak believes, these were not local, but visiting carvers - Jews or craftsmen from Belarusian Polissya. The expert's position is supported by two arguments: first, there are no carvers in the list of more than two hundred names of Chernihiv artisans of the 19th century, and secondly, at that time Jews made up approximately half of the city's population.
Be that as it may, the fashion was rapidly gaining momentum: in the mid-1880s, Chernihiv formed its own system of carving workshops, and by 1900, the creative process had already reached factory scale. Later, the culmination came, namely, the mechanization of the carpentry process. Soon, the craftsmen achieved such skill that decorations and ornaments began to appear on houses, which previously could only be seen inside the dwellings - on furniture and musical instruments.
"Wooden lace" is characterized by a stylistic mix: a coat of arms that evokes associations with the world of Harry Potter may well coexist with viburnum carvings.
The owners ordered decorations to their taste: some wanted religious symbols, some wanted figures of animals and birds, some wanted mythological scenes or even decorations in the Baroque, Art Nouveau or Beaux-Art style. Thus, wooden buildings appeared in the city with elements that we know of only in stone. And this fact makes the local "wooden lace" architecturally valuable not only at the Ukrainian level, but also at the global level.
When asked which of the "network" examples should be seen first, Anatoliy Novak answers: "One of the most interesting examples is the Molyavka house at 39 Kotsiubynskoho Street. This is a mystery building: we still don't know when it was built. Also, this house is one of two in the classic Austrian Art Nouveau style, including the original doors, fittings, and railing. It was not rebuilt - it remained the way it was many years ago."
Sometimes the combination of noble antiquity and bright color creates interesting effects.
Another treasure of old Chernihiv that has survived is a house that once belonged to the estate of Evdokia Svechyna. At the beginning of the 7,2th century, the building cost a fantastic 30 rubles for that time - to collect this amount, an ordinary factory worker would have had to save his entire salary for XNUMX years. By the way, the owners of the most expensive "network" houses were doctors, merchants, city intelligentsia, and officials. And wealthy townspeople did not always have enough money for beautiful estates, so the practice of buying houses on credit became popular in the city.
"The Svechyna House is in perfect condition — even part of the garden has been preserved! Now the main building of the Chernihiv Library for Youth is located there. By the way, in Soviet times this building was considered a bright representative of the Art Nouveau style, but I believe that it is Beaux-Arts — a mix of several styles: Art Nouveau, Romanticism, and Renaissance. Initially, it was a style of furniture design, and when it migrated outside, all those squiggles and curves that could previously only be seen on French furniture ended up on palaces," the historian explained.
The house with the towers belonged to a Chernihiv merchant who traded in salt. Despite its ostentatious splendor, it has almost no carved decorations.
Despite the stylistic diversity, the "wooden lace" has original features inherent only to it, in particular, many houses are decorated with "lace" turrets, tower-shaped porch canopies with carvings or decorated mezzanines. According to Anatoly Novak, these architectural elements indicate the continuity of the European tradition. "Tower-shaped elements and a mezzanine with a window for lighting the upper floor, which usually serves as the dominant center of the composition, are a nod to the past: houses that have them seem to turn into mini-castles and increase their status. The fashion to stylize houses as castles arose in France during the reign of Louis XIV," commented Anatoly Novak.
Stanislav Ivashchenko: “Nowadays, most of the houses in the city center are painted red, purple and green. Unpainted "laced" "There are only a few houses in the city, because, firstly, unprotected wood deteriorates very quickly, and secondly, it is impossible to completely remove old paint."
Another common feature is the principle of choosing colors: wooden Beaux-Arts, Art Nouveau, and Neoclassicism were painted for reasons of economy. Available paints made from natural dyes were popular: white, green, blue, and red. Anatoliy Novak explains: while wealthy local residents painted their homes from the foundation to the weather vane, the poor soaked the walls of their houses with a special mixture that gave the wood a pleasant tea-like hue and protected it from moisture and pests. But roofs and metal parts were painted regardless of wealth, because these parts are more expensive, so they are harder to replace.
Varvara Folte's house. In addition to this house, the woman also owned two other houses on Khlibopekarska Street, but they have not survived.
Symbols that disappeared with the masters
The second most valuable element of the unique Chernihiv architecture, after the carvings, is the symbolism with which it is decorated. These signs are important not only from an architectural point of view, but also from a historical one, because, paradoxically, scientists who study ancient cultures such as Egypt or Sumer know much more about their symbolic systems than Chernihiv historians know about the ornaments on local houses of the 19th century. Experts can only say one thing for sure: here you will see both signs that were already known to our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago, and purely decorative ornaments characteristic of certain architectural styles of the early 20th century.
Some houses have preserved their original front entrances.
The doors of this house, with an entrance from the street, still serve their function. They are decorated in the old style - diamond rustication.
One of the most recognizable elements of Chernihiv lace is the carved roofs.
Among the most common known ornaments are zigzag ribbons under the cornice and lacy plants, signifying a call for rain and a rich harvest, as well as circles, stars and crosses, the meaning of which traditionally remained unchanged for the paradigms of paganism and Christianity: the energy of life. Zoomorphic symbols of birds, mostly doves and cockerels, served as a decoration for window cornices and a magical "fire guarantee". In an almost entirely wooden city, their constant guard was a matter of paramount importance.
The fourth popular group of symbols are rhombuses and rectangles. They denote a field, while similar figures with dots denote a sown field. However, it is not so simple, because ancient symbols, like modern Japanese hieroglyphs, change their meaning depending on the combination. For example, a rhombus in combination with an ancient symbol of fertility - a rosary, turned into a wish for a healthy and large family.
This building in the city center now houses a restaurant.
The least mysterious and most understandable group is religious symbols, in particular Jewish ones. Anatoliy Novak suggests that, apparently, Jewish craftsmen decorated carvings with those symbols that they knew well. “The practice of symbolism is very strong in Judaism. And there are still groups of craftsmen who specialize exclusively in decorating sacred architecture,” he explained.
Stand still for another hundred years: how a city saves itself with its own hands
Unlike Jewish experts on sacred symbols, the Chernihiv authorities look at the old architecture without pathetic feelings. There are no programs to support or preserve "grid" houses at the city level, and if it weren't for the efforts of local activists, the unique wooden houses would gradually melt away until they completely disappear from the map of the city.
Fortunately, the history of Chernihiv was marked by web designer Stanislav Ivashchenko and the public initiative "Wooden Lace of Chernihiv". The history of the public initiative began with the fact that Stanislav and several of his colleagues decided to create a strategy for popularizing the most interesting "network" houses of the city. First, information had to be collected, so volunteers began to record the exact coordinates of the objects and interview local residents. Having accumulated photos and stories about more than 300 locations, they created a data platform - an online museum - and combined all the addresses marked in the database into 5 separate routes.
The house was built in 1892 by Mykola Sokolenko, who was engaged in the repair of phaeton carriages and had three of his own phaeton carriages and a stable with horses.
Later, Stanislav says, their activities caused something like an "avalanche" effect: Chernihiv historians and tour guides began to collect information about interesting examples of buildings, children from villages and towns near Chernihiv began to shoot videos about local carvings, photos of "network" dwellings appeared on advertising banners. Eventually, the routes created by the team became so popular that Stanislav, as a co-organizer of the "Running Chernihiv" group, even conducted several running excursions to draw attention to the topic of old architecture.
However, on the crest of the information wave, the team realized that popularization is only the beginning, because without physical intervention, what they care about may disappear. The activist explains: in Chernihiv there are only a few hundred "grid" houses left, and in the region - several thousand. The absolute majority of these buildings belong to private owners, and not all of them have the means and desire to restore the exterior. The team of "Wooden Lace of Chernihiv" decided to help - both with money and with their hands.
"Many of the 'lace' houses are over 100 years old, so their carvings are in very poor condition. We carve exact copies of the decorations and replace the old versions with new ones. We do this with the funds of patrons and partly with the funds of the owners," the volunteer explained.
The first swallow was a house in the village of Staryy Bilous near Chernihiv, whose owner bought a house that once belonged to her ancestors, the Berezovsky noble family, and turned it into a museum. Stanislav says: that project was not easy for them. However, knowledge accumulated, and over time the volunteers learned to tinker without unnecessary suffering.
Currently, says Stanislav, the team's biggest problem is not the complexity of the creative process, but the lack of awareness among building owners about the value of their property for the country's culture.
"We understand that many "network" buildings do not have insulation, heating, and sewage, so often the owners simply do not have enough money even for external work. However, the matter is not always about money. The owners react to our offer to help very differently: someone first promises their own participation, and then when we come, they behave, let's say, not very respectfully. However, some, on the contrary, invest their own money and work with us. Unfortunately, there are very few cases when people restore their houses themselves, but the opposite situations, when buildings are simply destroyed, sheathed with modern materials or even painted in different colors, are not uncommon. The latter happens when the house is divided into several parts, and each has a different owner," the activist said.
Unfortunately, not all interesting specimens have been preserved as well as their owners would like.
If the issue is still about money, the team of "Wooden Lace of Chernihiv" tries to find a solution acceptable to both parties: sometimes all the costs are covered by the owner, and sometimes part or even the entire amount is paid by the team of activists. For this, Stanislav is planning to donate to Patreon. Usually, the restoration of one building costs 6–8 thousand hryvnias, but if it is not only about decoration, the amount can reach 40 thousand.
"The process became faster after Chernihiv Polytechnic University began to help us in 2020: the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Woodworking Technologies automated the process of cutting parts for us. The CNC machine allows you to make very clear patterns and has only one drawback," he said.
Chernihiv lace is a style made of details
The only way out of the situation, Stanislav concludes, is to popularize the problem. "The city's wooden architecture fund has only a few monuments of history and architecture, but the authorities don't even deal with them. What can we say about buildings that don't have a status that implies protection. Restore and paint these buildings - there are hundreds and thousands of them in Chernihiv, and you will get ready-made tourist facilities that will stand for about 100 more years.
Of course, everything depends a lot on the condition of the building, and here we return to the previous aspect: only the owner can make the decision to repair and cooperate with us. By the way, we have an example when the owners restored a house built in 1890. They redid the foundation, insulated the house from the inside, numbered and removed the shingle boards, then cleaned each one and installed mineral wool and a moisture-proof film, and then put the boards and trim back. The windows were also changed, but not from the outside, but were put on sealant from the inside. Another example is at Uspenska, 34: the owner raised the house with a jack and replaced the rotten logs with new ones,” Stanislav said.
Stanislav Ivashchenko: "Restore and paint these houses — there are hundreds and thousands of them in Chernihiv — and you will get ready-made tourist attractions that will last for about 100 more years."
Photo No. 25-27-28 Some windows have decorations of very complex design
Apart from the "Wooden Lace of Chernihiv", only scientists take care of the old architecture (in particular, experts from the architectural and historical reserve "Ancient Chernihiv" collect samples of ancient carvings from local buildings) and, on a project-by-project basis, educational philanthropists. Recently, the French Arch4UA Charity Fund launched a project to preserve Chernihiv's wooden architecture, which has two goals: to promote the development of a thematic community and to help volunteers who are already saving old buildings.
The foundation's expert Pavlo Bilyk explains: in the case of Chernihiv, the object is not only houses that can be conditionally attributed to the "wooden lace" style, but also buildings that do not have external decorations, but are distinguished by an interesting layout or design features, for example, stove heating.
"4 events have already taken place within the project, and two more are planned. The first workshop was dedicated to saving "networked" wooden architecture and was organized with the participation of representatives of the NGO "Initiative" and "Ecomisto". It was held in one of the "networked" houses. The event was partly focused on this object - we previously made a finish for it to replace what had already deteriorated, and also held master classes for those present on sanding wood and providing it with biofire protection," said Pavlo Bilyk.
Diamonds with dots and circles are symbols of the sown field and life. However, historians cannot always accurately determine the exact meaning of combinations of ancient symbols. And we do not even know whether it was known to the craftsmen who made it
Diamonds with dots and circles are symbols of the sown field and life. However, historians cannot always accurately determine the exact meaning of combinations of ancient symbols. And we do not even know whether it was known to the craftsmen who made it
Diamonds with dots and circles are symbols of the sown field and life. However, historians cannot always accurately determine the exact meaning of combinations of ancient symbols. And we do not even know whether it was known to the craftsmen who made it
The completion of the project will be the restoration of one of the ancient Chernihiv wooden estates that was damaged during the war.
By the way, regarding the war: despite numerous sad assumptions in the architectural media that after the attacks on Chernihiv, little will remain of the “network” architecture, the old city has stood firm. “The full-scale war destroyed only one building from those present on our map. And several more were damaged by the shock wave. So, we have once again stood firm and continue to work. Join us,” said Stanislav Ivashchenko.
