Our main tool is the Sadolin Visualizer App (available for iOS and Android). It allows you not only to view palettes, but also to "try on" any color on your walls in real time using augmented reality technology. Just turn on the camera and point it at the object you are interested in - whether it is a historical facade or an element of the landscape. Thanks to a special moving brush, you can point your finger at a specific element in the image, after which the application will determine a special color code and offer you paints from different series. Similar manipulations can be performed with photos already saved on your phone.
The Sadolin Visualizer mobile application tries on the color on the wall with the help of augmented reality technology. Image: Sadolin
From Ltava to the city of the sun
"Vorskol crossed near Ltava" - this brief mention in the Ipatiev Chronicle of 1174 is the first written record of the settlement that would later become Poltava. On that day, Prince Igor Svyatoslavich, heading towards the Polovtsians, crossed the river near an already existing fortification. The name itself probably comes from the hydronym - the Ltava stream, a right tributary of the Vorskla. The settlement "on the Oltava" eventually transformed into the city we know today. From the very beginning, it was a complex urban structure. Its core was two fortified settlements that appeared in the 9th century: one - on Ivanova Gora (where the White Gazebo now stands), and the second - on Nikolaevska Gora. Around them, on more than 60 hectares, a large posad spread out - not just a village, but a powerful center of the hundred of the Pereyaslav Principality, an important trade and economic hub. This puts Poltava on a par with the oldest cities in Eastern Europe.
The White Gazebo is a gazebo-shaped monument that has become one of the symbols of Poltava, first built in 1909 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. Photo: open sources
The urban character and visual code of a city are inextricably linked to the landscape. The co-founders of the design studio talk about this aspect AXIOMA Taras Rudenko and Yevgeny Ivchenko: "Our hometown is associated with views from the hills. These are endless panoramas from the heights of Ivanova, Instytutska, and Monastyrska mountains. Poltava began as a fortress on a hill with the logic of defense, but now it is more of a means of meditative contemplation of the horizon line."
Co-founders of AXIOMA design studio Taras Rudenko and Yevheniy Ivchenko
It is this view from the White Gazebo over the Vorskla Valley, Podil, and the Holy Cross Monastery that is one of the canonical images of the city. It is from here, from the cape of Staropoltavska Gora, that the architect advises starting your acquaintance with the city. Arthur Aroyan: "Furthermore, the route should run along Sobornosti Street, periodically deviating from its axis by 1–3 blocks. This is a very limited and superficial acquaintance, but without this it is impossible to talk in principle about what Poltava is."
Artur Aroyan, Candidate of Architecture, member of the NGO "Let's Save Poltava"
At the beginning of the 19th century, Poltava underwent a large-scale redevelopment and expansion. As Taras Rudenko and Yevhen Ivchenko note, the symbol of the sun was sewn into the city's general plan, which is clearly expressed in the radial-ray structure: "Each ray of this "sun" previously ended with a dominant object, but the city is changing, growing, and some of them have been lost. Today, only two preserved dominants remain: the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Monastery (closing Monastyrska Street) and the Assumption Cathedral (on Sobornosti Street)." In the center of this structure is the Round Square - a large-scale architectural ensemble of eight classical buildings, which, as explained in AXIOMA, was supposed to demonstrate the inviolability of power. The ensemble was created according to a single urban planning concept after the city was granted the status of the center of the Governor-General in 1802. The ideological center of the ensemble is the Glory Monument, erected in 1811 in the geometric center of the square. It was erected in honor of the centenary of the Battle of Poltava, which Russians still consider their great triumph.
Round Square, a monument of urban planning and architecture of national importance. Photo: Maksym Bondarevsky
The symbol of the sun was sewn into the city's general plan, which is clearly expressed in the radial-ray structure.
Poltava Museum of Local Lore named after Vasyl Krychevsky. Photo: open sources
“However, from the point of view of the city’s meanings, the most important and fruitful period is the early 20th century, in particular the emergence of Ukrainian Architectural Modernism (UAM) in Poltava, which then spread throughout the country and beyond,” explains Artur Aroyan. It was in Poltava that one of the first and most striking examples of UAM appeared — the former building of the provincial zemstvo, which now houses the Vasyl Krychevsky Poltava Museum of Local Lore. The museum is named after the outstanding artist and architect, whose project was recognized as the best. The tiles for decorating the facade were painted by students of the Myrhorod Art and Industrial School together with potters from Opishna. The interiors use ornamental painting in national motifs, stone carving, majolica panels, as well as original hexagonal window and door openings. As noted by the AXIOMA studio, the building was a "community protest against the dominance of the imperial style of classicism" that dominated the city center. Architect Vasyl Krychevsky, according to them, "concentrated in this object all the semantics of folk paintings" and traditional methods of decorative and applied art. Modern ornaments and the characteristic trapezoidal shape of the windows, according to AXIOMA, are one of the key graphic symbols of Poltava.
Fragment of the interior of the Poltava Museum of Local Lore in the UAM style. Photo source: Ukraїner
Colors of Poltava architecture
So, having the main points of entry into understanding how the city was formed, we will dwell in more detail on its architectural objects. From Ivanova Gora, where there was once a fortified settlement, a panorama opens up of one of the oldest pearls of Poltava - the Khrestovozdvizhensky Monastery. As the head of the development space "MISTOHAB" notes Alyona Goncharenko, is an outstanding example of Cossack Baroque, built during the time of Ivan Mazepa. The complex includes several religious buildings: the bell tower (1786), the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Cathedral (1690s – early 18th century), Trinity Church (1750, rebuilt in 1999) and the Semenivska Church (1887). At the end of the 18th century, the Slavic Seminary operated at the monastery, where the father of the literary Ukrainian language, Ivan Kotlyarevsky, studied. In fact, the snow-white facades of this majestic monument echo many other iconic buildings in Poltava. “There is a lot of white in Poltava,” AXIOMA agrees. “White walls of mud huts, walls of buildings and fences in the style of classicism.” Alena Goncharenko adds to this list the main tourist attraction — the White Gazebo.
Alena Goncharenko, head of Diya.Business in Poltava and "MISTOHAB"
Returning to the Round Square, you can see that today all eight administrative buildings in the classical style have white facades. The central place in the ensemble is occupied by the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps, located between two radial streets. Initially, the building was left without plastering, and the contrast between the red brick walls and the whitewashed architectural details gave its monumental appearance expressiveness. In addition to the color of the facade, the ensemble is also unified by the color of the roof: all roofs are painted with “copper” (the pigment has a rich green color).
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross Cathedral of the Poltava Monastery is a rare type of seven-nave church. Photo: Kiyanka
"There is a lot of white in Poltava: white walls of mud huts, walls of buildings and fences in the classicist style," — AXIOMA
The House of the Poltava Noble Assembly is a historical and architectural monument in Poltava, located in the southeastern sector of the Round Square. Photo: Poltava Public
So the second color of Poltava is green. But it has many shades. Artur Aroyan speaks of it as the color of greenery, which is still quite abundant in the city. Alena Goncharenko clarifies: "This is the emerald color of rich greenery, the leaves on the trees, and also a lot of roofs in Poltava are dark green."
Between the majestic dominants unfolds the everyday fabric of the city: eclecticism and brick style. Artur Aroyan notes: "The brick architecture of Poltava is represented by red brick; historical buildings, which originally had an open facade, were painted in different colors during the 20th century with white details of cornices, window frames, pilasters, etc." One example is the building of the Zemskaya Library, built in the style neo-renaissance in 1901 under the leadership of the zemstvo architect Alexander Shirshov.
The State Archives of Poltava Region were housed in the building of the Zemskaya Library. Photo: Zruchno.Travel
The same list includes the red house of ophthalmologist Akim (Chaim) Glazer, a mansion with Gothic elements and Jewish symbolism in its decor, built at the beginning of the 20th century. The walls of the building are made of red facing brick.
Akim Glazer's house at 3 Sobornosti St. in Poltava. Photo: Posterrr
Also worth noting is the building of the Noble and Peasant Bank. A two-story building, faced with decorative tiles that imitate brick, combines features of ancient Russian architecture and characteristic signs of the Art Nouveau style of the early 20th century. The facade is decorated with mosaic panels and multi-colored ceramic elements. Above the main entrance rises a gabled lancet canopy, in the niches of which are sculptures of paradise maidens-birds. Since 1937, the building housed the regional department of the NKVD, KGB, and since 1991 - the regional department of the Security Service of Ukraine.
The House of the Noble and Peasant Bank is a historical and architectural monument in Poltava, located at 39 Sobornosti Street. Photo: visitpoltava.com
“In Poltava, there are a lot of facades with majolica made at the Opishna factory,” — Alena Honcharenko
Even the Soviet heritage, which, according to Artur Aroyan, is quite insignificant in Poltava, has given the city several original objects. Among them, he especially highlights the unique in terms of architecture neo-romantic and at the same time modernist Puppet Theater (1983, architect — Yuriy Dobrovolsky) and the brutalist Poltava bus station (1987, architect — Mykhailo Yakovenko). "If in the first case the intervention of the city's architectural community and the author himself saved the building from external insulation, then at the bus station during the reconstruction the facade sgraffito on agricultural themes was destroyed. However, the building itself and its interior have not yet undergone critical transformations," the architect adds.
Poltava Academic Regional Puppet Theater. Photo: Zmist
All this development has its hidden gems - "flowering houses". "In Poltava, there are a lot of facades with majolica, made at the Opishna factory," says Alyona Goncharenko. "These are tiles that were mainly used to decorate post-war buildings. The then chief architect Lev Weingort wanted to decorate them somehow." Tiles with images of flowers can be seen on houses at 16 and 19 Yuliana Matviychuk Street, as well as on 18, 33 and 35 Evropeiska Street.
However, this rich palette is not just a frozen museum exhibit. It is a living urban space that today faces new challenges, requiring from its citizens not only admiration for the past, but also daily work and rethinking.
Pragmatic love
The main problem of the city, the AXIOMA studio considers a “chronic disease” that “spreads metastasizes throughout the city” — foam pseudo-historicism. “Very often, colleagues present it as “This is eclecticism!” or “This is the architectural face of the city,” but no matter what you call kitsch foam architecture — it will remain kitsch.”
This "failure", according to experts, has many manifestations. But there are also positive examples in the city, indicating a change in approaches. The main architectural success of recent years in AXIOMA is unexpectedly called not the object in the center, but the park in Brailki. "This park was created in a remote area of the city (it can be compared to the Kiev Troyeshchyna) and is an example of healthy processes of gentrification of depressed areas. It was built on a wasteland, and now there is a modern park there, and residents of the whole city specially go to it."
The park was designed by the NGO "CityLab" and "PoltavaProject". Photo: Park on Brailki / Facebook
Artur Aroyan also cites successful cases of careful revitalization, including the reconstruction of the 1950s children's photography pavilion into the "Photographer" coffee shop and bakery and the restoration of the Local History Museum (with the participation of AXIOMA).
The building that houses the new coffee shop and bakery "Photographer" was built in 1956. It underwent restoration in 2022. Photo: Poltavshchyna online publication
A separate symbol of change was the MISTOHAB project — the revitalization of the historic building of the former brewery by the public and business, led by Alyona Goncharenko. “This is a project of the last faith that something can be changed here,” she admits. “156 citizens and 12 local Poltava companies invested in the restoration of the historic building.”
The main architectural success of recent years in AXIOMA is unexpectedly called not the object in the center, but the park in Brailki
According to architects from AXIOMA, communication between specialists, authorities, and residents is only beginning to improve: "For a long time, we had a period of stagnation and a "monologue" between developers and city authorities, but in recent years, positive processes have begun. Active public organizations and impact projects have begun to appear... Dialogue exists, but, unfortunately, it is not yet systemic and mature."
"MISTOHAB" is a place for cultural development and self-realization, as well as for meeting new people and generating ideas. Photo: "MISTOHAB"
According to Alena Honcharenko, Poltava is currently experiencing an "interesting and difficult period" of fundamental rethinking of its past. The city is actively searching for a new identity. It is gradually abandoning imposed imperial narratives, where Poltava was only a setting for the Battle of Poltava and the triumph of Peter I. Instead, according to Honcharenko, the city is beginning to "discover and remember" its own, often forgotten or deliberately erased Ukrainian history, its real heroes and outstanding events.
