Guest Court (Kyiv)

 abandoned / shut down, wildfire affected area, interesting place, listed building / architectural heritage, 1830s construction, unfinished / unbuilt

The construction of the hosting court (house of trade) began in 1809 (at the time Kyiv was a part of Russian Empire) to replace the older one, which was already too small. The new building's project was deveoloped by the Swiss architect Luigi Rusca. Originally it was planned, that the building will have two floors, but the construction was put on hold in 1811 due to the great fire on Podil and the next year the French invasion into Russia happened, so the construction was left without money on finishing, while only the first floor was complete.

In 1826 it was decided that the building will be left one-floor high, the reconstruction project was made by the first head architect of Kyiv, Andriy Melnyk, construction was resumed in 1828, and the building was finally finished in 1833. Some sellers were altering fascade as they wanted and this badly affected in building's look, it became even worse in Soviet age, bulkheads of some shops were almost like a second floor.

The building was abandoned during the Second World War, after its end there were a plans of destroying it, but it never happened. The work was renewed soon, the building became an architectural heritage in 1979. 1983 saw a renovation of the building. New project was created by Valentyna Shevchenko, it featured the originally planned second floor. First part of the building was opened in 1985, but next year's nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, caused the economical issues and the reconstruction was finished in 1990.

In the independent Ukraine in the building were opened various shops and cafes, also there was an architectural library. In 2011 the building was excluded from architectural heritage list, next year the company Ukrrestavratsiya bought the building, new project featured the third floor and the glass roof over the court in the center, Kyivans and Shevchenko herself were against newly started reconstruction.

The building was returned to heritage list, but in 2013 the building's roof was caught in fire and it was closed. Civilians started a protest against the construction, but were dispersed by Militsiya's special unit, Berkut. After Euromaidan the construction was put on hold. During several next years the building was returned to government, but remained abandoned in a bad condition, in which it stays by this day.