Formerly Palace of Culture of the Azovstal plant. The building of the former Continental hotel (1887–1910).
Almost every city in Europe once had its own ‘Continental’ hotel. And each building has its own unique history. So does the Ukrainian ‘Continental’ in Mariupol. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many postcards people would send to friends, relatives, and colleagues with sincere greetings, featured this building.
The building belonged to the family of Tomaso, a local entrepreneur of Italian descent. In fact, these postcards are photo evidence of two construction stages of the building. The first one was completed in 1898, when the hotel premises were the first spot in the city to be illuminated by electric light from a private power plant running on kerosene engines. The second stage was completed in 1910, when the concert hall was built and the first floor was made into a restaurant. The three-storey hotel building had an elegant facade, windows framed by graceful stone ligatures, and relief walls.
The ‘Continental’ hotel was the most innovative and luxurious place in Mariupol in the early 20th century, a center of cultural life and a magnet for the intelligentsia. Famous guests from all over the Russian Empire and Europe stayed in ‘Continental’: actors, musicians, and filmmakers who came to Mariupol on tour. Salons, lectures, meetings of scientific and literary circles were held here. The hotel restaurant was considered the best in the city. The basement hosted the first city electrified printing shop of the Goldryn brothers.
After the Soviets’ rise to power, there was the headquarters of the Commander of the Black and Azov Naval Forces, later — a trade union centre. During the Nazi German occupation, one of the German headquarters was here. In the post-war period, the building became the palace of culture of the Azovstal plant. However, soon it was moved to another location, thus the building stood empty until 2010, when the factory management handed it over to the city community.
Thus, in the first decade of the XXI century, it was converted to the Palace of Culture ‘Youth’ — the centre of youth movements and creative development. In 2019, a centre of contemporary art opened here under the historical name ‘Hotel Continental’. It became a multidisciplinary platform for the promotion of contemporary Ukrainian culture in Ukraine and abroad. Cultural life flourished here with numerous concerts and performances, festivals, art exhibitions, stand-up evenings, lectures and workshops, art residencies.
With the outbreak of Russia’s invasive war against Ukraine, the basement of the Palace of Culture became a shelter for hundreds of people seeking refuge in the almost destroyed city. On April 20, 2022, the ‘Continental’ hotel was shelled and almost destroyed by the Russian occupiers, with all its rich cultural history.
Whatever stored the memories has now become a memory itself.
A unique monastery complex of the XVI–XIX centuries with natural caves.
Historical buildings reflecting the Mariupol architecture of the late XIX and early XX centuries before the Bolshevik Revolution.
Donbas Arena is the home stadium of the Ukrainian ‘Shakhtar’ football club, which became the first of the ‘elite’ category in Ukraine and in all of Eastern Europe.
An ancient building of 1902 in the Northern Art Nouveau style, which comprised under its roof the works by respected Ukrainian landscape painters, as well as world-famous marine and realist artists.
Invaluable monumental artworks, created by a group of Ukrainian monumentalists led by Alla Horska, a dissident artist and one of the Sixtiers movement’s founders. These panels incorporated elements of Ukrainian folk tradition, contemporary world trends, and Soviet art.
Formerly prospering trade and then a metallurgical centre of Ukraine that has become the symbol of the bloody Russian invasion of Ukraine and the genocide committed by the Russian army and government.
The only church in the world entirely decorated with Petrykivka paintings, an ancient style of folk Ukrainian decorative painting included in the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.
The museum was established at the Faculty of History of Mariupol State University. It has become an important cultural and educational site bringing together students, professors, and citizens around the native land’s history.
The manor of Mariupol City Council’s mayor, having more than 150 years of history behind. Its architecture incorporated elements of the Stalinist Empire, Neoclassicism, and Baroque.
One of the oldest and largest Ukrainian museums, which collection comprised over 180 thousand exhibits, including the monuments and artefacts of world importance.
One of the biggest steam mills in the German Mennonite colony that existed in the Donetsk region at the turn of the 20th century. Built in 1903, this mill had been feeding people of New York and all of its suburbs for decades.
The central church of the Sviatohirsk Lavra’s convent, erected in the neoclassical style with baroque elements in 2005 in the site of a stone church of 19th century dismantled by the Bolsheviks.
The house was built in the constructivist style in 1929. It has been the centre of the city’s creative life for almost a hundred years.
Former State Bank’s building, constructed at the turn of the 20th century. In 2019, this site housed the city library, which history began back in 1904. An intellectual and educational centre of the city.
A two-storey manor in the classical style with a neo-Gothic tower, built in Mariupol 125 years ago. The state was a property of respected doctors.
Part of the Sviatohirsk Lavra. All the skete’s buildings are made of massive pine trunks. The All Saints Church, the main skete’s sanctuary, used to be the biggest wooden church in Ukraine.
The Azovstal plant in Mariupol was one of the largest iron and steel producers in Europe. In 2022 it became a symbol of resistance to brutal Russian aggression and the incredible courage of Ukrainian fighters.
Educational institution with more than 140 years of history where many generations of Mariupol citizens studied.
Center of spiritual life of Muslims of Donetsk region.
Two buildings are a monument to an entire era. They were the last buildings in Mariupol designed in the Stalinist Neoclassicism style.
One of the oldest theatres in the Left-bank Ukraine.
The mosque was built in 2007 on the site of a mosque built in 1906 and destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936.
St. Demetrius Church dedicated to the holy martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki is one of the oldest in the region.