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 Unger Brickyard, the Ham Brothers Bookstore, and the Unger and Dick Banking Office exemplify New York of the early 20th century. No, not the one where the Statue of Liberty greets the city’s guests. This is Ukrainian New York, an urban-type settlement in the Donetsk region. Ukrainian Cossack warriors founded it in the 18th century as a winter settlement. In 1892, German Mennonites created the New York colony here.
Mennonite Protestants in Europe have historically opposed the state and refused to serve in the military. They desired to labour quietly and abide by God’s law. That is why they looked for land where they could fulfil these aspirations. That was how Mennonites from Holland and Germany ended up in the Zaporizhzhia region and then settled down in other lands nearby. The authorities gave them land and exempted settlers from military service and taxes.
According to the 1897 census, the German population in the modern Ukrainian southern lands amounted to 350,000 people. German colonists created three fully autonomous communities: Khortytska, Molochanska, and Mariupolska. Wherever they lived, manufactories, light industry production, and warehouses were established, as well as agriculture and infrastructure developed.
New York perfectly reflected this pattern. In addition to the mentioned brick factory and bank offices, a school, a girls’ gymnasium, tile factories, an agricultural machinery and tools production factory were opened here. Also, steam mills were constructed. In particular, Peter Dick’s 4-storey mill, erected in 1903, stood out among others and became one of the largest in the colony.
This mill supplied all of New York’s suburbs with flour, which may explain why the structure has endured for almost 120 years. Peter Dick’s mill is the only one of the six mills in the city to have withstood the test of time. It was also to the credit of New Yorkers who did not allow the retreating Red Army to blow up the mill at the beginning of World War II.
The structure survived both the temporary occupation in 2014 when Russia launched a military invasion of Donbas and the threat of dismantling in 2019. However, the mill, recognized as a monument of industrial architecture of the early 20th century, did not survive a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. On May 8, the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, when all of Europe commemorates the victims of Nazism, Russian troops destroyed the architectural monuments in New York’s historic area with missiles and incendiary shells. The Russian missile also struck Peter Dick’s mill, and the building burned out.
Peter Dick’s mill once made Ukrainian New York famous. It continued feeding people during revolutions, world wars, and the dark times of Soviet occupation. Now it stands burned and desolated.
The site that once held memories may now turn into a memory itself.
Formerly Palace of Culture of the Azovstal plant. The building of the former Continental hotel (1887–1910).
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.
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.