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.
House No. 43 on Hretska Street witnessed the era when Mariupol became the financial centre of the Azov region. As substantial capital was invested in the city, leading banks opened their offices here. Thus, in 1897-1905 a two-storey brick-plastered building of the State Bank in the classical style was erected in the very centre of Mariupol.
After the seizure of power in Ukraine, the Bolsheviks established the State Bank of the USSR in the building, which operated here for decades. In 2019, these walls with spacious halls became home to the city library named after V. Korolenko.
The history of this institution began back in 1904. Much communist literature was brought to the library in the 1930s, so its collection rapidly increased from 10,000 to 100,000 books. It was reduced during the German occupation of Mariupol in World War II. Nevertheless, the library remained an intellectual and educational centre for the city. Literary conferences and meetings, lectures, memorial evenings, theme tours, and more recently, various PR events were held here.
Over time, the library collection expanded to 160,000 titles, and about 14,000 people used it annually. The library also gained new book exchange partners such as volunteers from the Peace Corps, the Goethe Institute, and other charitable foundations and organisations. Moreover, the Canadian-Ukrainian Library Centre was opened here in 2002 with the support of the ‘Canadian Friends of Ukraine’ organisation. Its collection included uncensored publications from the pre-Soviet period and books published outside the USSR.
In recent years, the library has constantly improved. One of its buildings housed the first digital library in the Donetsk region, and the other one (the building of the former State Bank) kept a regular book collection. A modern co-working space was also created in the library, which hosted meetings with cultural figures and artists, book presentations, vernissages of local artists in a digital gallery, and other cultural events.
But on February 24, 2022, the eventful life of Mariupol halted. During the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city was encircled by Russian troops and fell victim to merciless extermination. The old library building, erected in 1897–1905, was damaged on April 22. As a result of the Russians’ shelling, its facades, windows, and roof were destroyed. The library collection’s fate currently remains unknown.
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.
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.
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.