Zhytomyr. Mykhailivska Street. The Pedestrian Zone

Every city has its favourite streets. In Zhytomyr it is Mykhailivska, which joined two old streets — Kyivska and Velyka Berdychivska.

Zhytomyr. Mykhailivska Street. The Tribel House

Founded by the Old Believer Filippons, builders and weavers by trade, the street was at first called Piliponivska.

Zhytomyr. Mykhailivska Street

After St. Michael's Church was built on it — Mykhailivska. It was the first street in the city where, in 1899, numbering was introduced, and it began from Kyivska. After the Second World War the authorities reversed the numbering to start from Velyka Berdychivska, on the corner of which the city council stands, and the street was given the name Miskrady (City Council Street).

Zhytomyr. Mykhailivska Street

In the pre-revolutionary past the building housed the "Zhytomyr Mutual Credit Society", whose members included P. A. Kosach (the father of Lesia Ukrainka) and the sculptor Heinrich Olyshkevych (the author of the monument to A. S. Pushkin on the Old Boulevard). The second floor was rented by music schools that gave an education to many famous composers and performers. In the hall with wonderful acoustics, where deputies now make vitally important decisions, Fyodor Chaliapin and other celebrities gave concerts.

Mykhailivska Street / Velyka Berdychivska Street. The city council

During the occupation the Hitlerites named the street after a party comrade — Geringstrasse. The fascist Gebietskommissariat was housed in the merchant's tenement house no. 1.

Mykhailivska Street / Velyka Berdychivska Street. Building no. 1

At the beginning of the 20th century a branch of the Azov-Don Commercial Bank occupied building no. 3. In the years when the Marxist-Leninists were at the helm, the regional committee of the Communist Party took over the building, and the chief party man N. S. Khrushchev visited here. All the best for the children — and so in 1957 the party bosses moved out, and the beautiful Baroque building opened its doors as the Palace of Pioneers. Today the building houses the "Sonechko" school of choreographic art.

Mykhailivska Street, 3. The former branch of the Azov-Don Bank. The "Sonechko" school of choreographic art

On Mykhailivska there were always many upmarket shops, restaurants and workshops, and in building no. 4 rooms were let in the first-class "Venice" hotel.

Mykhailivska Street, 4. The former "Venice" hotel

For the beau monde, in building no. 5, built in 1880, the city's second cinematograph, the "Lux", opened before the revolution, with a hall of 150 seats. Today the pupils of Lyatoshynsky Music School No. 1, which has a history of more than a century, master their creative skills in it.

Mykhailivska Street, 5. The former "Lux" cinematograph. Lyatoshynsky Music School No. 1

Despite the numerous renamings, the townsfolk remembered that it was Mykhailivska, and leisurely strolls along the 360-metre street were called "measuring Mykhalka". During the world wars the buildings on Mykhailivska were almost undamaged.

Mykhailivska Street. The former Tribel House. (Photo from the archive of the local historian H. P. Mokrytsky)

The Tribel House, dating from the 19th century, has survived in its original form. It belonged to the owner of a kid-glove factory, whose gloves were bought by all the nobility of the Russian Empire.

Mykhailivska Street. The former Tribel House. An administrative and commercial building

At the beginning of the 20th century building no. 9 was the ornament of the street, and it housed three societies at once — the Fire Insurance Society, the Zhytomyr Consumer Society and the City Credit Society. After the war the tower and the dome on the roof could not be restored. Now the building houses shops and a pharmacy.

Mykhailivska Street, 9

The Puppet Theatre appeared in Zhytomyr in 1935. The first performance was called "Yura-zamazura" (Grubby Yura), the shows were free, and the actors carried their props in sacks. The theatre took over a building erected in 1905 for the Zhytomyr branch of the Russian Musical Society.

Mykhailivska Street. The Academic Puppet Theatre

Mykhailivska Street. On the left — the Puppet Theatre. The one with the tower — the Tribel House. (Photo from the archive of A. I. Mahaz)

Building no. 15 was built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; shops were located on the ground floor, and on the second and third — apartments. The Soviet authorities placed the revolutionary committee in it. Today teachers pursue their postgraduate education here.

Mykhailivska Street, 15. The Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education

On the corner of Kyivska and Mykhailivska streets, in 1856, the merchant Mykhailo Khabotin built St. Michael's Church.

Mykhailivska Street. St. Michael's Church

It was one of the first stone Orthodox churches in the city, and the cost of construction exceeded Zhytomyr's annual budget twofold. Feeling financial difficulties, the founder and merchant strove towards his goal and dreamed that the religious building would not be subordinate to the state and clerical authorities.

Mykhailivska Street. St. Michael's Church. 1856

The Bolshevik authorities closed the church, and the Hitlerites used it to store confiscated radio sets. In 1961 the bell tower was dismantled, and the shrine became a warehouse.

St. Michael's Church. Photo by Tamas Konok

For several years the premises housed the Puppet Theatre. Since 1991 services have been held in it.

St. Michael's Church. 1856

In front of the church, in 2017, a monument was unveiled to Metropolitan Ilarion, a political and public figure, scholar and linguist.

Mykhailivska Street. The monument to Metropolitan Ilarion (Ivan Ohiienko)

Once, parades and demonstrations of the working people passed along Mykhailivska. In recent years much has been done to improve the street; creative benches framed with flowers have been installed. On Mykhailivska, exhibitions of local craftsmen's wooden and clay wares and the creative works of artists and sculptors are organised.

From the railway station you can reach Mykhailivska Street in 10 minutes for 3 hryvnias by trolleybus no. 1.

Coordinates: 50°15’18"N 28°39’53"E