Freedom Square is the central square in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It is from 690 to 750 meters long and from 96 to 125 meters wide whilst the diameter of the round part is 350 meters. In total it comes to almost 12 hectares making it the sixth largest square in Europe and the twelfth in the world. It is five times larger than Red Square in Moscow - in the video I suggest that Red Square is bigger but 'does not look it'. The height difference along the square is over 11 meters (from the highest point on Sumskaya Street to the lowest point at Gosprom ).
There are two metro stations under the square - Universitet ( 1984 ) of the Saltovskaya line and Gosprom ( 1995 ) of the Alekseevskaya line .
This square was built in the twentieth century, before WW1 the land was largely unused. Therefore the buildings all around come from communist times, mainly the Stalin era and as such represent a similar type of architecture that can be seen in Moscow for example.
In 1924, taking into account the growth of the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, the architect V.K. Trotsenko developed a preliminary scheme for this area of Kharkov, later called Zagospromye . According to the plan, quarters were divided in the form of concentric rings.
In 1925, on the initiative of F. E. Dzerzhinsky , it was decided to build the State Industry House. Three adjacent quarters on the inner ring were allotted for him. This marked the beginning of the formation of a new district, the center of which was a huge area, the border of which was determined by Gosprom . To open a view of the "first Soviet skyscraper" from the side of Sumskaya Street, it was necessary to significantly cut the ground and knock down a number of smaller buildings.
In this way, one of the largest squares in the world turned out a bit like a tube used for chemical experiments with a round bulge at the lower part.
In 1963 a statue of Lenin was built which was destroyed on 28 September 2014, and replaced by a memorial cross .
Until the 1990s, it was called "Dzerzhinsky Square" . Since 1991 it has been called " Freedom Square ". During the Nazi German occupation it was first called Wehrmacht Square and then SS Leibstandarte Square.
Historic buildings overlooking the square
Gosprom (House of State Industry). A unique monument of Soviet constructivism , built in 1926-1928 .
Kharkov National University named after V. N. Karazin , formerly Domproektostroy (not to be confused with the current House of Projects [10] ), built in 1930-1933 in the style of constructivism from monolithic reinforced concrete with wooden ceilings, designed by architects S. S. Serafimov and M. A. Zandberg-Serafimova . This project, called " Catch up and overtake ", won the all-Union competition on February 5, 1930.
During the war, the building was badly damaged and was rebuilt according to the project of architects V.P. Kostenko and V.I. Lifshitz in1953 - 1963 in the style of Stalinist architecture (Empire) . As a result of this reconstruction, the building completely lost its constructivist style and futuristic hinged roof. True, the spire, as on the seven Moscow skyscrapers , was not completed due to Khrushchev's "struggle against architectural excesses". From 1957-1962 Kharkov University moved to the building .
Northern building of the university , former Govorov Academy , ex. The House of Cooperation is the third of the buildings of the conceived constructivist ensemble, designed by the academician of architecture A. I. Dmitriev and O. R. Munts . It was originally planned to place the House of the Government of Ukraine here , then it was given to the Department of Agriculture.
Construction has been carried out since 1929 from brick , the construction time resulted in a typical Soviet " long-term construction ". In 1934 , after the transfer of the capital to Kiev, the unfinished building was transferred to the Military Economic Academy, the future named after Govorov (until 1993 VIRTA / Kharkov Military University , liquidated in 2003). Before the start of the war, the building in the style of constructivism did not have time to be completed and was completed only in 1954 according to the project of architects P.E.
Hotel " Kharkov ", ex. "International", built in the style of constructivism by the architect G. A. Yanovitsky in 1932 - 1936, restored after the war according to the project of the same author with elements of the Stalinist Empire style.
The building of the regional administration, a typical example of the post-war Stalinist Empire, the former Kharkov Regional Committee of the CPSU . Built on the site and using elements of the constructivist building of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U destroyed during the war (which in turn was a restructuring of the pre-revolutionary building of the Provincial Zemstvo), architects V. M. Orekhov, V. P. Kostenko and others, in 1951 - 1954.
The building of the Veterinary Institute , since 1960 - the new Palace of Pioneers .
