Former Alexandrovskaya, Cathedral, Red Banner Square.
The central square in Kremenchuk, which now bears the name of Victory, was founded on April 10, 1803 by the Decree of Alexander I “He was the Most Conformed”, that is, Approved the plan of the new district center of the Poltava province – the city of Kremenchug. They envisaged on the site of the old earthen fortress to break up a huge area of 160×110 fathoms, the administrative square and name it in honor of the Tsar of Alexander.
It was planned to build the Assumption Cathedral in the centre of it, in the left-wing – three one-story buildings for the district presence, and between the cathedral and public places a plot was allocated for the mayor’s estate. While work on the preparation of the territory for the arrangement of the square is unhurriedly unfolding: ditches are filled up, ramparts are demolished, dilapidated buildings are dismantled, an expedition headed by the provincial architect M. Amvrosimov is being created in Poltava. In 1805, he developed a new plan for Kremenchug, which introduced significant changes to the development of the central square.
M. Amvrosimov understood that the concentration of public buildings gives significant architectural and practical advantages, so he tried to concentrate the main administrative and public buildings of the city of Kremenchuk on the main city square. Instead of one-storey buildings of presence, he plans three two-storey ones: in the centre – district offices according to the standard design of A. Zakharov; on the right – the county post office, designed by M. Amvrosimov himself, on the left – the horse post office.
Building up the left-wing of the central square at the beginning of the 19th century, only the county post office was left from the original plan, and the complex of buildings for the equestrian post office was erected on the banks of the Dnieper at the very beginning of Kherson Street, at the exit from the bridge.
To the left of the district places present, a two-storey building of a povet or district school (1806 – 1816) was built according to the project of M. Amvrosimov.
The increase in the height of the buildings on the left-wing of the square changed for the better the ratio between the cathedral and the surrounding buildings, which reached almost ideal values for an average city. And this, in turn, positively influenced the formation of the city silhouette, in which the dome of the cathedral, marking the location of the central square in space, played a decisive role. The mayor’s house is removed, as a result, the sound of the cathedral – the only one in the centre of the square – is amplified.
On the right-wing of the square, the construction of a small stone one-story house of the garrison guardhouse was planned (architect M. Amvrosimov.)
Already in 1816, an integral architectural ensemble in the classical style was formed on the central Kremenchuk Square, which was rightfully considered one of the best urban ensembles of the first half of the 19th century in Ukraine.
After the construction of the square of the Assumption Cathedral (1804-1816, architect D. Quarenghi), the square was renamed Cathedral Square in 1816.
In the second half of the 19th century, the architectural unity of the square began to break under the influence of new buildings. In 1863, a stone bell tower was built to the west of the cathedral. It was very massive and squat and stylistically did not in any way harmonize with the impeccable logic of the Assumption Cathedral.
In 1885 – 1888 the building of the county post office was rebuilt according to the project of engineer G. Pavlovsky.
The biggest blow to the ensemble of Cathedral Square was the construction of the state bank building, which ended in 1900. The bank building, neither by its location nor by its external appearance, absolutely did not fit into the ensemble of the square and even destroyed it.
After the revolution of 1917, they tried to rename the square into the Red Banner, but this did not succeed and before the war, it was called Sobornaya.
After the revolution, buildings on the square gained new significance, the city radio centre was located in the guardhouse, and school No. 7 was located in the city school.
The square became unrecognizable after the war, retreating German torchbearers destroyed the Assumption Cathedral, destroyed and burned all the buildings. The square was a huge wasteland, covered with heaps of broken bricks.
After the war, the square was renamed Victory Square.
According to the plan of 1954, Victory Square is assigned as before – the role of the administrative centre. On the site of the Assumption Cathedral, it was planned to build a House of Soviets and a monument to I. Stalin, on the sides of the square – multi-storey residential buildings. But soon the idea of building an administrative centre on the square created at the intersection of Lenin and Pushkin streets (now Independence Square) prevailed.
Therefore, Victory Square, after cleaning from the remnants of destroyed buildings and restoring the coating, has been used since 1953 for festive demonstrations, military parades, and mass festivities.
In the late 60s, it became clear that it was not possible to create a new administrative centre on Revolution Square, and the mayors returned to the idea of creating the main architectural ensemble on Victory Square. In 1971, a monument to Lenin was unveiled, which became the new main high-rise accent of the square (monument to Lenin was dismantled on February 24, 2014).
During 1973-1975 the tourist complex “Flint” was built on the right-wing of the square.
During 1979-1983, the five-story building of the Kremenchuk City Executive Committee was built.
Of the pre-revolutionary buildings in the ensemble of the square, only the building of the state bank has survived
Literature:
- “The streets of old Kremenchug” by A.N. Lushakova, L.I. Evselevsky 2001