House with Chimeras

The House with Chimeras is perhaps the most famous building in Kiev. Now the house is located in the center of Kiev, and at the beginning of the 20th century this part of Kiev was rather uninhabited and unkempt. Therefore, everyone was surprised by the decision of the architect Vladislav Gorodetsky to build a house for his family in this place.
The house with chimeras was built in the Art Nouveau style in the period 1902-1903 It was the first house in Kiev, built using a new material - cement. The house is located on a slope, therefore, from the side of Bankova Street, the building has three, and from the side of the theater. Ivan Franko - six floors. The facade is richly decorated with figures of real creatures of hypertrophied dimensions. Here are the girls riding on fish (they are often mistaken for mermaids), who have spread their nets; and dolphins, and sea reptiles, crocodiles, huge toads, water lilies of unprecedented sizes, rhino heads, antelopes; lizards running swiftly along slender columns; eagles, spreading their wings rapaciously; elephants, whose trunks serve as gutters in the rain. There is a legend that Gorodetsky built this house in memory of his drowned daughter, although in fact Gorodetsky's daughter lived a long life