Hryhoriy Svitlytskyi is a prominent Ukrainian artist who spent 16 years overseeing the restoration of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg and became the first People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR. He was called the "poet of moonlit nights," and his murals in the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross are impressive even today. However, the memory of this artist and his museum in Kyiv are under threat.
After a long life in St. Petersburg, in 1919 Svitlytsky returned to Kyiv and settled in his parents' house at 30 Degtyarnaya Street. It was in this building that a museum dedicated to his work was opened in 1958.
However, the museum has been out of operation for a long time: it was closed in 1992, and in 2015 the building was in a state of near ruin. Today it is a real "island in the jungle" - a neglected monument among the elite buildings of Vozdvizhenka. During the last inspection, the museum was overgrown with thickets, and the building was in ruins, partly supported by concrete walls, partly pressed by a slope.
Even more worrying is that no official documents for the building have been found: it is not listed in the property rights register, and the building is marked as a “blank spot” on the cadastral map. This makes the monument’s legal restoration impossible and casts doubt on its continued existence.
Given the current state, the restoration of the museum seems almost unrealistic. However, there are examples where part of the building is preserved and the surrounding area is transformed into a cultural space, preserving the historical value and at the same time adapting the place to modern needs. Perhaps in this case, it is worth looking for similar ways.
For now, the Svitlytskyi Museum is a sad story about a neglected cultural heritage that has been almost forgotten.
