Fedir Yahymovskyi House ("The House with Cats")

The Fedir Yahymovskyi House, better known to Kyiv residents as "The House with Cats", is a historical and architectural monument. It was built in 1909 by Kyiv engineer Volodymyr Bezsmertnyi. The architect designed the building in the Art Nouveau style with Gothic elements. A distinctive feature of the structure is its complete asymmetry. The mansion stands out with its rich and unusual facade decor: among the unique plastic embellishments are images of numerous chimeras and male mascarons. The entrance is adorned with figures of owls, while the edges of the large semicircular window on the first floor feature bas-reliefs of cats with green eyes and red mouths, which gave rise to the building's popular name. Many famous personalities lived in this house. In the 1920s, it was home to the renowned Ukrainian historian and ethnographer Mykola Levchenko, as well as the Ukrainian mechanical scientist Stepan Tymoshenko, in whose honor a bronze memorial plaque was installed on the facade.