Rymarska Street

Running parallel to Sumska Steet from Konstytutsii Square to the new Opera House, Rymarska Street is one of the oldest in the city. Its development began in the 17th century and as its name suggests, craftsmen specialising in leather clothing — lymari (rymari), whose products enjoyed large sales at all Kharkiv trade fairs used to live here.

The oldest buildings in the street include a residential estate in 7, Rymarska Street which is an example of the so-called ‘model’ design building of the early 19th century, as well as the house of the Mayor of Kharkiv, merchant E. Urypin (4, Rymarska St.) built in the late 18th century. The building of the Girls Mariinska Grammar School No. 1 (11, Rymarska St., designed by K. Tolkunov, 1969) has been also preserved here. It still houses a school.

In the early 20th century high-rise lodging houses emerged in Rymarska Street: 20, Rymarska Street (designed by M. Reutenberg, 1911), the west facade of the Salamander Insurance Company, 28, Rymarska Street, which used to be a lodging house, and Professor Bronstein’s Eye Clinic (designed by V. Velichko, 1902).

Architect A. Rzhepyshevsky constructed the first condominiums in 6 (1912) and 19, Rymarska Street (1915). These houses were funded by the owners of apartments, mostly doctors, engineers, writers and artists. After the 1917 Revolution, the Bolshevists who initially were not used to luxury transformed comfortable apartments into communal (shared) flats.