- 1811 Great fire of Podil
The 1811 Great fire of Podil ( _uk. Велика пожежа, "Velyka pozhezha") occurred on the morning of
June 9 1811 [cite web|url=http://www.k-telegraph.kiev.ua/N88/starygor.htm|title=Look at the firefighters "Always ready!"|accessdate=2008-02-10|last=Anisimov|first=Alexander|date=February 17 2006 |work=Кіевскій ТелеграфЪ|language=Russian] in the historical and commercial neighborhood ofPodil inKiev ("Kyiv"), the capital ofUkraine . The fire lasted for three days [cite web|url=http://obolon.info/article.php?story=20061009151102408|title=The northern part of Kiev is not called Obolon' for no reason|accessdate=2008-02-10|last=Kukharskiy|first=Vladimir|date=September 10 2006 |work=obolon.info|language=Russian] and almost destroyed the whole neighborhood. [cite news|first=Oksana|last=Shapoval|title=Churches of Podil|url=http://www.day.kiev.ua/155021/|work=Den'|date=December 23 2005 |accessdate=2008-02-10|language=Ukrainian] [cite web |url=http://www.oldkiev.info/progulki_ulicami_Kieva/PODOL.html|title=Podil across the centuries|accessdate=2008-02-10 |last=Plotnikova|first=Iryna|date=2003|work=Walks around the old Podil|publisher=oldkiev.info] Before the fire, the Podil was the city's most densely populated neighborhood; out of 3,672 households in the city, 2,068 were located in the Podil. [cite web |url=http://m2.com.ua/article_list.php?id=136&PHPSESSID=c6d714219520ef017baaded5337a9dfa|title=Tragedy of Kiev's Podol|accessdate=2008-02-10|last=Karmanova|first=Irina|date=June 15 2006 |work=Realty Portal|language=Russian]The fire's power was strengthened with high winds and the season's severe droughts, where even the nearby
Dnieper River was reported to have been dried out.cite book |title=Little Encyclopedia of Kiev's Antiquities|author=Makarov, A.N.|publisher=Dovira|location=Kiev |year=2002|isbn=966-507-128-9|pages=p. 368] The city's official version of the cause of the fire, however, was said to be children playing with fire.More than 2,000 homes,
magistrate buildings, 12 churches, and 3 monasteries were destroyed in the fire. However, some buildings were spared destruction, including the House of Peter I. Smoke from the fire was reported to have been seen more than convert|130|km|mi|lk=on|abbr=on away. [cite web |url=http://fpk.org.ua/?page=56&lang=1|title=Short history of Kiev (official version of the History of Kiev)|accessdate=2008-02-10|work=kievhistory.narod.ru|publisher=Fine Point Kyiv|language=Russian] In response to the fire, the Director of the Kiev Myshkovsky Gymnasium No. 3 stated:In 1812, a new plan for the reconstruction of the Podil was drawn up by architects Geste and Melensky. The plan had redrawn the neighborhood's streets into straightaways, thus creating the square city blocks that exist to this day. [cite book|title=Kyiv, A historical overview|last=Kudrytskyi|first=A. V.|year=1982|publisher=Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia|location=Kyiv|isbn=|language=Ukrainian|page=p. 70] The fire showed the vulnerability of the city's wooden buildings, some of which would later be reconstructed in stone. Reconstruction after the fire brought about the construction of many architectural landmarks currently standing, including the
Contracts House and Gostnyi Dvir, among many others.ee also
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1961 Kurenivka mudslide in Kiev References
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