Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex
Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, also known as Mystetskyi Arsenal — is Ukraine's flagship public cultural institution, museum and an art exhibition complex located at Lavrska Street, 10–12, in Kiev, Ukraine. Total exhibition area of its historic venue is 60,000 m2, one of the largest in Europe. The institution's stated mission is to modernize Ukrainian society through raising awareness on social issues, fostering communication with the international community, introducing outstanding local and international artists to the world. The complex was visited by 173,550 visitors in 2018. It hosted 6 exhibitions, 2 festivals, 299 guided tours, 52 educational projects and 13 large scale theatrical productions the same year. The venue also hosts Ukraine's biggest annual book fair, attended by 50,000 visitors. The complex is legally under the control of the State Management of Affairs.
History
The unique art complex has a rich history and is located in what originally was designed by an architect of German descent Karl Johann Shpekle as a workshop for the manufacturing, repair works and storage of ammunition and cannons in 1798, as part of the major Pechersk citadel complex. Original military designation explains the buildings over 183 cm wide walls. It was built on the site of a female monastic community dating back to the 1540s — the Voznesenskyi Pechersk monastery. A major patroness of the monastery in the early 18th century was Hetman Ivan Mazepa's mother — Mariia Magdalyna. Two churches that existed on the site of the monastery were subsequently dismantled to allow for the construction of the military workshop, however their foundations remained and were excavated in 2005 in preparation for the opening of the Mystetskyi Arsenal to the public. The excavation revealed a major necropolis containing hundreds of burials of nuns and the presumed body of Mariia Magdalyna, as well as a host of special value objects dating back as early as the 1300s. Construction of the current building was supervised by a military engineer by the name of Charles de Chardon, a native of Dohis, Aisne, Hauts-de-France, who was then living in Kyiv. The structure was subsequently completed by a local Ukrainian merchant by the name of Mykhailo Hryhorenko. The Arsenal building was awarded an architectural heritage monument status in 1979 and continued to be in use by the armed forces through the beginning of the 21st century. Large scale archaeological excavations took place in the inner courtyard between 2005 and 2009. In 2010 the entire complex was granted a National monument status and conservation works are continuing while the facility remains open to the public.
