Sonya in a mystical city in the center of the capital. Parts #9-10

Sonya continues to drive me around the city in search of mini-sculptures. There are 28 of them, and she has found almost all of them.

Today we will visit the city inside the city, where 2 sculptures are installed not far from each other.

Ages ago, in this tract lived artisans: potters and tanners. Their houses looked much more modest.

This place is surrounded on all sides by hills and Kyiv mountains and has only one entry and exit. A small area of newly built fairytale houses seems to be hidden in the very heart of the capital.

The area is very photogenic. Here they like to take pictures of wedding couples, shoot episodes of films and programs, just photos for social networks

Colorful houses decorated with turrets, cozy courtyards. But why is it so deserted? In the evening there are no street lights, windows of houses are dark, cafes and restaurants are almost empty, with few exceptions. Designer stores and wine boutiques rarely see visitors. There are almost no people on the streets even in day.

They say that apartments here are prohibitively expensive, and communications and networks, which were not updated during construction, are very old and work poorly.

I do not know how true this is, but new ones, higher and with a simpler design, are being built around the already built and not yet inhabited houses. I have not seen parking here for cars, and the sounds of a construction site, the echo of which walks along empty streets for a long time, evokes sadness.

Sonya asks me what is really going on here? But I have no answer. Maybe M. Bulgakov, a great lover of Kyiv and mysticism, will tell us? Come on guys, look at the camera!

"In the spring time the gardens were blooming white…a beautiful city, a happy city."

Museum of Bulhakov Family is located only 10 minutes walk from here. And there is a bigger sculpture of the Great Master there. This one is so small that we really thought we'll now find it.

And we move on to find the second one. As they say on the site, it is here by this awesome belltower. Oh, by the way, here I saw the first (and the only) little girl playing on ice with herself. Looked weird.

This is the place. Plinth brick.

Rub me and you will have a new apartment.

Strange choice. And the place is mixed. I looked, the sponsor is a construction company. Well of course, now it looks even more line an advert.

Anyway, the story is the following. Plinth is an ancient brick, from which all the buildings that are preserved since the days of Kievan Rus are made. The recipe for its creation came to us from Byzantium, and each building gang had its own secrets of its manufacture.

These are strong, wide and flat bricks, which from the X to the XIII century were widely used in Kievan Rus in the construction of princely palaces and in temple architecture. Well-developed at that time, a variety of crafts provided a high-quality process of production of plinths. Аirst they filled a wooden form (frame) with clay. Excess clay was cut with a wooden knife. Then baked in special ovens, dried for two weeks, and - the plinth is ready!

Golden Gate (remember its mini-sculpture?), St. Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev-Pechersk Lavra - all are made of thes bricks.