The Stone House of the Kiev Army (“Residential House of Jan Bykovskogo”, “House of Peter I”) is an architectural monument of the border of the XVII — XVIII centuries in Kyiv, located in Podol at ul. Konstantinovskaya 6/8 (on the corner of Khoryva Street). The oldest of the preserved residential buildings of Kiev, has an original volumetric and spatial composition with features of a defensive structure. Today it functions as part of the Kyiv Scientific and Methodical Center for the Protection, Restoration and Use of Monuments of History, Culture and Protected Areas.

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In 1799, the composer Artemy Wedel, arrested on false political charges, was kept in the house. In the 1870s, the doctor Theophilus Yanovsky lived.

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Urban legend associates the building with the name of the Russian emperor Peter I. Information about the residence of the Russian emperor here is not documented. The house was erected, presumably, at the end of the XVII (not earlier than 1696) — at the beginning of the XVIII century, during the period of active masonry construction in Kiev, in the estate, which since 1663 belonged to the famous Kiev merchant and Cossack family Bibi Kovkovskiy. The owner of the estate Jan Bykovskyi — the Kiev army in 1687—1699 — owned many courtyards, shops, a pond with a mill, lands along Hlybochyka and on Mount Schekavytsya in Podol.

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Originally the house in the Bykovski estate was two-storey, with a basement and two round tower-shaped corner volumes. All rooms of the building were covered with vaults. In the early 1730s, Jan Bykovskyi's grandson Leontiy started rebuilding the 10-room house, but in 1734 he was appointed centurion to Opisni, so Bykovsky left Kiev, leaving the family house unfinished.

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The reconstruction of the house on Konstantinovskaya was completed by the famous Kiev architect Ivan Grigorovich-Barsky [6] on the order of the Kiev magistrate, who in the 1780s bought out all the Kiev estates of the Bykovskys for an incredible amount of three thousand rubles. As a result of the reconstruction, a two-story extension was made on the west side of the building, and open arcades in baroque forms were arranged between the towers and on the entrance risalite from the south. After the completion of the renovation, in 1791, according to the decision of the magistrate, the former Bykovski house was placed in the “hamov house” — a place of isolation of drunkards and harmiders, as well as lunatics. In 1799—1803, the famous Ukrainian composer Artemy Wedel, who was declared insane by the authorities, was detained here.

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In 1803, the madhouse was transferred to the Cyril Hospital, and for the following years the house stood empty. The building suffered considerable damage during the Podil fire of 1811: its effects were eliminated only after a new repair and reconstruction in 1817—1820. After that, the building was given over to the Podolsk Parish School, which existed here until the end of the 1860s.

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Rear facade, view from ul. Choriva
In the 1870s, the apartments in the house belonged to F. A. Bartsev, class teacher of the Kyiv Podolsk Gymnasium. In 1873—1876, the future Ukrainian physician Theophilus Yanovsky lived in an apartment on the second floor with four classmates. Since the late 1870s, the house contained barracks, and in 1883 it was transferred to the Alexander Children's Asylum, which operated here until 1917. One of the directors of the shelter was Dr. Ivan Voskresensky, the stepfather of the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov and a disciple of Theophilus Yanovsky.

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After the revolutionary events of 1917—1921, the house functioned as a residential one. In the mid-1970s. the building was extensively restored. In the early 1990s, “" Ancient Kyiv "” was transferred to the balance sheet of the DIAZ. In July 2007, the “House of Peter I” was renovated and museified (it houses the permanent exhibition “" House of Peter I in the chronicle of Kyiv charity "”).

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In 2019, the exposition was updated and the “" Museum” “Kam'yanitsa of the Kiev Army"” was opened, functioning as part of the CNMC for the protection, restoration and use of monuments of history, culture and protected areas.

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The most valuable element of the museum is the architectural monument itself. At the heart of the museum exposition is the collection, which was collected by the staff of the “Ancient Kyiv” reserve for 20 years.

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The exhibits of the Museum tell about the history of the granting of Magdeburg Law to Kyiv, about the institution of military service and the government structure of the Kyiv-Podolsk autonomy, about the construction history of the Podolsk stone house in the context of the revival of masonry architecture at the turn of the 17-18th centuries, about the building based on civic patriotic principles corporate (shop, fraternal) welfare of the subjects of city law, on the role of the Cossack factor and the relationship of townspeople with monastic jurisdiction, on the liquidation of the Magdeburg Law and the repurposing of the monument under one of the first institutions of the imperial official charity, based on the intellectual fashions of the European Enlightenment (the House of the Order of Public Welfare). Currently, assistance to the sick, needy, public education and care for orphans (in the 19th century, the city parish school of the Order of Public Welfare and the Alexander Children's Shelter functioned here) until the revolution of 1917 will determine the “spirit of the place” both within the old building and together in the city. the whole city, which listened and echoed all the humane innovations of the time.

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Visitors will be attracted by unique artifacts of the self-governing life of Kiev, in particular the lead plate from the burial of the Kiev burmyster I.Skazki, authentic cartographic and manuscript monuments, including the merchants of the fortress of the 18th-19th century. and the estimate of the magistrate of 1786; works of icons painting, graphics and painting, documents and old prints, memorial and typographical furniture, school attributes and original photographs.

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