Vozdvizhenka is an elite residential microdistrict, built in the early 2000s in the Gonchary-Kozhemyaki tract. Located between the Poskotinka mountains, Zamkovaya and Landscape Alley, parallel to Andreevsky Descent, and goes directly onto Nizhny Val Street, the main thoroughfare of Podol. Consists of Vozdvizhenskaya, Goncharnaya, Degtyarnaya and Kozhemyatskaya streets. It is believed that the earliest settlements on the territory of Kyiv were located in the tract, which date back to the 1st century AD, but despite numerous excavations, no evidence in favor of this theory was found. The first buildings appeared here after 1150.
The inhabitants of the Gonchary-Kozhemyaki tract were artisans: potters, blacksmiths, stonemasons, leather workers, furriers. By the beginning of the 16th century, there were many craft workshops in Kyiv, most of which were located in Podol, and in particular in the tract. The craftsmen themselves settled there, next to the workshops. Streets were named after professions. Some of the craftsmen – carpenters, stonemasons – were busy at that time working on the restoration of the Kyiv castle, which was located on Mount Zamkova, which was nearby. Workshops and settlements of craftsmen existed in the Gonchary-Kozhemyaki tract until the beginning of the 19th century – for example, on Kozhemyatskaya in the mid-19th century there was a tannery of the Kiev merchant Mityuk, known since the 17th century. By the middle of the 19th century, the artisans living on Vozdvizhenka were displaced by the Kiev merchants. Mikhail Bulgakov was born on Vozdvizhenka. The future writer was baptized in Church of the Exaltation of the Cross by its rector, in whose house Bulgakov’s parents rented housing before moving to an apartment on Andreevsky Descent.
The main street of the microdistrict is Vozdvizhenskaya. It made it possible to shorten the path from Andreevskaya Gora to the Zhitny Market. Kozhemyatskaya and Degtyarnaya streets are among the oldest in Podil. By the early 1980s, all streets of Vozdvizhenka retained their original layout. Since the mid-1970s, the few residents of Goncharov-Kozhemyak began to be resettled due to the disrepair of the remaining houses. Fires broke out from time to time in the empty houses, and over time the area turned into a wasteland. The idea of developing the empty Gonchari-Kozhemyaki tract finally took shape in the late 1980s. It was planned to build a residential complex consisting of high-rise buildings. However, city council deputies, public figures, historians, architects and ordinary residents of Kyiv opposed this idea. Their active actions saved Vozdvizhenka from multi-storey development. The Vozdvizhenka low-rise development project pleased both the public and the developer, and in 2000 Kievgorstroy began its implementation, starting preparatory work. The first brick was laid in March 2001, but full construction began only in 2003.
Nowadays, the residential complex recreates a piece of old Kyiv, the design of which took into account the unique landscape features of the ancient tract. Every house, every facade is a work of art, reproducing to the smallest detail the architectural style of the end of the century before last: mainly Baroque and “Kiev” Art Nouveau with Gothic variations. The spirit of old Podol is also intended to be conveyed by fashionable shops, cafes, galleries – the first floors of the houses are reserved for them. In the center of the district on Vozdvizhenskaya Street is the Arts Square with a green area.