chocolate house on Shovkovychna St., 17/2
Main information
The Mogylovtsev Palace, popularly known as the “Chocolate House,” is a historic architectural landmark in Kyiv located at 17/2 Shovkovychna Street. It earned its nickname due to its brown façade and heavy rustication resembling a chocolate bar. Today it hosts a branch of the Kyiv National Art Gallery — the Art Center “Chocolate House” — as well as the Children's Art Gallery.
Built in 1901 by Kyiv’s chief architect Volodymyr Nikolayev for wealthy merchant and patron Semen Mogylovtsev, who lived there until 1917.
1917–1918: Residence of Ukrainian statesman Ihor Kistiakivskyi.
1919: Occupied by Bolshevik leader Christian Rakovsky.
From 1925: Converted into apartments for scholars of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Notable residents included historian Matvii Yavorskyi and Professor Mykola Makarenko, both later arrested and executed in the 1930s.
1934: Reconstructed by architect Pavlo Alyoshyn and transferred to the NKVS.
1948–1952: Used by the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR; later housed VOKS, the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.
1960–1982: Functioned as Kyiv’s Central Wedding Palace.
1983–1986: Partial restoration carried out; plans for a chess and checkers center were never implemented.
1986: The Children’s Art Gallery moved in.
1991–1993: Restoration continued but was halted again.
2009: The gallery and building were transferred to the Kyiv National Art Gallery, leading to renewed restoration.
2010: Opened to visitors as a branch gallery with children's artworks.
The building is one of the very few examples of Florentine Renaissance–style palazzos in Kyiv.
Its façade includes sculpted caducei and lion heads connected by floral garlands.
A concrete installation shaped as the “view cone” of a video camera decorates the entrance.
A small artificial sparrow is also mounted on the building.
The modern-style hall contains a copy of Alphonse Mucha’s portrait of Sarah Bernhardt on the ceiling.
Although restoration is still ongoing, the Chocolate House regularly hosts cultural and social events. Future plans include a full art gallery, a school of children’s aesthetic education, a museum of private collections, and a rotating “museum of one painting.”
Interior
The second (“parade”) floor follows an enfilade layout and contains several richly decorated rooms in different historical styles:
White Hall (Baroque): The largest hall, known for its ornate stucco, a preserved Venetian mirror, and symbolic motifs from Mogylovtsev’s family crest.
Modern Hall: Features Ukrainian floral motifs, stained-glass roosters, periwinkles, and a ceiling copy of Mucha’s Sarah Bernhardt portrait.
Russian Hall: Decorated in Neo-Russian style with motifs from imperial jubilees and a firebird on the ceiling.
Byzantine Hall: Former grand dining room, decorated with large garlands of fruits.
Moorish Hall: Noted for carved gypsum panels and preserved fragments of star-patterned ornamentation.
The staircase is executed in Empire style with white marble steps and cast-iron railings, crowned by a ceiling painting of two swans.
Memorial Significance
The palace holds historical value as the residence of prominent Ukrainian and Soviet-era cultural and political figures. It is also connected to the tragic fates of scholars repressed in the 1930s. As an architectural monument, it preserves Kyiv’s rare example of a Florentine Renaissance–inspired palace.
Site Features
Total area of approx. 900 m².
Two floors, a large basement, and a mansard.
A former elevator shaft in the basement, later bricked up.
Monumental Florentine-style façades facing Shovkovychna and Pylypa Orlyka Streets.
Decorative stucco featuring caducei, lion heads, garlands, and ribbons.
External contemporary art installation (video-camera cone).