Situated on an ancient trading route on the banks of the River Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia was a small provincial town until the construction of its railway station in 1873 put it on the map as an industrial centre. The Dnipro Hydroelectric Station (1932) turned it into an important hub for the metallurgical industry and eventually into one of the largest cities in Ukraine.

This guide, written by two local architectural historians and preservation activists, focuses on Sobornyi Avenue, the 11-kilometre-long axis which threads the parts of Zaporizhzhia into a harmonious whole. One of the finest examples of Soviet ensemble architecture, the avenue is a catalogue of architectural styles: early-20th-century Style Moderne, the Constructivism and Rationalism of the 1920s and 1930s, the grand Neoclassical architecture and ensemble-based urban planning of the Stalinist period, and post-war Second Socialist Modernism with its clean lines and well laid-out ‘microdistricts’. Parts of Sobornyi Avenue resemble Berlin’s former Stalinallee or Leningrad’s Moskovsky prospekt.

Architectural Guide Zaporizhzhia is a unique opportunity to approach this war-threatened city and hold it in one’s hand. To peruse the pages of this guide is to wander the city’s streets and squares and breathe again the air of a more peaceful, more purposeful age.

This architectural guide is part of the Histories of Ukrainian Architecture programme initiated by Berlin-based DOM publishers in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty on 24 February 2022.