House of State Industry
House of State Industry on Freedom Square is real Kharkov giant and it is worth a separate story. It is an architectural monument included in the preliminary list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, a symbol of constructivism. Its height is 63 meters, and together with the spire-tower - 108 meters. The building has 4,500 windows, 2 thousand doors, 34 stairs. No wonder that Kharkiv people wrote a legend about the ghost of an official who allegedly roams the secret passages of Gosprom searching the canteen.
To build such a gigantic building, the first skyscraper in the USSR, it took considerable efforts of architects and designers and precise calculations for reinforced concrete structures, which were used for the first time in the world. But technique was scarce at that time: they began to build the symbol of industrial power with horses, shovels and stretchers, but with great enthusiasm in 1925. Work was finished in 2.5 construction seasons. Another interesting fact is also connected with Gosprom: during the Second World War, monkeys who fled the zoo settled on the upper floors of Gosprom. Three macaques seemed to have survived, waiting for the liberation of the city. Now there is a monument in the zoo devoted to these 3 macaques.
To build such a gigantic building, the first skyscraper in the USSR, it took considerable efforts of architects and designers and precise calculations for reinforced concrete structures, which were used for the first time in the world. But technique was scarce at that time: they began to build the symbol of industrial power with horses, shovels and stretchers, but with great enthusiasm in 1925. Work was finished in 2.5 construction seasons. Another interesting fact is also connected with Gosprom: during the Second World War, monkeys who fled the zoo settled on the upper floors of Gosprom. Three macaques seemed to have survived, waiting for the liberation of the city. Now there is a monument in the zoo devoted to these 3 macaques.
