Sound, Preview - Taras Petrenko / taraseq_petrenko Our instagram- / life_in._.kharkiv Our telegram - https://t.me/life_in_kharkiv The territory located to the northwest of Sumskaya Street belonged to the university in the 19th - early 20th centuries. It housed clinics and educational buildings of the medical faculty, beyond which stretched wastelands crossed by ravines, in particular, Shatilov Yar (filled in the 1930s). Before the revolution, the site of the current square was partially occupied by a small unpaved Veterinary Square, named after the two-story building of the Veterinary Institute (since the 1960s, the new Palace of Pioneers). In essence, it was a wasteland. In addition to the institute, the Veterinary Square was overlooked by the building of the university's surgical building (39 Sumskaya St.; end view; destroyed during the war), a three-story building of the chemistry department of Kharkiv University on the site of a Soviet Metrostroy mine (in 2012, the Kharkiv Palace Hotel was opened on its site) and several one-story buildings, some of which stood on the territory of the future square. In 1924, taking into account the growth of the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, the architect V.K. Trotsenko developed a preliminary plan for this area of ​​Kharkiv, later called Zagospromye. According to the plan, blocks were laid out in the form of concentric rings: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ring Streets, now Nezavisimosti Avenue, Chichibabin, Danilevsky and Kultury Streets, respectively; divided by radial streets: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Radial, now Henri Barbusse, Romain Rolland, Prospekt Nauki and Yaroslava Galana. Klochkovsky Spusk, now Passionaria Descent, and Trinklera Street were also radial. Some radial streets from Trotsenko's plan were not punched out: in particular, a) those running through Shevchenko Garden (they were replaced by alleys, in particular, University Alley), b) Yaroslava Galana Street after the completion of the construction of the Red Army Academy (Dzerzhinsky Square, 6) was cut off from the square, although initially it was supposed to pass under the passage of this building through its large inner courtyard, like the 1st and 2nd Radial under the passages of Gosprom: the connection was not made, in particular, due to the difference in heights - the square is located significantly lower than Galana Street. In 1925, on the initiative of F. E. Dzerzhinsky, it was decided to build the House of State Industry. Three adjacent blocks on the inner ring were allocated for it. This marked the beginning of the formation of a new district, the center of which was a huge square, the border of which was determined by Gosprom. In order to open a view of the "first Soviet skyscraper" from Sumskaya Street, it was necessary to significantly cut the land and clear a large area of ​​low-rise buildings. One of the largest squares in the world turned out to be an unusual shape, reminiscent of a chemical retort. The desire to give the outlines of the square a clearer configuration led to its spatial dissection into a rectangular part, serving as the main city forum, and a round part, in the center of which before the Great Patriotic War there was a huge flowerbed, then a park was created in its place (architects V. I. Korzh, P. I. Rusinov, 1965). Disputes about the shape of the square and the boundaries of its parts continued until the end of the 1920s. It was even proposed to divide the square into two, and between them, from the Shevchenko Garden to the future International Hotel, to build a monumental building that would continue Trinkler Street. This plan was abandoned, but the idea to architecturally emphasize the border between the parts of the square led in 1963 to the installation of a monument to Lenin on the border of the two parts, which was replaced by a memorial cross after its destruction on September 28, 2014. Until the 1990s, it was called "Dzerzhinsky Square". Since 1991, it has been called "Freedom Square". As a result of the reconstruction in 2020, a new fountain was installed in the park