Moses Rohatyn's apartment building, Lviv
Theapartment buildingof banker Moisei Rohatyn, located at 12 Sichovykh Striltsiv Street, was built in 1911-1913 by Polish architect Roman Felinsky in the late Secession style combined with German Art Nouveau. Made in the Art Nouveau style with a combination of stucco moldings and various mascarons (plaster images of faces and masks), the building was even more striking in its beauty. From the very beginning of its existence, the left wing (from Kostiushka Street) of the building housed fashionable establishments, mostly restaurants, whose names changed several times. The first opening of a restaurant with the loud name "Renaissance" was a success with the population, who often spent their evenings within the walls of this establishment. However, the owners soon changed the name to the Louvre and then the Ritz, but this did not affect the flow of new visitors.
With the advent of Soviet rule, the restaurant was closed and replaced by a dietary canteen No. 9. If you read the name, you can understand what types of dishes were served in the Soviet-style building. In 1962, the institution was renamed to a more attractive name: "Veselka". Finally, the number of visitors increased again, and students of Lviv University could often be seen at the tables. In 1970-1980, the former student eatery was converted back into a restaurant called Festivalnyi.
The sculptural decoration in the form of two knights holding a heraldic shield was made by Tadeusz Blotnicki, as were the bas-reliefs with figures of angels and demons on the walls of the building. On the ground floor there was a Renaissance coffee shop with an interior decorated according to Felinski's sketches with large allegorical paintings by Feliks Wygżywalski. Before the outbreak of World War II, the building housed the Jacob Ulam Bank House, the Kashtelianka boarding house, the Kashtelianka boarding house, the Plast insurance company, and the Lviv branch of the Italian insurance company Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà.
According to public figure Andriy Salyuk: "It was one of the most fashionable restaurants in Lviv, because various banks and stock exchanges were located on Third of May Street (now Sichovykh Striltsiv). Therefore, stock sellers, financiers, and bankers liked to sit in the restaurant, where various geshefts were settled, purchase and sale agreements were concluded, etc."
In 1992, an interesting event took place in the restaurant: the film crew of director M. Ilyinsky from the Dovzhenko Studio filmed the feature film The Price of a Head. The restaurant gained additional popularity, despite the fact that the movie was not a huge success.
In 2005, the restaurant's premises were once again bought out. The new owners were Kyiv-based entrepreneurs of the all-Ukrainian fast food chain Puzata Khata. The new additions and arrangements caused a series of outrages and criticism. According to experts, the entrepreneurs temporarily spoiled the historic Lviv landmark by adding an overly bright sign outside and tearing down stylish wooden panels in the building's interior.
In 2005, Andriy Levyk, the former head of the Department of Historic Environment Protection at the Lviv City Council, tried to sue the Kyiv company, but the case was decided against him. And now, in 2015, the Puzata Khata continues to occupy this historic building.
