In the culture of Mykolaiv, 2024 was declared the year of the HFO — the symbol of resistance to the Russian army turns 200 years old

The building of the House of Fleet Officers, 2021, photo: NikVesty

The year 2024 in the cultural sphere of Mykolaiv is dedicated to the House of Fleet Officers (HFO). The architectural landmark is celebrating 200 years since its construction.

Yurii Liubarov, head of the culture department of the Mykolaiv City Council, told about this during the briefing.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the HFO has become a center of assistance for the citizens of Mykolaiv to defend the city. The first thing the townspeople got involved in was making Molotov cocktails and roadblocks. Even later, the House of Fleet Officers was transformed into a volunteer hub, where things, medicines, and assistance for the military were brought.

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Today, HFO hosts cultural events: concerts, exhibitions, performances, to which artists from all over Ukraine are invited.

«From the first days of the invasion, a charitable volunteer fund settled in the DoF. If the first year, it was purely a headquarters that helped the military and citizens, then last year there was a creative content. Today it is our new cultural institution. This cooperation is very interesting and unusual for us. Because on the one hand, there is the city that supports the building, public services, and on the other hand, there are volunteers who organize cultural events. that's why we celebrate it as our own city cultural institution,» Yurii Liubarov said.

This initiative will not mean anything for the facility itself, says Yurii Liubarov. The budget does not provide funds for the restoration or repair of the emergency building of the HFO, but the city government aims to attract donors to this issue.

«There (in HFO, — note) there is something that can be done with little money — a summer auditorium. We want to draw attention to this space because it is very busy in the summer. «Unfortunately, we understand that there is no talk of a multimillion-dollar restoration yet,» the official added.

HFO in the history of Mykolaiv

The House of Fleet Officers was built in 1824 by order of the Black Sea Fleet Commander Alexander Greig to organize the leisure time of naval officers and their families. On August 30, 1890, a reception dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Mykolaiv was held at the HFO, which was reported by NikVesti in the article «Will the Mykolaiv HFO have a chance for revival?».

House of Naval Officers today

At the end of August 2020, Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided to include DOF in the list of objects of the «Great Restoration» at the suggestion of the head of the parliamentary faction «Servants of the People» David Arakhamiia. However, in March 2021, NikVesti reported that the HFO was not included in the president's project, because the design and estimate documentation was not made for it, and the representatives of the local authorities did not decide on what should be located there.

Vitalii Kim, the head of the Regional State Administration, reported that the problem with the building of the House of Fleet Officers is also that the authorities do not know how to use it. At that time, according to him, it was about the possible placement of a five-star hotel there.

Before the start of the Russian aggression on February 4, 2022, the Department of Culture of the Mykolaiv City Council announced that at the state level , a decision had been made to include the House of Fleet Officers in the list of objects of the «Great Restoration».

In June 2023, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, Anton Tabunshchik, said that he appealed to the city council to transfer HFO to the joint ownership of territorial communities of the Mykolaiv Oblast. He added that the building can be restored and an apparatus and a session hall can be placed there. They also want to set up several departments and the regional administration there.

Instead, Volodymyr Aleksieiev, coordinator of the volunteer staff of the «HFO», says that the House of Fleet Officers in Mykolaiv should remain a public space, and not become another business center, restaurant or residential complex.