Irpin’s House of Culture

Jan 18

Written By Markéta Vorel

January 18, 2024

Irpin’s House of Culture. Photo credit Michelle Miller.

An anti-tank hedgehog near the square center

The ruins of Irpin’s House of Culture stand quietly on a snowy square. Before the war, this was Irpin’s art, theater and music venue. Artillery and tank rounds silenced the music. Today, its massive doric pillars hold up a bullet and shrapnel pocked blue and white facade. A caved-in roof hangs haplessly over charred and broken corinthian columns. Metal joists, blown up plaster and bricks and jagged glass jut out in mangled angles. Red velvet curtains drape from a blackened ceiling toward a cracked marble floor littered with demolition debris. A good measure of bright blue exterior paint recalls the building’s colorful past, now embellished by the same sunflowers that cover Irpin’s car cemetery. A 360 view of neighboring buildings, fences and trees confirms that a russian tank sat at the center of the small square and indiscriminately shot off rounds in all directions at apartment buildings, houses and shops.