Odesa, Petrokokino House in Troitska Street, 1890 (-1893?)

At 20 Troitska Street, located in the central area, in a neighbourhood populated by the Greek community, Aleksandr Bernardazzi built a three-storey dwelling house in 1890, with a central doorway surmounted by a bow window. Apparently symmetrical, the main façade actually has two side prominences that differ in their size and decorative apparatus. This dissimilarity should be evaluated considering that the building was constructed together with the adjacent one (at number 18), on the right side for the observer, also designed by Bernardazzi for the same client, the merchant Evstrati Petrokokino. The larger prominence, on the left side, is in fact balanced by that on the opposite side of the adjacent building. Characterised by the unbridled eclecticism of its elevation, the house at 20 Troitska Street was the home of the painter Ekaterina Petrokokino, née Bondarevskaya, wife of the client of the two works. It should be noted that for the Petrokokinos, Bernardazzi designed a third apartment house on Marazliivska Street (1896, see the entry) and the first department store in Odesa, owned by the family. Also on Troitska Street, at number 37, Bernardazzi was asked to renovate the Hellenic Secondary School for Girls named after the Greek merchant Fedor Rodokanaki (Rodocanachi), built in 1874-1875 by the architects Oton and Gonsiorovskyi.

Author: Guillaume Nicoud
Version dated: 01.07.2022