Market Hall

Location: Central Market
Year of building: 1888

The Izmail central market is located on the site of the former Grecheskaya (later Novo-Bazarnaya) ploshad of the shopping district of posad at the Izmail fortress.

In its very center there is a building of the end of the 19th century – an indoor market hall in which vegetables and dairy products are traded. For the time of its construction the building can claim the title of a local skyscraper, because nothing was built higher than one floor at that time.

Before the construction of the market trading at the place of its current location was carried out from a wooden building, which was very dilapidated and deteriorated. Izmail mayor Fedor Tulchianov initiated the construction of a new, stone building.

In 1885 the construction department of the Bessarabian provincial government in 1885 approved a covered market project prepared by the Izmail city architect V.Semechkin.

Veniamin Semechkin – a famous Russian architect. He was born in 1843 in St. Petersburg in the family of Pavel Semechkin, St. Petersburg painter of the XIV class. He graduated of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1860-1866, painting; 1868-1875, architecture), where he was awarded with a small silver medal according to the results of training and received the title of class artist of the III degree for the program project “Cafe-restaurant in the park.” From 1883 to 1892 he worked as an Izmail city architect. According to his projects the Izmail fire tower was built (1884, not survived to this day), the port chapel of St. Nicholas has been restored (1884, not survived to this day), the bell tower of the underground church in Kiliya has been built. The covered Market Hall is the only one of the buildings in Izmail created by his design that has been preserved. From 1892 to 1917 he worked in Penza as a junior engineer, junior architect, provincial architect. It is known about 34 architectural projects of his authorship, including the preserved magnificent building of the meat passage in Penza on the Moscowskaya Str., 85.

In 1888 the building was built and became not only a significant source of replenishment of the city treasury, but also one of the first stationary stone trade hall with which the modern market began.

From the protocols of the Communal Council in 1891:

“The case cost F. Tulchianov many work and the building was finally built in 1888 only thanks to his exceptional energy and perseverance. Now it is one of the best decorations and pride of Izmail in its beauty and grandeur, not to mention its significant benefits for the entire local population in the sense of preserving all … products in their pure form at any time of the year”.

In the 20s there was a fire on the roof according to the memoirs of old-timers. In 1925 Italian builders repaired the building. As a result of this repairement the side facades changed, 3 light lamps (roof houses) merged into one long one. Additionally, light triangular windows were built on the side outbuildings.

However, these were not the last interventions in the original design. So, the building underwent an internal redevelopment in the 50s, then in 60s the beam system was replaced (strengthened).

In the 50s many small shops of collective farms of the region worked in the market.

In 2005 the roof repair was carried out by the market’s construction group under the leadership of the chief engineer Bichev Danil, who, however, used Romanian archival drawings of roof structures in his work.