On December 6, 1903 (November 23, 1903) on Nikolayevskaya Street (now Gorodetskogo Street) was opened to the public Circus or Hippo-Palace of Peter Krutikov - one of the largest circuses in Europe.
Peter Krutikov was born in Kiev on April 4th, 1860 in the family of Major-General Sylvester Fedorovicha Krutikov. He graduated from the college of Pavel Galagan, then graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Kiev. After graduation he was an official of the office of the Kiev governor-general. Suddenly he resigned and started training horses at the family estate. In 1890 on Bolshaya Vasilkovskaya Street, 36, he bought an estate with a small building, where he set up an amateur circus and occasionally held performances. In 1897, he toured Odessa, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and many European cities, where he had a triumph.
With the idea of creating a stationary circus in Kiev Krutikov comes to the City Hall and proposes to build a circus at his own expense, and the city authorities should allocate a piece of land. All the sites offered by the city authorities did not suit him, he wanted to build only on Nikolayevskaya Street. Then selling the estate Krutikov bought a plot there and ordered a project from architect Eduard Brandtman. The construction of the circus was completed in 1903 and cost 325000 rubles. The new circus, built in the style of "Art Nouveau" became one of the largest in Europe. The building had a number of innovations, among them steam heating, electric lighting, closets, and a glass dome. The hall could seat more than 2000 spectators. The circus was named "Hippo-palace" (Equestrian Palace). In addition to equestrian performances were wrestlers, clowns, and exotic animals. Fyodor Chaliapin, Leonid Sobinov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Kuprin, Max Linder, Vladimir Durov performed in the circus premises. The famous theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold gave lectures.
On April 29th, 1918 a meeting of the "landowners' congress" was held here, at which Pavel Skoropadsky was elected Hetman of Ukraine.
In 1919, Peter Krutikov emigrated to Italy, his fate is unknown.
In 1941, during the retreat from Kiev, the Bolsheviks blew up the building of the circus. In its place in 1960 the "Ukraine" movie theater was built.
