Metropolitans’ Residence of Bukovyna and Dalmatia

Open It to Preserve It

The Metropolitans' Residence of Bukovyna and Dalmatia is a 19th-century ensemble on Dominik Hill in Chernivtsi and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Today its buildings house Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University. The grounds cover 8 ha (20 acres), including a 5 ha (12-acre) arboretum.

Very different people come here: students and faculty, visitors, worshippers at the two active churches, and local residents. We rethought the grounds as a whole so that each of them feels the place is there for them, too. We restore the ensemble's historic appearance, bring back its links to the city and the park, remove the barriers left by past eras, and open the Residence — because openness is what gives a monument both people and the resources to preserve it.

Many Traditions in One Ensemble

The Residence took 18 years to build, from 1864 to 1882, to a design by the Czech architect Josef Hlávka. The driving force behind it was Bishop Eugene Hakman, who fought for the Orthodox Metropolis to have a worthy residence in the Catholic Habsburg Empire. Hlávka combined Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, and Moorish motifs — the domed towers recall minarets — with local ones. The roof is laid in the pattern of Bukovynian carpets, the brick and tile were made in Chernivtsi, and the stone came from quarries on the Dniester. The city's Jewish community also donated to the construction, and Stars of David were placed on the main gate as a sign of good neighborliness.

For us, this is what matters most about the ensemble: different faiths, styles, and communities came together in one place. Its grounds face a similar task today — making room for people who come here for very different reasons.

The site was chosen on a hill, away from the town center of the time.

Hlávka designed the buildings together with the landscape. The wings enclose the cour d'honneur on three sides: a ceremonial forecourt with a low formal parterre of clipped plants and the facades rising above it. Universytetska Street continues the ensemble's main axis. Old photographs show people walking and riding along the central drive — in carriages, later in cars. In front of the entrance, the drive ends in a turnaround loop.

Behind the buildings, gardeners Viktor Pauli and Hermann Langer laid out a landscape park in 1876–1878 — today it is known as the arboretum. Part of the collection came from plants given to Hakman. On the 1888 map, the park already wraps the ensemble on the west and north. In contrast to the clipped forecourt, it is free nature: hillside slopes, winding paths, a lake, a grotto, fountains, and a well. Walk through the building, and you step from a ceremonial formal court into a shady natural park.

By the early 20th century, the city had grown right up to the Residence. It had gates on several sides, park paths opened straight onto the streets, and Krymska and Hlavky Streets linked it to the neighboring park, now Fedkovych Park.

How the Grounds Changed

Each era left its mark here. From 1875, theology students of Chernivtsi University studied in the Seminary building. From 1918 to 1940, Bukovyna was occupied by Romania, and the university became Romanian. In March 1944, retreating Romanian and German troops set fire to the Metropolitans' building, and the Synodal (Marble) Hall and the Blue Hall lost their original appearance. In 1955, the buildings of the Residence were handed over to Chernivtsi University. The library became a gym, part of the arboretum on the west was cut down for the military department's training ground, and later storage sheds and garages appeared.

Some internal boundaries were part of the original plan: Hakman insisted that the seminary and the service yards be walled off from the ceremonial forecourt. But the functions those fences and walls served are long gone, while the fences remain and split the grounds into pieces. Left unclipped, the parterre grew into a solid wall of trees that hides the facades.

Access changed, too. When we began the work, there was a checkpoint at the gate. Visitors could enter only with a group and saw a small part of the complex, students had access only during class hours, and walking the central alley was forbidden. Under martial law, the university admits visitors only with a guide. These rules grew out of care for the monument, but they limit the people who could see and use it — and in the end they work against it.

What the People Who Use It Say

In the spring of 2022, we ran a workshop together with the university. Students, faculty, city representatives, and the authors of the UNESCO nomination studied the grounds and proposed their own ideas. Some of them made it into the concept: a café, restrooms, and a gathering spot by the oak in the service yard, an open central alley, a café in the old greenhouses, removing the wall by the lawn, new paths, and barrier-free access. During the workshop, students, staff, residents, and visitors were surveyed. Sixty-four percent of the students and 67% of the faculty surveyed said the grounds need to change. And 60% of the residents surveyed see the Residence as a place for a family outing.

It turned out that each group runs into its own difficulties here. Students and faculty do not feel free here and go to a nearby square to relax. Visitors wait for a group at the gate, the tour takes them along a short route, the park is off-limits, and many confuse the Residence with the university. Worshippers come to the churches, but the courtyards next to them are neglected and the lawn by the doors is trampled. Local residents photograph the magnolias through the fence — their Instagram posts show it — and many do not even know there is an arboretum behind the buildings.

No one knows a place better than the people who use it, so the workshop's findings became the basis of the concept.

Lock It Down or Open It Up

Put simply, there are two approaches to preserving heritage. You can keep a monument under lock and key, and it slowly declines. Or you can open it, make it part of city life, and gain the resources to care for it.

In 2015, the Residence had 67,725 visitors, and in 2023 about 65,000. That is few for a World Heritage site. The Würzburg Residence of the Prince-Bishops, also a UNESCO site, had 365,601 visitors in 2025, and its Court Garden is open to everyone without a ticket. The Archbishop's Palace in Kroměříž welcomed about 119,000 visitors in 2024, and its Palace Garden is free as well. The University of Coimbra still works in the same historic buildings, and 379,578 people followed its visitor route in 2025. In all three, people can walk the grounds freely, while the museum, tours, cafés, and shops are paid. They draw two to six times more visitors than Chernivtsi. We propose the same: free entry to the grounds and paid services.

The Residence in the City

According to the Chernivtsi Integrated Development Concept, the Residence arboretum and the neighboring Fedkovych Park are among the largest green spaces in the central part of the city. But today they are not connected: the streets around the Residence end in dead ends, and where Krymska and Hlavky Streets once met by the park, a private house now stands. Only one tourist route leads to the Residence itself — along Universytetska Street and back.

We lay out a second route along Marka Vovchka Street from the Philharmonic and the historic center, and restore the pedestrian link between Krymska and Hlavky Streets. This creates a loop around the entire site with access to Fedkovych Park.

The Site Today

At the start of our work, before proposing anything, we surveyed the grounds in detail. Some entrances are closed, overgrown trees hide the facades, paths have no surface, and there are no ramps. The fountains and greenhouses are out of service, the grotto and the well are locked, and the old survey marker cannot be reached. Old roof tiles are stockpiled in the park, there is a dump, and large areas are not used at all.

An Open Space for Everyone

We rethought the grounds as a whole. We remove the fences between parts of the ensemble, give the western lawn back to the arboretum, restore lost paths and add new ones, and open entrances from the city on several sides. We return the cour d'honneur to its historic appearance, and empty yards and buildings get new uses.

Every group finds its own place here. Residents can walk through the arboretum among rare plants and water. Students get an informal lawn. Visitors find information and services at the hub, and the curious can visit the museum. Lovers of historic beauty can see the cour d'honneur as it was meant to be, and city guests can climb to the lookout on the tower. Cafés and events give people a reason to stay longer. We keep everything new simple in form, so the ensemble and the park stay in the foreground.

The Cour d'Honneur

The Gate and the Alley

We open the main gate, and the cour d'honneur once again continues Universytetska Street. Visitors would be able to walk the central alley and sit beside it. On the loop where carriages once turned, we place circular benches, each with a view of a different part of the ensemble. Today visitors hurry along the narrow paths on either side of the alley. Once they can walk it and sit beside it, the court becomes a place where people stay and take in the ensemble.

The Parterre

We restore the parterre to its late 19th-century appearance: low clipped shapes with the facades visible above them again. The existing plants are not cut down. We prepare them for transplanting in advance and move them, and established plants of the right size take their place. This is slow work, so it is the last phase of the project. Along Kotsiubynskoho Street, we bring back the row of trees that shaped its historic profile.

The Balcony

The formal parterre was designed to be seen from above, and from the balcony of the Marble Hall its whole composition can be seen. Yet today visitors to the hall have no idea it exists. We open the balcony, with the view of the court the Metropolitans once had.

A Visitor Hub in the Stable Yard

The Gate on Kotsiubynskoho Street

The former stable yard holds the Residence's second gate, at the corner of Kotsiubynskoho and Hlavky Streets. A blank wall surrounds the yard, and some of the buildings around it stand empty. The wall made sense while there was a stable here. We open the gate onto Kotsiubynskoho Street and replace the wall with a fence that matches the one on the main facade, so the new square can be seen from the street.

The Buildings Around the Square

The idea of a hub here is not new. Back in the UNESCO nomination, the university planned to remove the Soviet-era service buildings from the yard and give the area over to visitor services, and ICOMOS experts noted that the site lacked restrooms, cafés, and shops. In 2020, the university itself began to change the yard: sheds from the 1970s were torn down, with plans for seating, a café, and a gift shop. We build on that direction.

We surveyed the ground floors of every building around the yard. The former stable would house a visitor center, a café, restrooms, shops, and small businesses. The lower floor of the Geography building, with its vaults and stained glass, is not used by the university today, and its entrance from the yard is bricked up. We propose reopening the entrance and placing a business school and coworking space here: the building would then work for the square, and the square would gain one more use — learning.

New from Old

New things are made from old ones. Old roof tiles stockpiled at the park entrance become a mosaic on the square, and beams from the dismantled stable become benches.

The Amphitheater and the Ramp

On the north side of the yard there is a change in grade and a wall. Today the only way up is by stairs. We cut a ramp through the old wall, giving the square a barrier-free link to the upper level, and turn the grade change into an amphitheater for performances and film nights. The square itself is on one level, with no obstacles for wheelchairs or strollers.

The Tower

The Lookout

The Residence tower was once open to the public: when we climbed to the top, we found inscriptions from 1968 and 1975 scratched into the walls. Today it is closed. Yet from the top you can see the whole city — Chernivtsi spread across its hills, with mountains on the horizon. We propose reopening the lookout.

The Courtyard by the Oak

The way to the tower starts in the courtyard by the old oak. Here visitors decide where to go next: up the tower, into the museum, or out to the park. From here, you see the church at the far end of the cour d'honneur, the visitor square below, and the tower above. We remove the temporary structure in the courtyard and open the courtyard into the park. Under the crown of the old oak, you can already feel the cool of the park that begins just around the corner.

The Arboretum

Collection and Topography

The arboretum takes up five of the site's eight hectares, and its foundation has survived: the hillside's complex topography, paths that climb and descend, a collection of rare plants, and a famous beech. The park is cared for, but maintaining such a large area and a complex collection of exotic plants is hard.

What Has Declined

Part of the park has fallen into decline. The greenhouses are out of service: there is no boiler house, and heating them is expensive. The fence has collapsed in places, part of the grounds has become a storage area for old roof tiles, and there is a dump. The fountains do not work, the lake has dried up, and some plants are sick.

Water, Grotto, and Well

We open the park to visitors, restore the fountains, the lake, the grotto, and the well, pave the paths that have no surface today, and bring back to life the places people now pass by.

It is cooler by the water, and in summer this is where people go: no other park in the surrounding neighborhoods has a pond. Fish would swim in the lake again and water lilies would bloom, the well would give drinking water, and the paths lead into the grotto and up to the old survey marker.

The Greenhouses

In the old greenhouses, where seedlings for the collection were once grown, we place a family café and a plant shop. They would stay warm in winter and in bad weather, and the terrace faces an old beech. The building next door offers space for classes and workshops. Visitors could take home a seedling from Hakman's collection, and anyone who wishes could sponsor the park's plants, making care for the collection a shared effort.

The Student Lawn

Shade for the Building

The lawn southwest of the buildings is the sunny side. There is no shade, the rooms overheat, and air conditioners cover the whole facade; in summer it gets very hot. On historic maps this area is part of the arboretum, and trees shaded the building. In the Soviet period, it became the military department's paved training ground; later the asphalt was removed and the area was seeded with grass. A brick wall still separates the lawn from the park.

We take down the wall and join the lawn to the park. Trees frame it again and shade the building, bringing back the original idea. The air-conditioning units come off the monument's facade.

A Lawn for Students

The center stays an open lawn — the kind of lawn found on campuses around the world that students asked for. Here you can hold a class outdoors, read, have a picnic, do yoga, play frisbee, or simply be alone. Seating runs along the edge, under the trees, so there is room for one person with a book and for an entire class. The lawn can also host concerts, exhibitions, markets, and outdoor films.

The Service Yards

Next to it are service yards with garages that are no longer used. We turn them into a sports court for students, and during events the yard supports the lawn, with room to set up a stage or park vehicles.

The Eugene Hakman Garden

An Extension of the Church

The courtyard by the Seminary Church is an extension of the church itself. After the service, worshippers come out here, and the rite can continue outdoors. Today the courtyard is overgrown with thujas that have long outgrown it, shade the building, and damage it, and the lawn by the doors is trampled.

A Two-Tier Garden

We keep the four healthiest and most valuable thujas, enlarge the paved area in front of the church, and add benches for older people. A holy water font with a cross becomes the center of the courtyard. Around it is a two-tier garden: shrubs and ferns along the edge, shade-tolerant grasses and flowers inside, and a path between them to walk alone. The flowering garden carries the church's interior outdoors: the noise of the city stays behind the buildings, it is quiet here, and time seems to slow down.

Why Hakman

We propose naming the garden after Eugene Hakman. The Residence began with his persistence, yet today nothing on the grounds recalls him — unlike the architect Hlávka, who has a bust.

Authenticity in the Details

The Residence is a UNESCO monument, and its value rests on genuine materials and details. Later layers — paint, additions, air conditioners — gradually erase Hlávka's design, so we restore the ensemble's original appearance in the small things.

Many stone elements are painted over today; we clean the paint off to bring back the natural material. The bust of Josef Hlávka was installed in 1937 with a Romanian-language inscription on its pedestal; the inscription was later destroyed, and we propose restoring it. The Stars of David on the main gate are hidden under plaster and a "University" sign — we bring them back too.

As by the lawn, trees shade the south facades again, and we remove the air-conditioning units, later additions, and light wells so that the facades read as a whole again.

The Residence at Night

In fact, our work began with lighting. The city wanted to light the Residence, and Expolight was developing a lighting concept for the buildings. It soon became clear that they had to be lit together with the landscape: it is a single work of architecture and landscape. But the landscape itself needed rethinking and restoration — and that is why the city invited us. Now we propose unified lighting for the facades, the roof, the trees, and the fountains, so that people can use the Residence in the evening and in winter, when it gets dark early.

What Comes Next

We presented the concept at the university to the leadership of the city and the university, and it was approved without objections. It is to be carried out in phases after the war ends.