In 1901-1903 popular and spectacular Kiev architect Vladislav Gorodezhkii put up a private house that is known as a House with Chimeras. Inside and outside the building is decorated with quaint and sometimes even freakish sculptures, including maidens on fantastic fishes, elephants, rhinoceroses, antelopes, frogs, lizards, eagles, snakes and even a little crocodile. The sculptures are made of cement, and there is a legend saying that architect Gorodezhkii together with companies producing cement intended to construct a house that would be kind of advertisement for new building material. Modern historians consider this legend to be close to reality, because Gorodezhkii was one of the owners of cement producing plants. So orders for the materials that followed after the House with Chimeras construction would be very profitable for him.

Situated on No. 10, Bankova Street, across from the President of Ukraine's office in the historic Lypky neighborhood, the building has been used since 2005 as a presidential residence for official and diplomatic ceremonies.

The building was designed in the Art Nouveau style, which was at that time a relatively new style and featured flowing, curvilinear designs often incorporating floral and other plant-inspired motifs. Gorodetsky featured such motifs in the building's exterior decor in the forms of mythical creatures and big-game animals. His work on the House with Chimaeras has earned him the nickname of the Gaudí of Kiev.

Due to the steep slope on which the building is situated, it had to be specially designed out of concrete to fit into its foundations correctly. From the front, the building appears to have only three floors. However, from the rear, all of its six floors can be seen. One part of the building's foundation was made of concrete piles, and the other as a continuous foundation. Usually, these two approaches do not mix well but Gorodetsky somehow succeeded in overcoming this technical problem.

The Italian sculptor Emilio Sala was responsible for both the internal and external sculptural decorations, such as mermaids, dolphins, and frogs on the roof of the building, sinking ships and hunting trophies on the exterior walls, and exuberant interior decorations, such as grand stairways and chandeliers depicting huge catfish strangled in the stems of lotus flowers. The exterior sculptures created by Sala were made out of cement. Production of the cement was by the «For» company of which Gorodetsky was the co-director. Cement was used exclusively as the primary building material by the request of the company's head director, Richter. At the time of the building's construction, cement was not popular as a building material, so its use was employed as publicity for both the house and the building material.

Gorodetsky built the House with Chimeras for his family. He was very ambitious architect and did not want any other building to stand next to his house, so he decided to purchase two plots of land. One plot was intended for the house and another one was empty, but still the architect reached his goal, as nobody could buy that land and put up a building there. Nowadays this plot of land is occupied by stairs leading to Ivan Franko Theater.

Immediately after the construction works of the House with Chimeras were completed, it became surrounded with numerous legends. One of them says that the architect planned to construct the house after the death of his daughter who drowned in Dnepr or committed suicide because of unrequited love. According to this legend, the architect went crazy and decided to decorate the house with Dnepr inhabitants, such as fishes and weird maidens, who, as he thought, surrounded his daughter after her tragic death.

Another legend is not so ominous. It explains a very unprofitable location of the House with Chimeras from strategical point of view. The thing is that the house is situated on steep slope of Pecherskie Hills, which made the building construction a real challenge. Gorodetsky, who was famous for his adventurism, betted with his friends architects that he would complete such a difficult task. He really managed to put up the House on the edge of dangerous precipice and won the bet. However, modern architects confirm that the House with Chimeras is in poor condition today, as its facade is covered with cracks, and according to the results of specialists' investigation works, the whole building sinks down the slope. Still once there was an idea to make the House with Chimeras the new residence of Ukrainian President. His present residence is located in front of the Gorodetsky's house. The question of the residence transformation is still being discussed, but it is obvious that the House with Chimeras needs a thorough repair.

There is one more legend about the house. It says that Gorodetsky, who was a talented architect and passionate hunter, also was a sorcerer. Some people believe that he put a paternoster on his house, so that only his descendants could happily live in the House with Chimeras. According to the legend, the house will bring misfortune to any stranger who would try to live in it.