Sloboda Project — a digital reconstruction of University Hill in Kharkiv

Sloboda Project is a digital reconstruction of Kharkiv’s University Hill — the historic centre of the city and the cultural heart of eastern Ukraine’s Sloboda region. Using archival photographs, historical maps, survey drawings, and 3D modelling, the project restores buildings that were destroyed or radically altered during the twentieth century — first by Soviet planners, then by the Second World War, and now, daily, by Russian missiles.

The site presents each building at its original location, with its full history: when it was built, how it was destroyed, and what replaced it. Landmarks documented include the Kharkiv Fortress and Pokrovskyy Monastery, Kharkiv University, Uspenskyy Cathedral, the Merchants’ Rows, the Alexander Chapel, the Grand Hotel, the Passage arcade, and the Skovorodynivskyy Bridge — the ensemble that defined pre-war Kharkiv and Sloboda Ukraine.

The project is an independent effort by Serge Vasil and Kharkiv-based architect Georgy, funded personally and published as an open, bilingual public archive. It is intended as a resource for historians, architects, and the broader Kharkiv community — a record of what stood and, if it comes to it, what could be rebuilt.