Architect, architect of the Kharkiv School District Board and Kharkiv University. Among his most famous works are: the university buildings and the complex of buildings on Universitetskiy Street, several utility buildings in Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Baroque, Neo-Empire and Modernist styles. He was a great master, deeply familiar with and perfectly mastered the architecture and building technologies of the time, having good artistic taste. The architect's works are characterised by urban tact and fit well into the urban space. The buildings erected according to his designs are among the best in Kharkiv's architectural heritage, and many of them have been recognised as architectural landmarks.

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Viktor Сhwalibóg was born on 8 July 1864 in Warsaw in the family of the nobleman Walerian Wieliczka and Julia Lucyja née Utz. His father ran a private medical practice after graduating from the Medical Faculty of Kharkov University.

Wiktor spent his childhood and youth in Warsaw, received his secondary education at the Warsaw Normal School, and having left his family home, went to St Petersburg to study architecture. It is not known who influenced the choice of the young man's future path in life, but it is clear that it was the choice of his heart.

From 1883 to 1888, he studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, where he met and befriended the future academic of architecture, a young man from Kharkov, Oleksiy Beketov (1862-1941). In accordance with the new system of awarding titles at the Academy, implemented in 1885, he was awarded the title of architectural artist and a gold medal for his thesis. The award allowed him to go on creative trips to Paris, Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Nice at the Academy's expense within a few years.

Upon graduation, as he was due according to the " Table of Rank ", he was awarded the title of collegiate secretary, civilian grade X. This meant that people of this rank could hold, admittedly low, but managerial positions. This allowed him, for some time after his return from abroad, to work as a contractor for the Building Department of the Eryvan Governorate Board in the Caucasus.

On 11 July 1894, according to a decree of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Viktor Velichko was appointed to the post of supernumerary technician of the Building Department of the Kharkov Governorate. On 5 August 1894 the newspaper "Yuzhnyi kraj" first mentioned him in its pages as a helper on the construction of a chapel at Borki station in Kharkiv gubernia erected to commemorate the accident of an imperial train on 17 October 1888.

An important aspect of his professional work was his duties as architect of the Board of the Kharkiv School District of the Ministry of Public Education, which included the Kharkiv, Voronezh, Kursk, Penza, Tambov gubernias and the Donskoye Military District. In 1907, Viktor Velichko was included in the cadre subordinated to the Ministry of Iron Railways, with an extension of the above-mentioned duties. From 1895 to 1917 he worked as an architect of the Kharkiv Imperial University.

Viktor Velichko's activities in the professional field were very diverse. It is noteworthy that, as an architect of the Kharkiv School District, he supervised the construction and reconstruction of numerous university and school buildings, including: the gymnasium in Belgorod, the university building in Krzemenchuk, in Kharkiv, among others, the gymnasium in the Kholodna Gora district, the 4th male gymnasium on Mariinskaya Street.

It should be mentioned here that Viktor Velichko was involved in the expansion of two Kharkiv universities: the Alexander III Technological Institute, and the Veterinary Institute. In July 1907 he drew up and submitted to the Ministry of Public Education a project with a cost estimate for the construction of a physiological laboratory of the Veterinary Institute, the construction of which began in August. On 22 October 1910, the laboratory was ceremonially opened, with the superintendent of the Kharkiv School District Pavel Sokolovsky, the director of the Veterinary Institute Georgi Gumilevsky, university professors, veterinary doctors and many other honoured guests present at the celebration. Interestingly, during the ceremony, a paper on the course of the laboratory's construction was read out by the Institute's professor Nikolai Ryazantsev, along with a demonstration of the diapositives, and Viktor Velichko, as the creator of the then modern teaching and research centre, was honoured for his work.

Holding the post of architect of Kharkiv University from 1899--1914, he built a number of buildings to house the following faculties: the Faculty of Biology at 8 Lazaretna Street - now the Nature Museum of Vasyl Karazin National University; the Faculty of Law at 27 Universitetskaya Street - one of the buildings of the then Ukrainian Engineering and Pedagogical Academy; the Faculty of Chemistry at Veterinary Square - the building was destroyed during the Second World War and later demolished. He also built the University Museum and Library at 23 University Street.

Between 1896 and 1898, Viktor Velichko contributed to the construction of a number of buildings of a medical nature that were significant for the city and its inhabitants in Kharkov. The architect was engaged to expand the premises of the psychiatric hospital known as Saburova dacha, one of the leading scientific centres for psychiatry in the Russian Empire, founded in the city in 1820. In mid-January 1898, he presented at a meeting of the Medical Council of the Gubernial Board a project for a new psychiatric hospital building, "which met all the requirements of psychiatric science". On completion, Saburova dacha became the largest psychiatric hospital in the Russian Empire.

On the site of the former Territorial House until 1 March 2022 was the Building of Councils - the power edifice of the Kharkiv region on the central city square - Liberty Square. On the morning of that day, the Russians fired two 'Kaliber' rockets and the building was so fatally damaged that it is not subject to restoration.

In 1899-1900, he was in charge of the construction of the Kharkov Public Library designed by his friend the architectural academician Oleksiy Beketov. Celebrations to mark the opening of the bookstore took place on 28 January 1901. In 1910, he carried out the construction of the building of the Saint Petersburg Branch of the International Bank at what was then 22 Mykolayevsky Square (Constitution Square).

In April 1898, Viktor Velichko, in order to implement the resolution of the Gubernial Territorial Assembly to study the issue of the construction of fireproof buildings, together with Zdzislav Kharmansky and a representative of the Gubernial Territorial Assembly, went on a delegation to Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Kherson and Tavriy Governorates.

In addition to his work as a designer of numerous buildings or as a construction manager of edifices designed according to other architects, he was actively involved in the local government and social life of Kharkiv. Between 1906 and 1917, as a respected expert in his field, he was elected as a councillor of the Kharkiv City Duma of all assemblies: 1906-1909, 1910-1913, 1914-1917. From 1906 to 1917 he was a member of the Kharkiv City Board and worked on various standing committees. From October 1906, he was a member of the committee on the buildings of the well-known merchant Vasyl Pashchenko-Triapkin, who, after his death in 1894, donated all large tenements and factories to Kharkiv.

Viktor Velichko enjoyed authority and, despite his work on the permanent committees of the City Hall, he was repeatedly appointed to various temporary committees. For example, in 1907, he worked on the commission for the reconstruction of Kharkiv Male Gymnasium No. 2, which Henryk Siemiradzki had at one time graduated from. On 4 February 1908, he was elected as a member of the building commission for the construction of the Kharkiv City Merchants' Bank, and his candidacy was soon approved by the Kharkiv governor. He worked there together with other Polish architects - Bolesław Michałowski and Zdzisław Charmański. In turn, in the summer of 1912, under the chairmanship of Zdzislaw Charmanski, he was a member of the competition committee for the designs of transformer boxes placed in the streets and squares of the city. He attended a number of meetings of the city's sewerage commission.

In the spring of 1913, together with the well-known artists Sergey Vasylkivskyi, Mykola Uvarovskyi, Mykhailo Berkos, he appeared as a member of the jury of the competition of designs for the tombstone of the eminent composer Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912), the creator of Ukrainian national opera.

His duties also included carrying out various expert reports on construction, determining the technical condition of buildings, including the pawnshop building under construction at the time, the new court building, and a school for the children of employees of the local university. In April 1911, by decree of the governor, he was appointed as a member of the commission that inspected the activities of the residential branch of the Urban Cultivation.

It is also noteworthy that on 12 and 13 April 1912, at a meeting of the City Duma, he and Zdzislav Kharmansky defended against critics the project of architect Konstantin Zhukov of the Kharkiv Art School made in the Ukrainian folk style. In October 1913, Viktor Velichko became chairman of the building commission for the construction of this school, and the first thing he did - he notified the City Duma of the inconsistency of the resolution to subsidise this project.

In Kharkov, Viktor Velichko was actively involved in the social life of the city. In 1905-1906 he worked as a member of the Kharkiv Artists' Association. From 1908 he was elected, among other things: as a member of the committee of the Society for Assistance to Needy University Students, the Board of Trustees of the Kharkiv Art School, the Board of Guardians of the city museum, he was also appointed as a member of the Board of Trustees of the City Craft School.

From 1909 to 1916 he was head of the architectural and construction branch of the Kharkiv Department of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, at whose meetings he repeatedly drew attention to the very acute housing shortage, the search for optimal ways to develop the city or the solution of urban problems, such as those related to the reconstruction of Kharkiv's water supply system.

In January 1910, Viktor Velichko visited a number of Western European cities - Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Nice, Milan, Riga - to familiarise himself with new trends in architecture, about which he gave a paper at the branch meeting on 24 January.

At this point it is worth mentioning an interesting fact that on 15 October 1910, at another meeting of the architectural and construction branch chaired by Viktor Velichko, a paper by the architect of the Kharkiv City Merchants' Bank, Alexander Rzepishevsky, was heard. It dealt with the details of the building's construction on a corporate basis. The builder presented drawings, plans, artistic wall decoration, and expressed his conviction in choosing reinforced concrete construction over brick masonry, once again stating the conveniences of reinforced concrete structures.

In his family life Wiktor Wieliczko enjoyed love and happiness. In 1895, he married the noblewoman Anna Ashcheulova (1874--1953). They had an only daughter, Valentina. Granddaughter Valeria Berlovskaya became a professor at Kharkiv Polytechnic, the former Technological Institute, several buildings of which were built by her grandfather. The Wieliczka family was wealthy and democratic at the same time. The couple maintained friendly relations with the families of architects Yuliyan Caune, Fedor Kondratiev, Volodymyr Nemykin, with whom they had family ties. In 1901, the architect built a two-storey building at the end of Sadovo-Kulikowska Street.

For his service he was honoured several times: in 1902 - with the Order of Saint Stanislav II degree, in 1911 - with the Order of Saint Equal to the Apostles of Prince Vladimir ІV degree; in March 1899 he received for seniority the rank of collegiate assessor - a title of VIII class, and in 1902 - the title of court councillor of VII class.

Viktor Velichko stayed in Kharkov after the occupation of Ukraine by the Bolsheviks in 1919, despite the fact that he could easily have been accused of collaborating with the imperial power in the city office and be referred to with the contemptuous title 'iz bywszych'. By contrast, he was involved by the new authorities in the expansion of the economic life of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, operating from 1919 to 1922 as a puppet state dependent on the Russian Federation. He worked at the Production and Technical Department of the Supreme Council of the National Economy of Ukraine, the leading economic management body for state industry, which existed from 1917 to 1932.

In 1923, the architect fell ill with typhoid fever during an epidemic that raged in the city and soon died. As Viktor Wieliczko was a Catholic, he was buried in the Lutheran cemetery on Puszynska Street.

What kind of person Wiktor Wieliczko was can be found out from a unique interview given by his granddaughter, Waleria Berłowska, who unfortunately did not know her grandfather personally. However, from the words of her mother and grandmother, from the traditions of the family home and from her grandfather's belongings, she has created for herself a famous image of him. In her stories we are confronted with a warm, kind and modest man, in love with his wife, passionate about his work, appreciative of the presence of relatives and friends, without any conceit or pride. Let us give the floor to the granddaughter of the famous architect: "Grandfather was delighted with playing the piano. Under his adored 'Moonlight Sonata' by Beethoven, my mother usually fell asleep when she was a child. The family has preserved two cup holders with a monogram - the letter 'W' - from which Wieliczko drank tea. Unfortunately, one of them was exchanged for bread during the Second World War. A beautiful candlestick is preserved in memory of my grandfather."

Wiktor Wieliczko's activity as an architect was very diverse, as well as varied in the style of his works. At the end of the 19th century, he worked in the Pseudo-Renaissance, Pseudo-Baroque, Pseudo-Russian and Pseudo-Byzantine stylistic direction. The residential buildings are characterised by sophisticated orderly forms and a rich plasticity of decoration.

Among the architect's best-known works are the university buildings in Kharkiv, especially the complex of buildings on University Street. In presenting the vision of Kharkiv's building work, it is worth giving voice to the architect's contemporaries. On 23 September 1903, the newspaper Yuzhnyi kraj noted in admiration: "Recently our University Hill (University Hill) has received attention, and it will look better than before. It will soon be adorned with a charming, huge building that will house archaeological, numismatic and fine arts museums. The design of this building has already been prepared by university architect V.V. Velichko'.

The three new university buildings and the library (University Street, 23), the Archives of the Kharkiv Historical and Philological Society (University Street, 21) and the Law Faculty building (University Street, 27) were built between 1903 and 1909.

At the end of the 1890s, Viktor Wieliczko obtained permission to run his private practice as an architect, so he carried out a number of works commissioned by private individuals and built dozens of villas, including his own at 31 Sadowo-Kulikowska Street (Darwin Street) and the tenement houses popular at the time.

His friend Oleksiy Beketov also built his flat not far from Velikaya's villa. Tenements on Alchevskaya Street, 31, a residential house (46 Myronosycka Street), a villa (19 Dmytrovskaya Street) and others were built in a very interesting architectural solution.

The most famous villa of his authorship is the so-called Rice Villa (1911--1912), built in the Neo-Renaissance style. The villa was commissioned from the architect by one of the city's wealthiest citizens, a merchant of the second guild, City Duma councillor Pavel Ryzhov as a birthday present for his wife Valeria Ryzhova. Built in a year, the house is a great achievement for the architect, as it is a model of the perfect use of the means of architecture, construction technique and artistic taste of the time. On the ground floor there are two huge halls, decorated with large coloured panels on canvas, in the form of tapestries, executed with oil paint using the "dry brush" technique, in the spirit of 17th century French art. Since 1934, the building has housed the Architect's Building - the headquarters of the Kharkiv regional organisation of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine.

At the end of February 1909, according to the newspaper Yuzhnyi Krai, the architect was commissioned to make a sketch plan and design for the façade of the building of the Kharkiv Branch of the St Petersburg International Bank, which was accepted by the bank's board of directors. By the end of 1910, this building had been constructed at what was then 22 Mykolayiv Square (Constitution Square). It was built next to the very monumental banking buildings created by Oleksiy Beketov. Its three-storey building in the French Renaissance style is decidedly smaller, modestly fitting into its surroundings without breaking out of them. The interiors are designed in the Empire style with particular splendour and opulence, especially the circular lobbies, covered with vaulted ceilings of magnificent decoration and a beautiful white marble staircase.

In 1913, he added a house church to the School for visually impaired children. The small pseudo-Russian-style church, located at 55 Sumska Street, has unfortunately not survived to this day.

In 1897, together with the engineer Vysyl Golosniak, they built an Orthodox church at the station of the Kursko-Charkov-Azovsk Slavyansk railway. During the ongoing war, St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral Cathedral, a monument of local architecture in the city of Slavyansk, is in the zone of rocket attacks by the Russian army.

In 1895-1896, Viktor Velichko built a chapel near Borki station in Kharkiv Governorate to commemorate the accident of an imperial train on 17 October 1888. Here it is worth mentioning that on 16 March 1912, a ceremony was held at Borki station with the participation of Emperor Nikolai II, at which Viktor Velichko received a golden cigarette case from the monarch's hand for his work. During the Second World War, his wife sold this gift to buy food for the family.

In his architectural work, Viktor Wieliczko was a great master, he knew and mastered perfectly the technique of the architecture and construction details of the time, and had good artistic taste. His work is characterised by urban tact, thanks to which he perfectly integrated his works into the urban space. The buildings built by him are among the best in the surviving architectural heritage of the 20th century in Kharkiv and undoubtedly deserve careful preservation and further study.

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Kharkiv, where the architect Viktor Velichko lived for 29 years, became for him a place where his talent flourished, as well as a "space of comfort" for family life. Good and modest, generous and warm-hearted, reliable at work and an unsurpassed professional in his profession, in love with his wife, art and music - this is how the famous architect, whose buildings still adorn the city, remained in the memory of his friends and colleagues.