Grodno. The Department Store building (Sovetskaya St., 18).

In Grodno, on Sovetskaya pedestrian street, there is a modern department store building, which was built in 1959. Previously, there were several ancient buildings of different times and styles on this site.

On the site of the department store was the house of L. Volyansky.

The famous Europa Hotel in the city was located in this building. For some time, Karl Olesha, the father of the famous writer, satirist, playwright and poet Yuri Olesha (1899-1960), worked as a manager at this hotel. First of all, we have known this writer since childhood from his work "Three Fat Men".

The hotel was built in an eclectic style and was founded by Sima and Meer Kaplan. After the 1885 fire, the Kaplans sold the house to Ludwik Marian Barkovsky. And he sold the hotel in 1912 to Louise Volkovyska, who was a noble family.

The building was damaged during the war, but in 1947 it was planned to restore it and a project was made to restore it. However, the old building was demolished and a department store was erected.

In the 1970s, a new building was added to the old department store building. At the same time, several old buildings were demolished. There were Barkovsky houses with Levinson, Musovsky and Piletsky shops.

The 'Lux' cinema has been operating since 1911. It is one of the oldest cinemas founded by Romuald Zawistowski. 

During the time of the Polish state, the cinema became known as the 'Lira', and then the Apollo. After the coming of Soviet power in the period 1939 – 1941, it was called the "III International". After the war, it was called 'Spartak'.

In the period 1884-1900, Mordukh Shalamovich Papirny's photo workshop worked in Barkovsky's house. Then the workshop belonged to Krasik. Gordynsky's notary office and Trokenitsky's bookstore were located.