Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine. It is located in
the middle course of the Dnieper, in the northern Dnipro region.
Political, socio-economic, transport, educational-scientific,
historical, cultural and spiritual center of Ukraine. In the system
of administrative and territorial organization of Ukraine, Kyiv has
a special status defined by the Constitution and is not part of any
oblast, although it is the administrative center of Kyiv oblast.
Location of central authorities of Ukraine, foreign missions,
headquarters of most enterprises and public associations operating
in Ukraine.
According to the "Tale of Temporal Years", Kyiv
was founded by Prince Kiy of Polanyi with his brothers Shchek and
Khoryv and sister Lybidya. According to archaeological data and
written sources, the beginning of continuous development of Kyiv
dates back to the 2nd half of the 5th century. — the first half of
the 6th century; Zamkova Mountain was the center of Kyiv's
expansion. It was the capital of Polyana, Rus, the Principality of
Kyiv, the Grand Duchy of Rus, the Ukrainian People's Republic, the
Ukrainian State, and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was
also the administrative center of the Lithuanian-Polish voivodship
of the same name, a Cossack regiment, a Russian province, a Soviet
district, a German general district, and a Soviet region.
One
of the oldest historical centers of Eastern Europe and Christianity
— Hagia Sophia and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra are included in the
UNESCO World Heritage List.
Connection
Payphones
In Kyiv, payphone communications are functioning and the
remaining payphones in large numbers on the streets in all districts, in
Ukrtelecom branches, hospitals and some government agencies work free of
charge when calling to city numbers.
Mobile operators
Kyivstar
Vodafone (MTS)
life
InterTeleCom
Ukrtelecom (Utel)
Streets and squares
Khreshchatyk (Ukrainian Khreschatyk) ( Kiev
Metro Line 1 Khreschatyk, Kiev Metro Line 2 Maidan Nezalezhnosti). It is
the central street of the city, the business center of the capital of
Ukraine is concentrated around it. Khreshchatyk also passes through the
Pechersk districts of the city, on the one hand the street is bounded by
European Square, on the other it goes to Bessarabska Square.
Andreevsky descent (Ukrainian Andriivsky uzviz, in ancient times -
Borichev vzvoz) ( Kiev Metro Line 2 Kontraktova Square). One of the
ancient ways connecting the Upper City, its central part, with the
trading Podil. On the street there is St. Andrew's Church, the Museum of
One Street, the Museum of the writer Mikhail Bulgakov (House of the
Turbins), the memorial house-museum of Kavaleridze. Now Andreevsky Spusk
is a street-museum, one of the main tourist attractions of the Ukrainian
capital. Many famous figures of science and culture lived and worked
here: scientists, writers, composers, artists, sculptors. Holidays, art
exhibitions, art festivals are held on the street. People come here to
listen to street musicians and watch a costume performance in the open
air. The buildings along the street house art galleries, exhibitions,
theaters and art workshops. Numerous souvenir shops are located under
the open sky.
Independence Square (ukr. Maidan Nezalezhnosti) ( Kiev
Metro Line 2 Maidan Nezalezhnosti). The main square of Kyiv.
Castle
Hill (Khorivitsa, Kiselevka, Florovskaya or Frolovskaya Mountain).
Wikidata element A historical hill in the center of Kyiv, located
between Starokievskaya Gora, Shchekavitsa and the Gonchary-Kozhemyaki
tract on one side and Kyiv Podil on the other. In the 9th-10th
centuries, a suburban princely palace was located here. In the 1370-80s,
when Podol became the center of Kyiv, a wooden castle of the Lithuanian
governor was built on the Castle Hill. And already in 1482, during the
invasion of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray, the castle was burned down,
and around 1532-1545 it was restored and rebuilt. The castle had 15
combat four-tiered towers. The territory of the castle extended further
than the Castle Hill - it connected with the fortifications on Mount
Uzdykhalnitsa (Andreevskaya). In 1651, Ukrainian rebel Cossacks burned
down the castle, where Polish invaders were hiding at that time. Since
then, the mountain has been empty, there were only vegetable gardens and
the Podolsky cemetery on it.
Buildings and constructions
Golden Gates ( Kiev Metro Line 3 Golden Gates). They were built by
the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise in the 11th century as a fortified
main entrance to Kyiv, while Kyiv actively competed with Constantinople
in beauty and wealth, and the Golden Gates of Kyiv became a kind of
analogue of the golden gates of Constantinople. The image of the Golden
Gates of Kyiv is preserved on the seal of Anna, Queen of France and
daughter of Yaroslav the Wise. Also, one of the national Polish shrines
- the ritual sword Shcherbets was damaged by King Boleslav on the Kyiv
Golden Gate. During the siege of Kyiv by Khan Batu, the Mongols failed
to destroy the Golden Gate and the wall around them, so the vices (wall
catapults) were moved to the Lyadsky Gate, which is located in the area
of modern Independence Square, and there they have already achieved
success.
House with Chimeras (House of Gorodetsky) , st. Bankova, 10.
The building was built at the beginning of the 20th century by the
famous architect, Pole by origin Vladislav Gorodetsky. The house is one
of the most unusual mansions in Ukraine and the entire CIS. Legends say
that the architect created this gloomy crypt in memory of his daughter,
after she drowned herself in the Dnieper because of unhappy love.
According to another version, Gorodetsky made a bet on the construction
of a house in difficult geological conditions with other architects. A
strictly practical motivation for construction can also be considered -
an apartment building. This is the first house built in Kyiv with
cement. That is, at that time - a grandiose advertising campaign for the
cement industrialist Richter. In the appearance of the building and its
interior, the design of a large number of sculptures attracts attention.
Mermaids, dolphins and frogs are located on the roof of the building; on
the corners, near storm drains, there are depictions of maidens saddled
with fabulous fish; above the cornices, in the upper parts of the
columns, in the arches, just in the walls - a real zoo: elephants,
rhinos, antelopes, frogs, lizards, eagles, snakes, a small crocodile, a
giant lamp in the stairway, depicting a huge catfish in lotus stems,
stucco on ceiling in the form of an octopus, sinking ships, horns and
skulls. The house is also unique in that on the one side (Bankovaya
street) the house has only three floors, and on the side of Franco
Square - as many as six. Gorodetsky built a house not only for himself,
but also as an apartment building, on each floor there was a large
separate apartment, and on the first - two small ones. After the
revolution and before the Great Patriotic War, the house was a communal
apartment, then a hospital of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Ukraine. In 2003-2004, the House with Chimeras was restored.
The interior of the building was completely restored, including parquet
flooring and painting. After the restoration, the "House with Chimeras"
became the Small Residence of the President of Ukraine. Foreign
delegations are received here. This house is mentioned in Vladimir
Vasiliev's book "The Face of the Black Palmyra" as the office of the Day
Watch of Ukraine.
Mariinsky Palace. Wikidata element The residence of
the President of Ukraine, located in the Mariinsky Park. It stands out
for its ancient artsy architecture. A 15-minute walk through the
Mariinsky Park from Kiev Metro Line 1 Arsenalna.
Sophia Cathedral, st. Volodymyrska, 24 ( Kiev Metro Line 2
Maidan Nezalezhnosti). ☎ +38 (044) 279-22-56; 278-76-62. Museum-reserve,
included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Inside the Cathedral, many
ancient frescoes and mosaics have been preserved, including the famous
mosaic of Our Lady of Oranta.
Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, st. Lavrska, 15
( Kiev Metro Line 1 Arsenalna). ☎ +38 (044) 255 1105. One of the first
monasteries in Russia. Founded in 1051 under Yaroslav the Wise by monk
Anthony, originally from Lubech. Included in the UNESCO World Heritage
List. Temples and buildings on the territory of the Lavra: Over the gate
(above the holy gates of the Lavra) temple in the name of the
Life-Giving Trinity is the oldest surviving one; Annozachatievskaya
Church; Big Lavra bell tower; Belfry in the Near Caves; Belfry in the
Far Caves; Holy Cross Church; Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin; Refectory Church of Saints Anthony and Theodosius; Trinity Gate
Church (Holy Gates); Church of All the Reverend Fathers of the Caves;
Church "Life-Giving Spring"; Church of All Saints; Church and former
hospital chambers of the Nikolsky Monastery; Church of the Nativity of
the Blessed Virgin; Church of the Savior on Berestovo; Church of
Christ's Resurrection. On the territory of the Lavra there are also:
Tower of Ivan Kushnik; Fraternal corps; Former cells of cathedral
elders; Former house of the governor of the Lavra; Former economic
building; Gallery leading to the Near Caves; Gallery leading to the Far
Caves; Debosketovskaya (support) wall; Western Economic Gate; The
building of the former metropolitan chambers; Kyiv Theological Seminary
and Academy; Kiev Regional School of Culture; Kovnirovsky building (the
building of the former bakery and bookstore); Well of St. Anthony; The
well of St. Theodosius; Building of the former printing house; Fortress
walls; Paint tower; Metropolis; Onufrievskaya tower; Monument to Nestor
the Chronicler; Clock tower; Chapel; South gate.
St. Andrew's
Church Wikidata item, Andreevsky Spusk, 23 ( Kiev Metro Line 2 Maidan
Nezalezhnosti, Kiev Metro Line 2 Postal Square and further on the Kiev
funicular). Built in the Baroque style by architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli
in 1754.
Mikhailovsky Golden-Domed Monastery, st.
Trekhsvyatitelskaya, 6 ( Kiev Metro Line 2 Maidan Nezalezhnosti). One of
the oldest monasteries in Kyiv. It includes the cathedral church in
honor of the Archangel Michael in the Ukrainian Baroque style, destroyed
in the 1930s and rebuilt in the mid-1990s, as well as the refectory with
the Church of St. John the Evangelist (1713) and the bell tower
(1716-1719). It is assumed that St. Michael's Cathedral was the first
temple with a gilded top, from where this peculiar tradition came from
in Russia.
Vydubitsky monastery , st. Vydubitskaya, 40 (1.5 km north
from Kiev Metro Line 3 Vidubychy). ✉ ☎ +38 (044) 285-35-81. Ancient
monastery in Kyiv. The monastery was founded between 1070 and 1077 by
Vsevolod Yaroslavich, son of Yaroslav the Wise. It was a family
monastery of the son of Vsevolod, Vladimir Monomakh and his descendants.
Church of the Tithes, st. Vladimirskaya, 2. ✉ ☎ +38 (044) 361-78-56. The
first stone church of Kievan Rus, of which only the foundations have
survived.
St. Volodymyr's Cathedral Wikidata item, Taras Shevchenko
Boulevard, 20 ( Kiev Metro Line 1 Universitet). ✉ The main temple of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
Dmitrievskaya
(Konstantin-Eleninskaya) Church (Church of St. Demetrius of Rostov and
Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena (on Podil)) , st.
Shchekavitskaya, 6/8 ( Kiev Metro Line 2 Kontraktova Square).
Dmitrievskaya (Konstantin-Eleninskaya) Church is one of the first works
of the outstanding Ukrainian architect Ivan Grigorievich
Grigorovich-Barsky. Unfortunately, only the refectory survived from this
church, which was also rebuilt in the 19th century. There are plans to
complete the dome to give the church a finished look.
Archangel-Mikhailovsky Zverinets monastery, st. Michurina 20, 22, 23
(From the railway station by trolley bus number 14, stop). ☎ +38 (044)
285-24-40. The caves of the monastery are a monument of archeology of
national importance. At present, the monks of the Ioninsky Monastery
have resumed divine services in the caves. For worship, a cave church in
the name of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael in Khonekh is used.
According to one version, the legendary "Library of Yaroslav the Wise"
could be stored in the caves of the skete.
St. Cyril's
Church Wikidata element, st. Olena Telyga, 12 ( Kiev Metro Line 3.svg
Dorohozhichі). ☎ +38 (044) 468-11-26; 417-22-68. A six-pillared Orthodox
church, one of the oldest in the city. The uniqueness of this temple
lies in its authenticity. After St. Sophia Cathedral, this is the second
temple in Kyiv, preserved from the time of Ancient Russia in original
walls and, in addition, preserved ancient Russian painting. It was built
after the ascension to the Kyiv throne in 1139 of the Chernigov prince
Vsevolod Olgovich in the village of Dorohozhychi, from where, among
other things, the road to Chernigov began. It was the main cathedral of
the Kirillovsky Monastery, apparently designed to become the Olgov
family burial vault.
St. Cyril's Church, st. Olena Telyhy, 12 ( Kiev Metro Line 3
Dorohozhychi). ☎ +38 (044) 468-11-26; 417-22-68. A six-pillared Orthodox
church, one of the oldest in the city. The uniqueness of this temple
lies in its authenticity. After St. Sophia Cathedral, this is the second
temple in Kyiv, preserved from the time of Ancient Russia in original
walls and, in addition, preserved ancient Russian painting. It was built
after the ascension to the Kyiv throne in 1139 of the Chernigov prince
Vsevolod Olgovich in the village of Dorohozhychi, from where, among
other things, the road to Chernigov began. It was the main cathedral of
the Kirillovsky Monastery, apparently designed to become the Olgovich
family burial vault. Here, in 1194, the prince of Kyiv Svyatoslav
Vsevolodovich, the hero of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, was buried.
St. Panteleimon Monastery, st. Akademika Lebedeva, 19 (travel from Kiev
Metro Line 2 Libidska: by trolleybus No. 11, fixed-route taxis No. 172,
159 (to the Zabolotny stop, then on foot)). ☎ +38 (044) 522-50-73. The
main temple of the female St. Panteleimon Monastery, St. Panteleimon
Cathedral, was built in 1905-1912 according to the project of the
architect E.F. Ermakov in Feofaniya (a southern suburb of Kyiv) on the
territory of the male monastery assigned to the Kiev-Mikhailovsky
Golden-Domed Monastery.
Holy Trinity Ioninsky Monastery (Ioninsky
Monastery, Ionovsky Monastery) , st. Timiryazevskaya, 1 (From the
railway station to the monastery there is a trolleybus and a fixed-route
taxi No. 14 to the final stop "Botanical Garden". You can also take them
to Kiev Metro Line 3 Pecherskaya (bus No. 62 from Kiev Metro Line 3
Pecherskaya to the final stop "Botanical Garden")). ✉ ☎ +38 (044)
284-95-93. Orthodox male monastery in Kyiv. Located on the Menagerie, it
was founded in the 1860s by the archimandrite of the Vydubitsky
monastery, Jonah.
Cathedral of Saint Alexander, st. Kostelnaya, 17
( Kiev Metro Line 2 Maidan Nezalezhnosti). ☎ +38 (044) 279-73-09. Roman
Catholic Cathedral in Kyiv. Accommodates about two thousand
parishioners. The church is the oldest Catholic shrine in Kyiv, it was
built from 1817 to 1842.
Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage, st. Berry,
58A. ☎ +380 (67) 446-92-71. Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage is a parish
of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is located in the southern part
of Kyiv on the site of a monastery destroyed in Soviet times. At
present, a temple has been built in honor of St. Theophilus, a fraternal
building, a holy spring and an icon shop. It is planned to restore the
Transfiguration Cathedral and other infrastructure of the monastery.
Church of St. Nicholas Pritiska (Church of St. Nicholas Pritiska, Church
of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Pritisk), st. Horiva, 5a ( Kiev Metro
Line 2 Kontraktova Square, at the intersection of Horiva and G. Livera
streets). The Church of Nikola Pritiska was built in 1631 (according to
other sources - at the end of the 17th century) at the expense of the
Kyiv tradesman Peter (nicknamed the Iron Grosh) on the site of the
wooden church of the same name from the middle of the 16th century and
is one of the most ancient monuments preserved in Podil. The church was
built in the Ukrainian baroque style.
Church of St. Nicholas on
Askold's grave , Dneprovsky Spusk ( Kiev Metro Line 1 Arsenalna). Church
of the work of Andrey Melensky in Kyiv, in the tract Askold's grave. The
modern temple was built in 1809, however, religious buildings have
existed on this site since the 11th century, and from the very beginning
they all bore the name of St. Nicholas.
St. Elias Church (Church of
Elijah the Prophet), st. Pochaininskaya, 2. ☎ +38 (044) 425-23-71,
425-23-68. The first Orthodox church in Kievan Rus. Decorated Ilyinsky
temple in compliance with the canons of the academic school. There are
about 40 scenes on the walls, the theme of which is dominated by the
biography of the prophet Elijah. In the painting of the altar, the
central theme is the Eucharist. On the walls of the St. John the Baptist
chapel there are many ancient icons. St. Elijah's Church is a place of
special pilgrimage for the people of Kiev.
Vvedensky Monastery, st.
Moscow, 42. The Vvedensky Monastery was founded in 1996. Prior to that,
since 1878, a women's community was located on its territory, the main
function of which was social service.
Goloseevskaya Hermitage (Holy
Intercession Monastery) , st. Colonel Zatevakhin, 14. ☎ +38 (098)
460-88-90. Now it is a skete of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, located in the
forest on the southern outskirts of Kyiv. It was founded at the
beginning of the 17th century by Metropolitan Peter Mohyla, he also
built the first church here in the name of John the New. Hermitage
became the summer residence of the Kyiv Metropolitans - the holy
archimandrites of the Lavra.
Holy Trinity Kitaevsky Monastery
(Kitaevskaya Hermitage), st. Kitaevskaya, 15. ☎ +38 (044) 527 9779.
First mentioned in 1716. It operated until the 1920s, after which it was
closed and partially destroyed. In the 1990s, it was restored and
resumed its work. After archaeological research in 1993-94, caves and
the cave church of St. Dositheus.
Intercession Monastery, Bekhterevsky lane, 15. Founded by Grand
Duchess Alexandra Petrovna Romanova in 1889. In the 1920s, the domes of
the cathedral were destroyed, and recreated already in the 1990s.
Florovsky monastery, st. Florovskaya, 6/8. ☎ +380 (44) 4250181, +380
(44) 4255462. Convent founded presumably at the beginning of the 16th
century.
Monuments
Monument-sculpture "Motherland". Ascent is
possible subject to good weather Mon-Fri 10:00 - 17:30, Sat-Sun 10:00 -
18:30. Ascent to the observation deck at the foot of the sculpture to a
height of 31 m - 50 UAH. Climbing to the top of the statue 200 UAH,
provides for physical activity, the obligatory presence of sports shoes
and comfortable clothes. Located on the territory of the Museum of the
History of Ukraine in World War II. The height of the sculpture from the
pedestal to the tip of the sword is 62 meters.
Monument to Mikhail
Bulgakov, Andreevsky Spusk, 13 (near the House of Turbins). Opened in
2007. Sculptor N. Rapay
Monument to military pilots (Not far from the
Glory Park on the Dnieper Spusk). The squadron commander, Captain
Aleksey Titarenko ("Maestro") from the movie "Only Old Men Go to Battle"
is depicted.
Monument to Panikovsky. The bronze pedestal, erected in
1998, is located not far from the corner of Khreshchatyk and Prorizna,
where the hero of the novel earned a living by pickpocketing before the
revolution.
Sculpture "Pronya Prokopovna and Golokhvastov",
Andreevsky Spusk, 23. Built in 1999 according to the project of
architect V. Skulsky and sculptors V. Shchur and V. Sivko.
Arch of
Friendship of Peoples.
Parks
Mariinsky Park ( Kiev Metro Line
1 Arsenalna). An excellent park with panoramic views from the city
center to the Left Bank and the Dnieper. It was founded in 1874
according to the project of the gardener A. G. Nedzelsky on the site of
the palace square and the military parade ground.
Pechersk Landscape
Park ( Kiev Metro Line 1 Arsenalna). The park, on the territory of which
there is a museum and a memorial complex of the Second World War (Great
Patriotic War).
Fomin Botanical Park ( Kiev Metro Line)
University). Is free. A small botanical park in the city center, where
you can find numerous rare plants. Also on its territory are greenhouses
with tropical plants. It was founded in 1839 in a wasteland, in deep
ravines and on hills not far from Kyiv University. You can visit several
paid excursions: excursion "Gymnosperms (Coniferous) plants of open
ground", evening excursion in the greenhouse complex "aquatic and
coastal plants", excursion along the route "Open ground of the research
unit" (only in summer), excursion to the greenhouse complex " succulents
and cacti", an excursion to the greenhouse complex "tropical and
subtropical plants".
National Botanical Garden named after N. N.
Grishko of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Central
Botanical Garden), st. Timiryazevskaya, 1 ( Kiev Metro Line 3 Friendship
of Peoples). ✉ ☎ +38 044 285 42 28. 08:00-21:00. 40 UAH for adults, 20
UAH for children of school age, free of charge for children under 7
years old, pensioners and other preferential categories. The second
botanical garden in the city is known for the Vydubytsky monastery,
located nearby, for beautiful views of the Dnieper and lilacs, which the
townspeople admire in the spring when they bloom.
Askold's Grave Park
( Kiev Metro Line 1 Arsenalna). The park adjoins the Park of Eternal
Glory. On its territory, according to legend, the Kyiv ruler Askold was
buried, and now the Askold's Grave monument has been erected.
Avodnitsky Park ( Kiev Metro Line 3 Friendship of Peoples - 20 minutes
walk). The park is located on the embankment of the Dnieper, there is a
monument to the founders of the city - the princes Kyi, Shchek, Khoriv,
as well as their sister Lybid.
The tract Gonchary-Kozhemyaki
( Kiev Metro Line 3 Golden Gates). Picturesque area with steep hills,
located in the city center. In 1987, the state historical and
architectural reserve "Ancient Kyiv" was created on its territory,
including almost the entire Old Podil. However, this idea was not
translated into reality and in the 2000s a microdistrict with new
low-rise buildings was built here.
Park named after Taras Shevchenko.
This small park is located in front of the main building of the Taras
Shevchenko University and near the teacher's house. The park has a
monument to Shevchenko, a large, new playground. Kiev Metro Line 2. Lev
Tolstoy Square is closer to the park than Kiev Metro Line 1
Universitet.
National Natural Park "Goloseevsky", st. Generala
Rodimtseva, 6-A (a 5-minute walk from Kiev Metro Line 2 Golosivska). ☎
+380 (44) 2210272. The largest park in the city, on the territory of
which exhibition centers and institutes are located. The park covers an
area of several hectares, from the central districts to the
southernmost outskirts of the city. The park has both civilized places
and completely wild and pristine mixed forests.
Lysaya Gora (Lisa Gora) (3 km south of Kiev Metro Line 2 Libidska).
Until 1980, a military unit was located here, and in the 19th century,
the Lysogorsky Fort (where political criminals were shot after the
revolution), so now the relief is replete with man-made ramparts,
tunnels, wells and other structures. Since earlier most of it was a
restricted area, the flora and fauna of Bald Mountain is very diverse,
there are Red Book species. White and red antennas are visible from
afar, jamming enemy radio signals. Lysaya Gora is a great place for
walking and outdoor activities. In the central part there is a long
slope called Slavanka, where people ski in winter. To the south of
Slavanka there are wooden idols, which are regularly sacrificed by local
pagans. In the central part, on a clearing with a large stone,
Tolkinists sometimes hold demonstration tournaments. Almost half of the
territory is forested. It is located between the Strategic Highway, the
second largest Lybid river and Lysogorskaya street. Adjacent to the
Institute of Hydrometeorology.
Memorial complex Babiy Yar, st.
Petropavlovskaya, 15 ( Kiev Metro Line 3 Dorohozhychi). There are paid
tours. Tragic events unfolded on the territory of today's park during
the Great Patriotic War. Here the Nazis shot hundreds of thousands of
Jews, prisoners and townspeople. There is a memorial to the victims in
the park, and the Kyiv television tower is also nearby.
Hydropark ( Kiev Metro Line 1 Hydropark). The park covers the entire
territory of the Venetian Island - the park is completely surrounded by
the waters of the Dnieper River. The park has many equipped and wild
beaches, rental of gazebos in the forest on the banks of the Dnieper,
rental of boats and catamarans, table and regular tennis, paintball,
football, volleyball, beach rugby, bungee jumping, water attractions,
restaurants, casinos, discos. The #Park "Kyiv in miniature" is located
on the territory. The park is connected with the city by the Metro
bridge.
One Street Museum, Andreevsky Spusk, 2-B. ✉ ☎ +38 (044) 425-03-98,
fax: +38 (044) 425-52-62. Tue-Sun, 12.00–18.00. 50 UAH, the cost of the
tour in Ukrainian or Russian is 100 UAH. Dedicated to the history of
Andreevsky Spusk, one of the oldest streets in Kyiv, connecting the
Upper Town with the Lower Town - Podil. The concept of the museum is
based on the desire of its creators to bring the history of Andreevsky
Spusk and Kyiv as close as possible to the individual, without a pompous
presentation of historical processes, without national, religious,
cultural and political bias. The museum collects a collection of urban
costumes and accessories (1830-1930s), part of which was presented at
the exhibition "Kyiv dandies and fashionistas". He has one of the
richest collections of death masks in the world, collected on his own.
This collection is dedicated to the project Virtual Museum of the death
mask.
House of the Turbins (Literary-Memorial House-Museum of M.
Bulgakov), Andreevsky Spusk, 13. ☎ +38 (044) 425-31-88. Thu-Tue 10:00 -
18:00, ticket office closes 1 hour earlier. Excursion for a group of 10
people 100 UAH. The number of visitors is limited, so before visiting
the museum it is better to call to make an appointment. The Literary and
Memorial Museum of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was opened in his
homeland in Kyiv in 1989. The museum's collection today is about 3
thousand exhibits, 500 of which are actually Bulgakov's. During the
existence of the museum, the collection has grown more than 10 times.
The museum is located in a house well known to Bulgakov's readers based
on the novel The White Guard. The novel describes 51 days in the life of
an intelligent family during the Civil War in Ukraine. Turbin Bulgakov
"settled" his heroes where he himself lived during the same events - in
house number 13 on Alekseevsky / Andreevsky Spusk.
Museum-workshop of
I. P. Kavaleridze, Andreevsky Spusk, 21-A. ☎ +38 (044) 425-03-89.
Tue-Sun, 11:00–18:00. 15 UAH The museum of the great Ukrainian Soviet
sculptor with a Georgian surname was created on Andreevsky Spusk in
1993. It contains models and projects of the artist - the first monument
in Ukraine to Shevchenko in Romny (1918), Grigory Skovoroda in the
village of Lokhvitsy (1926), numerous originals of his easel sculptures,
rare lifetime photographs, manuscripts of scripts, archival materials,
video cassettes with films by Kavaleridze, books and publications about
it. There is a creative workshop that has made several films about the
artist and helps to bring his unfulfilled ideas to life.
National
Museum of the History of Ukraine , Vladimirskaya St., 2. ☎ +38 (044)
278-48-64. 10:00-18:00. Leading historical museum of Ukraine. Since
1944, it has been located in Kyiv, on Starokievskaya Hill. The Museum of
the History of Ukraine stores ethnographic, archaeological, paintings
and sculptures, numismatic collections, early printed books and other
historical exhibits. The museum building is an architectural monument
built in 1937-1939 according to the project of the architect I. Yu.
Karakis and was originally intended for an art school.
Central Museum
of the Armed Forces of Ukraine , st. Grushevsky, 30/1 ( Kiev Metro Line
1 Arsenalna). ☎ +38 (044) 253-80-72. Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, closes one
hour earlier on Fri. It is the main military museum in Ukraine.
Water
Museum , st. Grushevsky, 1B ( Kiev Metro Line 2 Maidan Nezalezhnosti). ✉
☎ +38 (044) 279-53-33, fax: +38 (044) 279-80-59. The museum, covering in
its expositions the entire water and sewer economy. The exposition of
such a museum has many exhibits dedicated to the history and development
of water supply and sewerage, materials are collected that introduce the
history of creation, the current state and prospects for the development
of the water supply and sewerage system.
State Aviation Museum of
Ukraine , st. Medovaya, 1 (Drive about 40 minutes by minibus No. 302
from Kiev Metro Line 2 Kontraktova Square to the stop Fyodor Anders
Street and from there go along Medovaya Street for about 15 minutes, the
street itself is on the left in front of the stop). ✉ ☎ +38 (044)
451-83-24, fax: +38 (044) 451-83-14. Wed-Sun 10:00-19:00, closes two
hours earlier in winter. 50 UAH, it is possible to visit aircraft cabins
for an additional fee. Excursion 200 UAH per group. The largest
technical museum in Ukraine. It is twinned with the Museum of Polish
Aviation (Krakow), the Head Industry Museum of the History of Civil
Aviation of Russia (Ulyanovsk) and the US National Aerospace Museum.
About 70 exhibits have been collected on an area of 20 hectares:
helicopters, missile carriers, fighters, training and passenger
aircraft.
By plane
Kyiv has good air links with most European and CIS
countries, with the exception of Russia, where flights have been
suspended. From Moscow and St. Petersburg, Belavia (Minsk) offers the
most convenient connections. It is also possible to fly via Riga (Air
Baltic) and Warsaw (LOT), but this is usually more expensive and less
convenient in terms of time. The national carrier, Ukraine International
Airlines, operates single long-haul flights to Beijing, Bangkok and New
York.
Kiev has two airports, and one of them (Zhulyany) is called
"Kyiv International Airport" because it is located right in the city,
although, contrary to the name, it serves fewer flights than Boryspil,
the main Kiev airport, which is more spacious but less conveniently
located. As of 2018, all low-cost airlines fly to Zhuliany (WizzAir -
flights within Europe, Pegasus from Istanbul, Vueling from Barcelona),
Belavia from Minsk, LOT from Warsaw and some domestic flights. The
national airline UIA flies exclusively from Boryspil.
Boryspil
Boryspil Airport (IATA:KBP). +380 (44) 393-43-71. Consists of a single
terminal D - large and modern. In the arrivals area there is a 24-hour
exchange office with a good exchange rate and a counter selling SIM
cards. There are enough cafes with hot food in the check-in and
departure area - quite expensive by Ukrainian standards, but very cheap
compared to other European airports. There is an even cheaper canteen
across the street from the terminal. Luggage storage: 120 UAH/day.
How to get there: transport to the airport runs from the Kiev
railway station. You will have a choice between the Kiev Boryspil
Express train with an intermediate stop at the Darnitsa station (every
40-60 minutes, 40 minutes to the airport, ticket costs UAH 80) and the
Sky Bus express bus (No. 322), which departs from the south side railway
station and makes an intermediate stop at Kharkivsk. The bus runs around
the clock, every 15-30 minutes during the day, less often at night.
Travel time from the airport: 15 minutes to Kharkivska (UAH 60) and at
least an hour to the railway station (UAH 100). Traveling through
Kharkivskaya is faster and more convenient, but in the direction of the
airport it is complicated by the fact that there may be no seats on the
bus, and it does not follow the schedule well. A taxi to Kharkovskaya
costs 200-250 UAH, to the center - from 300 UAH: order from the city.
Zhuliany
Zhuliany Airport (Kyiv International Airport, IATA:IEV).
☎ +380 (44) 585-72-54. The airport is located among residential areas,
consists of two adjacent terminals - A (international flights) and D
(domestic flights). Both terminals are new and quite comfortable,
although cramped. In terminal A, in the check-in area, there are two
24-hour restaurants, of which visitors recommend only Bistro Molto Bene,
and a coffee shop that closes at night, as well as a left-luggage office
(10 UAH/h, 120 UAH/day). In a clean area, the Belgian beer Du Park.
Prices are the same as in Boryspil. In the vicinity of the airport there
is an industrial zone and sleeping areas, there are no normal places to
eat.
How to get there: trolleybus No. 9 from Universitet and Leo
Tolstoy Square, trolleybus No. 22 from Shulyavsk and several minibuses.
Travel time: 15-20 min. A kilometer from the airport is the
Kyiv-Volynsky railway station, where the city electric train, all
suburban trains of the western direction and some long-distance trains
stop.
By train
Most trains arrive at Kyiv Passenger Station.
It has two terminals: the Central Station and the South Station,
connected by a bridge-passage at the level of the second floor, and
there is an underground passage on each platform. On the transition, you
can either go straight to the Vokzalna metro station (one side of the
exit) or to the side of the South Station from where Skybus departs to
the airport and other minibuses / buses that travel both in Kiev and in
the regions. In the immediate vicinity of the station are the metro
station Vokzalna and the new Kyiv bus station.
Central station
(Kyiv-passenger).
By car
The main directions of the tracks:
M-01 (Brovarskoye highway, aka E95) - from the Russian Federation
and the Republic of Belarus, Chernigov, Gomel, St. Petersburg.
M-03
(Borispol highway, aka E40) - from Boryspil International Airport,
Kharkiv, Poltava.
M-05 (Odesskaya highway, aka E95) - from Odessa,
Bila Tserkva, Uman.
M-06 (Zhytomyr highway, aka E40) - from Lviv,
Rovno, Zhytomyr.
M-07 (Warsaw highway (Varshavka), aka E373) - from
Poland, Kovel, Korosten.
By bus
Central bus station Wikidata
item, Nauki Ave.,. ☎ +380 (44) 527-99-86, +380 (44) 525-57-74.
Bus
station at the station square, Vokzalnaya Square ( Vokzalna). Buses and
minibuses also depart from the South (Pivdenny) railway station, which
is on the other side of the railway.
Schedule from the central
bus station in Ukraine and international buses - online.
Also in
the city there are several bus stations:
Bus station "Vladimirskaya",
st. Vladimiro-Lybidskaya, 25, phone: (044) 269-7293
Bus station
"Vydubychi", st. Naberezhno-Pecherskaya, 10 ( Vidubichi), phone: (044)
264-2182
Bus station "Darnitsa", st. Yuri Gagarin, ( Darnitsa),
phone: (044) 559-4618. Schedule is online.
Dachnaya bus station, 142
Pobeda Avenue, telephone: (044) 424-1503. Timetable for Ukraine and
Europe - online.
Bus station "Podil", st. Nizhny Val, 15-a, phone:
(044) 417-3542
Bus station "Polesie", pl. Taras Shevchenko, 2, phone:
(044) 430-3554
Bus station "South", st. Academician Glushkova, 3,
phone: (044) 257-4004
Bus station "Kyiv", near the central railway
station.
Bus schedule at the bus stations of Ukraine - online.
On the ship
River Station ( Postal Square). During the
navigation period - daily excursions along different routes in both
directions on motor ships of the "Moskva" type (50-150 UAH) and
hydrofoils of the "Polesie" type (200-500 UAH in 2016). The schedule of
intercity cruises must be specified separately.
Metro
The Kiev metro in the USSR was built the third in a row. For
2013, there are 52 stations on three metro lines. The opening of the
52nd station ("Teremki") took place in November 2013, there are plans
for the development of existing and new metro lines.
Payment by
tokens and contactless cards. Purchased for cash at the box office in
the lobby of the subway. The fare is UAH 8 (08/18). Entry and exit at
the stations through folding turnstiles or tripod turnstiles. The
operating time of each station must be specified separately, on average
5:50-00:30. Station names are announced in Russian, Ukrainian and
English.
Minibus
The minibus after the metro is the most
accessible type of public transport. The vast majority of the fleet are
minibuses of the Bogdan type. Fare — UAH 4-8 (2018) (short routes — UAH
4-8, long — UAH 8) Payment is made at the entrance. The route network
covers almost the entire city, including the outskirts. Traveling by
minibuses is an excellent alternative to other types of ground urban
transport, with a similar fare and more comfortable travel conditions,
except for rush hour.
trolleybus
Since sometimes the subway
can't take you close to a particular tourist attraction, sometimes
trolleybuses can be used as well. Trolleybus communication covers all
the main districts of Kyiv and includes 41 routes. Kyiv trolleybuses are
generally fairly new and well maintained.
Trolleybus tickets are
sold directly in the trolleybus from the conductor or driver, the ticket
price is UAH 8. Stops in trolleybuses are announced.
Tram
In
Kyiv in 1892, the first electric tram in the Russian Empire was opened.
The first route went from the current European Square down to the
current Postal Square; the first depot was located on the site of the
current hotel "Dnepr". Also, in Kyiv in 1978, for the first time in the
USSR, a high-speed tram was opened. Currently, there are two isolated
light rail lines on the right bank - routes No. 1, 2, 3, and on the left
- No. 5, 4.
In 2004, the rails on the Patona Bridge were
dismantled, resulting in two isolated (left-bank and right-bank) tram
systems.
The western part of the route of tram routes No. 12, 17
(numbers may change), several stops before the Puscha-Voditsa terminus,
passes through the forest (there are no motor roads nearby) and is a
tourist attraction of the city in itself. In particular, the Kalancha
stop is located directly in the forest, there are no infrastructure
facilities next to it, except for tram rails.
There is also a
high-speed tram running on the right bank of Kyiv from Starovokzalnaya
Square to the Great Ring Road or to the Mikhailovskaya Borshchagovka
massif. Consists of several articulated wagons. The tram line does not
intersect with roads and streets, so it does not have congestion during
rush hour. The fare is 8 hryvnia (2018), the ticket can only be
purchased at the stops of the light rail line at the ticket offices,
tickets are kept until the end of the trip.
city train
Since
2012, another type of urban transport has been available - the city
train, which follows a closed ring route through railway platforms
within Kyiv. Trains run during peak hours, in the morning from 6:30 to
9:30, and in the evening from 16:30 to 20:30, a more accurate schedule
should be specified separately. The fare is 4 UAH, all platforms have a
turnstile checkpoint system. Many platforms are connected within walking
distance to metro stations.
Travel by city train is especially
convenient due to the lack of dependence on road traffic, as well as the
possibility of chord movement around the city. For example, from
Livoberezhnaya to Petrovka, the train travels only 14 minutes, by metro
this route will take at least 30 minutes with one change, by car with
traffic jams even more.
On weekends (?) (check the schedule
separately), an excursion train of two comfortable cars and an operating
steam locomotive of the “E” type runs along the ring road. Departure
from the station, cost - 25 UAH.
Funicular
The Kiev funicular
was built in 1905 and connects Poshtova Square (next to Postova
Square) and the upper terrace of Vladimirskaya Gorka next to
Mikhailovskaya Square. The length of the track is 222 meters, the height
difference is 75 m, the traffic interval is 5 minutes, the operating
time is from 6:00 to 23:00, the fare is 8 UAH
Tourist buses
For the convenience of tourists, the city has launched double-decker red
Hop-On Hop-Off buses that run every 45 minutes in a circle, making stops
at each tourist site. Buses run daily from 10:15 to 18:30. The ticket
costs 200 hryvnia per person and is valid for 2(!) days.
Souvenirs and shopping in Kyiv
Kyiv is an easy city for gifts. In
the historic center you will find embroidered clothing, books, photo
albums, antiques, badges, ceramics, wooden boxes, and items stamped with
local symbols - the horse-chestnut leaf, the silhouette of the
Motherland Monument, the golden domes of the Lavra, and the Dnipro
bridges.
The strongest traditional pieces are vyshyvanka shirts and
blouses, rushnyk ritual towels, Petrykivka-painted wood, Kosiv-style
ceramics, pysanky eggs, and motanka dolls. Quality varies. Look for real
embroidery rather than printed patterns, and ask which region the stitch
belongs to (Poltava, Hutsul, Bukovyna). Andriyivskyi Descent remains the
main outdoor strip for crafts, paintings, and amber. Independent shops
such as Folkmart, Narodnyi Dim Ukraina, UAmade, and Etnodim carry better
work than generic tourist stalls.
At the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and
other monastery complexes you can buy icons, candles, embroidered church
textiles, and monastery honey. Ukraine is one of the world’s large honey
producers; acacia, linden, and buckwheat jars travel well if packed
tightly. Markets and co-ops often sell raw or minimally processed honey
from smaller producers.
Kyiv cake
The city’s edible emblem is
the Kyiv cake (Kyivskyi tort): two crisp meringue-and-nut layers,
buttercream filling, and a chocolate glaze. It was first produced on 6
December 1956 at the old Karl Marx Confectionery Factory in Demiivka.
That plant began in 1874–1886 as merchant Valentin Yefimov’s steam
chocolate-and-candy works, was nationalized and renamed in 1923, and
after privatization in the 1990s became the Kyiv factory of the Roshen
corporation.
Several origin stories circulate. One credits a
forgotten batch of meringue that confectioners Kostiantyn Petrenko and
young assistant Nadiia Chornohor turned into a new cake. Another links
the recipe to a 1956 shipment of Indian cashews that Soviet planners
asked factories to use. The official factory account stresses years of
experiment; a 1973 Soviet author’s certificate went to Galina
Fastovets-Kalinovskaya and Anna Kurilo. Early versions used cashews;
later production switched to hazelnuts for cost. The exact cream and
layer formula remains a commercial secret. A giant multi-tier cake was
once sent to Brezhnev for his 70th birthday.
The only cake that
carries the protected “Kyiv Cake” name and the familiar chestnut-leaf
box is the Roshen product. You can buy it in ordinary grocery stores and
supermarkets. Imitations, especially around the railway station, are
cheaper and usually poorer: wetter layers, peanuts instead of roasted
hazelnuts, sloppy dating on the box. The factory’s own shop near
Demiivska metro (the old Karl Marx site on Nauky / Demiivska Square) is
the place for the day’s production. Look for a laser-dated box and a red
ribbon, not handwritten or ink-stamped labels.
Roshen also sells
related sweets that pack easier than a whole cake: Kyiv Vechirnii
pralines, Strila cones, and classic bars such as Chaika and Alionka.
Markets and underground malls
Bessarabsky Market occupies the
1910–1912 Art Nouveau hall on Bessarabska Square at the western end of
Khreshchatyk. Architect Henryk Gay designed it; sugar magnate Lazar
Brodsky financed it. For decades it was Kyiv’s most expensive covered
market - produce often 1.5–3 times higher than neighborhood bazaars -
with a supermarket inside and small shops and eateries around the
building. In late 2025 the interior was rebuilt as a bright food hall
with a large bar and dining seats; a reduced number of grocery stalls
remain along the edges. The protected brick exterior is unchanged. It is
still worth seeing for architecture and atmosphere, even if you shop for
food elsewhere.
A Kyiv specialty is the underground shopping
galleries that sit under squares next to metro stations. Smaller ones
are often just called “Square.” The two large complexes are Globus under
Maidan Nezalezhnosti (a multi-level project comparable in idea to
Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square mall) and Metrograd under Bessarabska Square.
Metrograd has been in legal and planning flux; city officials have
discussed converting part of the space if ownership changes. Both remain
convenient for weather-proof shopping, food courts, and connecting metro
passages.
Petrivka (Petrovka) market, at Pochaina metro, is the large
clothing-and-book market on the left bank. It is less polished than
Bessarabka and more useful if you want inexpensive clothes, second-hand
books, or a local rather than tourist crowd.
Practical notes: bargain
on Andriyivskyi Descent and at open markets. For cake, prefer the
branded Roshen box over station copies. Honey and sweets are the easiest
edible souvenirs to carry; embroidered textiles and painted wood last
longest. Check current opening hours and security rules before heading
to large markets or factory shops.
Cheap eats
You can still eat quickly and relatively inexpensively
in the center if you use self-service canteens rather than sit-down
restaurants. A filling homemade-style lunch used to cost around 40 UAH;
today a realistic tray at a good self-service spot is closer to 150-250
UAH depending on soup, a main, a side, and a drink. That is still far
cheaper than most cafes on Khreshchatyk.
The workhorse of budget
dining is the Puzata Hata chain (Ukrainian for “pot-bellied hut”).
Branches sit all over the city, including Khreshchatyk 8, the Baseina /
Bessarabka area, Globus mall on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, and Darnitsa. You
pick up a tray, walk the line, and take borshch, solyanka, varenyky,
deruny, kotleta po-kyivsky, mashed potatoes, salads, uzvar, and house
baking. Typical item prices in recent menus: homemade borshch with meat
around 96-114 UAH, varenyky from about 62 UAH, classic Kyiv cutlet
around 90-146 UAH, combo trays near 117-118 UAH. Hours are usually
morning to late evening. It is tourist-friendly, consistently stocked,
and the fastest way to eat real Ukrainian food without a waiter.
Dva
Husya (“Two Geese”) is the older self-service competitor. Historically
there was a convenient outlet just behind Bessarabsky Market on Baseina
1 and another in the Passage near Khreshchatyk and Prorizna. The chain
still operates in Kyiv (Arsenalna, Velyka Vasylkivska / Olympic mall,
and other sites), with a mix of Ukrainian, European, and pizza-style
dishes, but some central listings have been marked temporarily closed.
Check the door before you count on it. When it is open, the format is
the same: tray, line, sit down.
The old self-service hall Zdorovenki
Bula at Liuteranska 3 (Khreshchatyk metro) was once worth a visit for
its themed rooms done as “countries of the world” with a Ukrainian
twist. Confirm it is still trading before making a special trip; many of
these character canteens have thinned out.
On the left bank, the
Goldfish dining room on the 4th floor of Detsky Mir at Malyshka 3
(Darnitsa) used to be one of the cheapest remaining Soviet-style
stolovi, with a standard lunch around 18-20 UAH in older guides. Those
prices are long gone, and classic factory canteens keep disappearing. A
few workplace stolovi still exist for staff and nearby residents; they
are the cheapest option if you find one open to the public, but they are
no longer a reliable tourist strategy.
Coffee and pastry
Kaffa
(Coffee Theater) is a Kyiv institution. The Maidan branch in Taras
Shevchenko Lane closed in September 2025 after 27 years. The surviving
house is the Podil “Theater of Coffee” at Hryhoriya Skovorody 5, a short
walk from Kontraktova Square metro, near Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Phone: +38
(044) 425-38-45. They roast their own beans, keep a large range of
origins (the old boast was dozens of types), and brew in cezve, geyser
pot, or espresso machine, sometimes with spices. Milk drinks stay simple
(cappuccino, latte). Service is unhurried by design. Desserts and a
small bar list round it out. Atmosphere is carved wood, niches, and long
sits rather than grab-and-go.
Lviv Croissants (Lvivski Kruasany) is
the easy pastry chain. Confirmed central addresses include Khreshchatyk
24 (+38 067 190 7357) and a long-running spot at Baseina 1/2 near the
pool / Bessarabka area (+38 098 923 3437). Croissants are baked after
you order: sweet fillings (jam, chocolate, berries) and savory sandwich
versions (chicken and mushrooms “Halytskyi” around 144 UAH, salami
“Lvivskyi” around 139 UAH, royal chicken and Swiss cheese around 169
UAH, heavier BBQ pork versions over 200 UAH). Coffee, lemonades, and
syrnyky sit alongside. Dozens of outlets citywide; useful for breakfast
or a standing snack on Khreshchatyk.
Practical note. Prices move with
the hryvnia and wartime costs. Treat the figures above as a 2025-2026
snapshot, not a frozen menu. For the cheapest hot meal in the center,
start with Puzata Hata; for coffee with character, go to Kaffa on
Skovorody; for a quick pastry walk, use Lviv Croissants on Khreshchatyk.
Websites for renting apartments: Grata apartments, KievRent Apartment
Bureau, Easy-Kiev.com, elitflat.com, Kyiv Apartments, hotel service
Predslava.
Cheap
1 Hotel "OKiev" on Enlightenment, st.
Enlightenment 14. ☎ +38 (044) 243 74 86. Single room 400 UAH. Belongs to
the network of hotels "OKiev".
2 Hostel "OKiev" on Kolomievsky, per.
Kolomievsky, 6. ☎ +38 (044) 257 23 10. Double room 340 UAH. Belongs to
the network of hotels "OKiev".
3 Borscht Hostel Kiev, Velyka
Vasylkivska street, 43, entrance 2, apt. 32 (opposite the Kyiv cinema).
☎ +38 068 7109990. A bed in a dormitory room from 6 euros. Staff with
knowledge of English, German, Russian and Ukrainian.
4 Esther Hostel,
111/113 Velyka Vasylkivska Street (Palace Ukraina metro station, next to
the Ukraina Palace). ☎ +380 44 332 05 36. Dormitory, beds from 8 euros.
5 Randevu mini-hotel chain, Pravdy Avenue, 31A. ☎ +38044 5876893. 345
UAH A network of private mini-hotels Randevu in Kyiv. 9 different
addresses, both on the right and left banks of the Dnieper.
6 "Black
Sea" Kyiv, st. Leipzigskaya, 16A. ☎ +38 (044) 364-10-64. From 1000 UAH
7 Hotel and restaurant complex "Verkhovyna" (Peremohy Ave.), Pobedy
Ave., 135 (On foot, by trolleybus or minibus from Zhitomirska station in
the direction of Zhytomyr). ☎ +380443399957, +380674836181,
+380503328971, +380732597057. Hotel at the exit from the city in the
direction of Zhytomyr. Across the road is the bus station "Dachnaya", a
little further is the metro station Zhitomirskaya. Located next to the
pond. Comfortable rooms with TV, refrigerator, air conditioning and
kettle. Free WiFi.
8 Voskhod Hotel, p. Sofiyivska Borshchagovka, st.
Pushkina, 14 (high-speed tram number 3 from the railway station,
minibuses from Zhitomirskaya, Nivki, Akademgorodok metro stations). ☎
+380445834868. The hotel is territorially located in the village of
Sofievskaya Borshchagovka, but it is 2 minutes to the outskirts of Kyiv.
walk. There are rooms of different categories: economy, standard,
superior, suite.
9 Hotel and restaurant complex "Verkhovyna"
(Koltsevaya Doroga), p. Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, st.
Petropavlovskaya, 24 (from the station Zhytomyrska shuttle bus No. 23,
No. 716, No. 720, from the railway station No. 14 to the stop
Yantarnaya). ☎ +380443399931. Unlike the hotel on Pobedy Avenue, this is
a large hotel complex that has several buildings. Formally located in
Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, but located near the Ring Road, which is
used by public transport. Drive 5-7 min. from st. m. Zhitomirskaya. The
economy class rooms have a shower, TV, air conditioning, refrigerator,
kettle, free Wi-Fi
Average cost
10 Mini-hotel "Partner Guest
House", Basseinaya str., 19. ☎ +380 44 2285511. From 1500 UAH. Cashless
payments. Free transfer from the airport.
11 Ibis Kiev Shevchenko
Boulevard, blvd. Taras Shevchenko, 25. ☎ +380 (44) 591-2222. From 1600
UAH The first hotel in Ukraine of the French brand ACCOR "Ibis".
12
"Tourist" hotel, st. Raisa Okipnaya 2 ( Livoberezhna). from 700 UAH
27-storey hotel near Livoberezhna, built in the 1980s.
13 Rus Hotel,
per. Hospital, 4 ( Sports Palace). ☎ +380 (44) 256-40-00. Double room —
1500 UAH. The hotel was built in the Soviet era, and now belongs to the
Accord Hotels chain and has acquired a sea of pathos: the doors are
opened by a doorman, a porter helps to bring things and the like. The
quality of repair and equipment is at the level of European three or
domestic four stars. Not the lowest price is somewhat compensated by the
rich breakfast buffet included in the room rate.
14 Premier Hotel
Lybid (former hotel "Lybid"), pl. Victory 1. ☎ +38 (044) 236-95-72. From
1200 UAH Comfortable, modern hotel, located in the center of business
Kyiv, on the right bank of the Dnieper River. Business center, wired
Internet and WI-FI, satellite TV, the possibility of ordering excursion
services, theater or concert tickets, round-the-clock restaurant room
service. All rooms have individually controlled and controlled heating
and air conditioning systems.
15 Express Hotel, Blvd. Shevchenko,
38/40. ✉ ☎ +38 (044) 234-21-13, 503-30-45, 503-30-89. From 900 UAH The
hotel with a touch of the Soviet past is located a 15-minute walk from
the railway station in Kyiv.
16 Hotel Oberig, 25/16 Lobanovsky Ave.
(near Sevastopolskaya Square). ✉ ☎ +38 (044) 270-44-66. Prices from 800
UAH. Hotel "Oberig" is included in the list of the best hotels in Kyiv.
Comfortable rooms in the center of Kyiv. Free Wi-Fi, free parking,
buffet breakfast, online room reservation.
17 Hotel Bratislava, st.
Andrei Malyshko, 1 (on the left bank of the Dnieper, a 5-minute walk
from Darnitsa). ✉ ☎ +38 (044) 537-39-75. Single from 900 UAH, double -
from 1050 UAH. 337 rooms.
18 Hotel "Ukraine" st. Institutskaya 4
( Maidan Nezalezhnosti). ✉ ☎ +38 (044) 590 5474. Prices from 1500 UAH. A
four-star hotel with 371 rooms of various categories of comfort.
Expensive
19 Hotel "Khreshchatyk", st. Khreshchatyk, 14 ( Maidan
Nezalezhnosti). ✉ ☎ +38 (044) 596 80 00. Prices from 3500 UAH.
Comfortable rooms overlooking Khreshchatyk. Free Wi-Fi, buffet
breakfast, online room reservation.
20 "Hyatt Regency Kyiv", st. A.
Tarasova, 5A (near St. Sophia Cathedral). ✉ ☎ +380 (44) 581-12-34. From
8500 UAH 5 star hotel.
21 City Park Hotel, st. Bulvarno-Kudryavska,
20A. ☎ +38 (044) 451-8701. From 2600 UAH A new, modern European-style
boutique hotel in the business and historical center of Kyiv.
22
President Hotel, st. Hospital, 12, Kyiv, Ukraine, 01601 (metro
Klovskaya, Palace of Sports). ☎ +38 (044) 256 3256. Four-star hotel with
374 rooms of various categories - from Business to Presidential Suite
Official travel advisories (as of early September 2026)
United
States: Level 4 – Do Not Travel for the entire country due to Russia’s
war, frequent missile and drone strikes, and limited consular ability to
assist outside tightly controlled conditions. The embassy in Kyiv is
open but operates under movement, curfew, and activity restrictions.
United Kingdom (FCDO): Advises against all travel to Kyiv and most of
Ukraine. Advises against all but essential travel only to certain
western regions (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, Ternopil,
Chernivtsi, and parts of Volyn/Rivne/Zhytomyr farther from the Belarus
border). Insurance is typically invalidated if you travel against this
advice. The British Embassy cannot provide in-person consular help.
Australia and others: “Do not travel.” Similar language from Canada,
Singapore, Spain, and others. Airspace remains closed.
These are
not outdated 2022 warnings. Advisories were reaffirmed or updated in
late August 2026, citing intensified strikes (including ~150 ballistic
missiles in July 2026 and thousands of drones in recent months) and
elevated civilian casualty figures.
The air and missile threat in
Kyiv
Kyiv has strong air defenses compared with many Ukrainian
cities, but they do not stop every attack. Strikes occur on energy
infrastructure, government/military-adjacent sites, and sometimes
residential or central areas. Debris from intercepted missiles and
drones also causes damage and injuries.
A recent example: On 4
September 2026 a Russian drone struck the Security Service of Ukraine
(SBU) headquarters in central Kyiv, across from St. Sophia Cathedral. At
least 12 people were reported injured. Attacks can happen by day or
night and are not limited to the outskirts.
Alerts are frequent.
Authorities have begun distinguishing “yellow” (primarily drone) from
“red” (missile or combined) threats so that some activity can continue
during lower-level alerts. Metro stations serve as the main public
shelters. New rules recommended shortening Kyiv’s curfew toward
01:00–05:00 and keeping the metro running during yellow alerts, but you
must follow whatever is actually in force on the ground.
Practical steps if you are there:
Download official or widely used
alert apps before arrival: “Air Alert” / Повітряна тривога, eAlert
(єТривога), and Kyiv Digital (Київ Цифровий). Enable notifications.
Official Kyiv channels also post on Telegram.
Identify the nearest
shelter (usually a metro station) the moment you reach your
accommodation.
When the siren sounds, go to shelter. Do not stay
outside to watch or photograph. Follow locals and officials.
Keep
phone charged, carry a power bank, some cash, and warm layers. Power and
water outages happen after infrastructure hits.
Respect curfew.
Movement after hours without a valid reason can lead to problems with
patrols.
Crime and street safety
Violent crime specifically
targeting foreigners is relatively uncommon in central Kyiv. Petty theft
(pickpocketing on the metro, especially the red line, phone snatching
near nightlife areas in Podil late at night) occurs at typical
large-city levels. Standard urban precautions apply: do not flash
valuables, watch drinks, avoid poorly lit areas after dark, and use
official taxis or apps. Police (102) and ambulance (103) exist; English
is limited outside tourist-facing services. Corruption in some official
interactions is a longstanding issue.
Martial law means checkpoints,
document checks, and restrictions on photography of military or critical
infrastructure. Dual Ukrainian-citizen men of military age face exit
restrictions and possible conscription; this has affected dual
nationals.
Logistics and other realities
Getting there: No
regular commercial flights into Ukraine. Typical routes are overland
(train or bus from Poland, Romania, etc.) with extra checks.
Insurance: Standard policies exclude war. Specialized coverage that
explicitly includes Ukraine is expensive and limited.
Health and
infrastructure: Hospitals function but can be strained. Rolling
blackouts, water interruptions, and heating issues occur after energy
strikes, especially in winter.
Unexploded ordnance: A serious problem
in previously contested or front-line areas, far less so in central Kyiv
itself, but do not wander off marked paths in parks or outskirts.
Consular support: Very limited. Embassies cannot evacuate you on demand.
Bottom line
Kyiv is not a conventional tourist destination in
2026. The city is alive and many visitors report that day-to-day life
feels more normal than news footage suggests, but the risk of being in
the wrong place during a strike is real and unpredictable. Official
advice from the US, UK, Australia and others is unambiguous: do not
travel. Anyone who goes anyway should treat air-raid procedures as
non-negotiable, carry appropriate insurance, monitor alerts constantly,
and accept that governments will have limited ability to help if
something goes wrong.
Name
Etymology
According to legends, the name of Kyiv comes from the
name of Kyus, the eldest of the three brothers who are considered to be
the founders of the city. One of these legends came down to us in the
annals of the 12th century. "The story of temporary summers".
In
the sagas, Kyiv was called Koenugarðr. The name Kænugarður remained for
Kyiv in the Icelandic language. From April 27, 2022, a small square
Kænugarður / Kyiv-torg appeared in Reykjavík
Kyiv also had a
Turkic name - "Mankermen" ("big city"), "Kiva-Mankermen", which lived
next to the original name.
The Ukrainian ethnographer M. V.
Zakrevsky claimed that the "Azagarium" mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy was
located on the site of modern Kyiv. Yu. A. Kulakovsky equated Ptolemy's
"Metropolis" with Kiev, M. Yu. Brychevsky - "Sar".
According to
Arabic and Persian sources of the 9th and 10th centuries, one of the
state centers of the East Slavic entities was called Kuyaviya (Kuyabia,
Kuyaba). The most logically justified is the identification of the city
of Kuyaba with Kyiv.
Spelling
In ancient Russian monuments,
the name of the city was written as Кыѥвъ, where ы conveyed the
Proto-Slavic sound *y, and ѥ — the iotated sound [e] ("is"). Such
writing remained in the annals for a long time. Later, after the
termination of the law of second palatalization and the merging of the
sound [ɨ] with [i] into a new vowel of the front-middle row [ɪ], the
spellings Киевъ, Киевъ appear, and after the formation of the "new
yatya" - and "Кыѣвъ", "Kiev", "Kiev". With the reorganization of
the Ukrainian orthography of the 19th century, when the letter и is
attached to [ɪ], and the iotized "new yatya" is followed by y, the
spelling takes on a modern form - Kyiv.
Translation of the city
name in English (#KyivNotKiev)
On October 2, 2018, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Ukraine together with the Center for Strategic
Communications "StratCom Ukraine" launched the online campaign
"#CorrectUA", within the framework of which it will appeal to foreign
media to correct the spelling of the city of Kyiv (#KyivNotKiev).
The first reports about the correction of the spelling of the city
of Kyiv appeared: in their texts, the BBC and The Guardian write Kyiv
instead of Kiev; London Luton Airport, Budapest and Tallinn Airports,
Belgium changed their name from Kiev to Kyiv. At the same time, UIA
refused to change Kiev to Kyiv, explaining that Kiev is the official
transliteration of the International Air Transport Association IATA.
On September 16, 2020, the English Wikipedia renamed the article
about Kyiv from "Kiev" to "Kyiv", while certain articles with the
corresponding oikonym remain unchanged, in particular about Kievan Rus'
("Kievan Rus'").
Establishment
According to the legend "Tales of the Timeless
Years", Kyiv was founded by the legendary Polyansk prince Kyi together
with his brothers Shchek and Khoryv and sister Lybidya. The chronicle
does not have a date of foundation of the city. Archaeological and
written sources testify that Kyiv developed on the basis of a pagan
settlement of the late 5th - early 6th centuries. According to
Encyclopedia Britannica, the city was founded in the 6th or 7th
centuries. Its center was Starokyivska Gora on the right bank of the
Dnieper. In the 6th and 7th centuries, the neighboring elevations were
inhabited. The location of Kyiv on the Dnieper road, in the ethnic
border zone, on the border of the forest and the forest-steppe,
contributed to the city's promotion to the role of the political center
of the Middle Dnieper region.
Kievan Rus
At the turn of the
8th and 9th centuries, Kyiv became the main city of the Rus land, an
inter-tribal union of southern East Slavic tribes, and from 882, after
its conquest by the Varangians, became the "mother of Russian cities" -
the capital of the Russian state. At the same time, the medieval
division of the city into princely Dytynets on Starokyivska Gora and
trading and craft Posad on Podil was formed. The nobility and clergy
lived in the first, and the common people in the second. The city was
one of the centers of international trade with Byzantium, Scandinavia,
Western Europe, and the Muslim world. From the first half of the 10th
century, the first Christian church operated in Podil.
During the
reign of Grand Duke Volodymyr (980-1015), the territory of Kyiv Dytynets
was expanded and strengthened and reached 10 hectares. In
historiography, it is called "the city of Volodymyr". Dytynets was
surrounded by a rampart with three gates, the most important of which
were Sofia's. After the baptism of Rus in 988, Kyiv became the center of
the Metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The main city
church was the Tithing Church, built near the princely palace and the
Babyn Torzhok market. Volodymyr's son, Yaroslav (1019-1054), expanded
Dytynets even more, building and surrounding the so-called Yaroslav's
city with defensive ramparts and moats. He built new fortress
fortifications, more than 3.5 km long, which surrounded an area of 72
hectares. Kyiv was transformed into the largest fortress of Russia. The
new main gate became the Golden Gate, and the main temple was St. Sophia
Cathedral, the chair of the Metropolitans of Kyiv. Yaroslav's
descendants Izyaslav (1054-1068, 1069-1073) and Svyatopolk (1093-1113)
built a new fortification - the so-called Svyatopolk town. Its center
became the Kyiv-Mikhailivskiy Golden-Domed Cathedral, which gave its
name to the monastery of the same name. Thus, Kyiv at that time had
three fortifications (gardens) with an area of 80 hectares.
The
largest district of Kyiv was the Dnieper Podil. In the 12th and 13th
centuries, it occupied an area of about 200 hectares, which was
surrounded by a defensive rampart. In the center of Podol was located
the main city market - "Torgovishche", around which stood the church of
Pyrohoshcha, Borysoglibska and Mykhailivska churches. To the west of the
city lay Kopyriv end, where during the reign of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich
(1073-1076) the monastery of St. Simeon was founded. Outside the city,
there were monasteries - Kyrylivskyi, Klovskyi, Pecherskyi (since 1598 -
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra) and Vydubytskyi Svyato-Mikhailivskyi. The suburban
villages of Predslavyne and Berestov, princely and boyar courts,
Dorogozhichi and Uhorske tracts stretched around the city.
By the
middle of the 12th century, Kyiv had about 50,000 inhabitants, about 400
churches, and 8 bazaars. The area of the city was up to 400 hectares.
In 1169, Prince Andrei "Bogolyubsky" of Vladimir-Suzdal took
possession of Kiev. In 1240, the city was captured by the Mongol
conquerors led by the grandson of Genghis Khan, Khan Baty, and the
development of the city was interrupted.
Despite the devastation
and destruction during the Mongol invasion of 1240, Kyiv continued to
play a prominent role in the political life of Eastern Europe. Although
the number of its inhabitants decreased sharply, all its main historical
districts (Upper Town, Podil, Zamkova Gora, Pechersk, Berestov, Klov,
Vydubychi, etc.) were inhabited. The main core of the city (Gora and
Podil) was located within the traditional boundaries: the Golden and
Lyad gates on Gora and the Pochayna River on Podil. In the second half
of the 14th century, Zamkova Gora turned into the City's Child.
In 1321, after the defeat of the Grand Duke Gedimin of Lithuania in the
battle on the Irpin River, Prince Stanislav fled to Ryazan, and his
place was taken by Mindovg Holshansky, the first Kiev prince from the
Holshansky family.
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russia, and
Zhemanti
Around 1362, Kyiv became part of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania. Volodymyr Olherdovych became its prince. Entry took place
peacefully, according to agreements that left everything "in the old
fashioned way". Volodymyr pursued an independent policy, minted his own
coin, which, however, led to his replacement in 1394 by Prince Skirgail
Olherdovich, and after the latter's death, to the establishment of the
governorship. At the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th
centuries, Kyiv was a political center where the Grand Dukes of
Lithuania, Vytautas, the King of Poland and the Supreme Prince of
Lithuania Vladislav II Jagailo, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasiliy
Dmytrovych, Metropolitans Kyprian, Photius, Grigoriy (Tsamblak), Khan
Tokhtamysh held negotiations. . The city became the main base of
Vytautas' army.
Since the end of the 14th century, the names of
students from Kyiv appear in the lists of the Paris Sorbonne and other
universities, under the year 1436 the first doctor of the "Ruthenian
nation from Kyiv" — Ivan Tynkevych — is mentioned.
In 1440, the
Kyiv principality was restored under the leadership of Prince Olelko
Volodymyrovych. In the years 1455-1470, Semyon Olelkovich reigned in
Kyiv. Both princes enjoyed authority, had dynastic ties with the great
Moscow and Tver princes, the Moldavian master Stephen III the Great. The
time of their rule became a period of development for Kyiv (based on the
traditions of the material and spiritual culture of the Old Russian
era): the Assumption Cathedral and other churches were repaired, stone
bas-reliefs depicting Oranta were created, as well as new editions of
Paterik of Kyiv-Pechersky and other written works . Kyiv continued to be
an important center of domestic and international trade, and had the
right to warehouse. Many goods from the East, Europe, Muscovy, etc.
passed through the city in transit.
Kyiv was a potential center
for the unification of Russian lands that were part of the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania, therefore, after the death of the Kyiv prince Semyon
Olelkovich, the Lithuanian authorities turned the principality into a
voivodeship. In 1497, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and Russia, Oleksandr
Jagiellonchik, granted Magdeburg rights to Kyiv. At the end of the 15th
century, the city had a castle, the residence of the Kyiv voivodes, and
a town hall, the seat of the Kyiv magistrate. In 1569, at the request of
the Kyiv nobility and by the decision of the Union of Lublin between the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, which formed the
federal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kyiv together with
the voivodship became part of the Polish crown.
Hetmanship
The
end of the 15th century was the beginning of the decline of Kyiv, which
was caused by the general crisis of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania — its
inability to organize the protection of the lands subject to it from the
attacks of the Crimean Tatars, the largest of which was carried out in
1482. After the Union of Lublin, despite the pressure from the Polish
feudal lords and the Catholic Church, the economic rise of the city took
place at that time. Since 1625, Kyiv has been the center of the Cossack
Kyiv regiment, which in 1649, as a result of the Khmelnytskyi region,
became part of the state of the Zaporizhzhya Army. Despite Kyiv's small
size, it was the largest Orthodox center of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth and the Cossack state. The city housed the residence of the
Orthodox Kyiv Metropolitans and the Orthodox Kyiv Collegium, which in
1659 received the status of an academy.
The next period of Kyiv's
history began with its occupation by Moscow troops after the Pereyaslav
Union in 1654, concluded between the Zaporizhzhya Army and Muscovy. Kyiv
was needed by the Moscow government as a "stronghold of colonialist
policy in the south." Kyiv became the residence of Moscow governors. In
1667, as a result of the signing of the Peace of Andrus, which divided
the Cossack state between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the
Moscow Empire, the city became part of the latter. Formally, Kyiv
remained under the control of the Zaporizhzhya Army, but in fact the
city was managed by the Moscow administration. According to the "eternal
peace" of 1686, Kyiv finally passed to the Muscovite state.
The
severing of ties with the western regions of Ukraine led in the 18th
century. to stagnation in the economy and trade. From 1782, Kyiv became
the main city of the viceroyalty, the territory of which covered a
significant part of the Hetmanship. After the 2nd partition of Poland
(1793) and the annexation of Western Ukrainian voivodeships to Muscovy,
in 1797 the Kyiv province was formed. The annual (in January) Contract
Fair was moved from Dubno to Kyiv. These events renewed Kyiv's ties with
the western regions and contributed to the influx of Poles, mainly the
nobility, which occupied a significant place in the life of Kyiv until
the Polish uprising of 1830-1831. At that time, the Moscow government
took measures to transform Kyiv, through Russification and displacement
of the Polish and Jewish population, "into a purely Russian city.
Due to the border character of Kyiv, Moscow collateral was
constantly in it. At the beginning of the 18th century, the construction
of the Pechersk fortress was completed. Kyiv lost its status as the
center of the Kyiv regiment in connection with the transfer of the
regimental office to Kozelets. In 1708, the city became the
administrative center of the Kyiv province of the Russian Empire. From
the fall of 1770 to the summer of 1771, Kyiv suffered from a plague
epidemic. 2,819 people died, mostly in Podil. After the abolition of the
autonomy of the Zaporizhzhya Army in 1782, Kyiv finally came under the
rule of the Russians. Only the Mazepyn churches remain as monuments of
the Cossack era in the city.
Russian Empire
During the reign
of the Russian Empire in the 18th and early 20th centuries, Kyiv was a
large provincial city, the fifth largest among the imperial cities after
St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw and Odessa.
In the 20s of the XIX
century. Kyiv had a population of about 40,000, of which 18,000 were
military.
After the uprising of the Decembrists, in 1827, a
general governorship was established in Kyiv, uniting the Kyiv, Podil
and Volyn provinces, whose task was to carry out the Russification
policy of tsarism and fight against the revolutionary movement.
In 1840, the Lithuanian statute was abolished.
The cultural and
educational life of the city's Ukrainians became complicated after the
Valuev circular of 1863 and the Em decree of 1876.
In contrast to
previous centuries, for the first time the people of Kyiv had the
opportunity to develop their city in peaceful conditions. Russian local
authorities paid attention not only to the development of the historic
Podil and Starokyivska Gora, but also to the development of the
infrastructure of the surrounding areas - Besarabka, Khreshchatyk,
Pechersk, etc. The main street of the city was Volodymyrska, and the
center of business life was the contract fairs on Kontraktova Square.
In the 19th century, the first university and the opera house
appeared in Kyiv, the telephone and telegraph were built, and the Kyiv
tram began operating. Despite the liberal socio-economic policy, the
imperial government carried out strict Russification of the local
Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish population.
The Ukrainian revolution
During the days of the Ukrainian revolution and liberation struggles,
Kyiv was the center of the struggle for Ukrainian statehood. On March 3,
1917, after the fall of the tsarist regime, the Ukrainian Central
Council was established in the city. On November 20, 1917, it proclaimed
the Ukrainian People's Republic with the III Universal, and Kyiv as its
capital. On February 8, 1918, the city was taken over by the Bolsheviks,
but after the conclusion of the Brest Peace, it was liberated by the
troops of the Central Powers. From April 29 to December 14, 1918, Kyiv
was the capital of the Ukrainian State, which was ruled by Hetman Pavlo
Skoropadskyi. After the overthrow of the Hetmanate, until February 14,
1919, the UNR Directory was based in Kyiv. In February 1919, the city
was reoccupied by the Bolsheviks, in August by the troops of Anton
Denikin, and in December by the Bolsheviks again. On May 7, 1920, Kyiv
was recaptured by the allied forces of the units of the UNR army and the
Polish army during the Soviet-Polish war. However, as a result of the
Bolshevik counteroffensive, it finally returned to Soviet power.
Soviet period
Stalin's terror, the destruction of Ukraine
In the
1930s, bus and trolley traffic was introduced in Kyiv, the Yevgenia
Bosch bridge was built, the first automatic transmission system was put
into operation, and central heating was organized.
In 1934, the
capital of the USSR was moved from Kharkiv to the city.
Starting
from the 1930s, Stalinist repressions began in Kyiv. Mass executions
were carried out on the territory of Bykivna. Communists who professed
militant atheism destroyed most of Kyiv's unique churches: Michael's
Golden-roofed Monastery, the Church of the Three Saints, the Church of
Our Lady of Pyrohoshcha, the Epiphany and Military Mykyl Cathedrals,
Resurrection and Peter and Paul Churches in Podil, the Church of the
Annunciation-bell tower of the Cyril Monastery, churches in the
classicist style of Mykola Merry Christmas, St. Olga, etc. On the site
of the destroyed monuments, the communists massively erected monuments
to their ideologues and heroes. Khreshchatyk became the central street
of Soviet Kyiv.
World War II and the post-war period
On
September 19, 1941, during the Second World War, after 78 days of
defense, Kyiv was abandoned by the Soviets and captured by German
troops. For two years, the city became the administrative center of Kyiv
General, City and Rural Districts. On November 6, 1943, the Soviet
authorities regained the city.
In the course of the fighting,
Kyiv suffered a lot, in particular due to the sabotage of communist
partisans. Restoration work continued until the early 1950s. In 1948,
the construction of the Dashava-Kyiv gas pipeline was completed, and in
1949, the Darnytskyi railway bridge and the Paton Bridge were built. In
1950, the first EOM in the USSR, MESM, was created, and in 1951, the
first television center in Ukraine began broadcasting.
In 1960,
the first section of the subway was launched, and new housing estates
were built on the left bank of the Dnieper. The Theater of Drama and
Comedy and the Youth Theater, the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life
of the Ukrainian SSR, the Museum of the History of Kyiv and the Museum
of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War (until 2015 it was
called the "Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War") were
opened. At the same time, from the mid-1960s, the ideological
dictatorship was renewed, and Kyiv became the center of the dissident
movement. The cessation of repression and the return of political
prisoners to Ukraine began only during the period of perestroika after
1986.
Independent Ukraine
The end of the 20th — the beginning
of the 21st century
In 1991, Kyiv became the capital of independent
Ukraine. However, it was difficult to implement positive changes in the
city: there were signs of a nationwide socio-economic crisis, which led
to unemployment and a reduction in production. At this time, the metro
line to Lukyanivka and the Kharkiv massif was completed, and the Singing
Field was opened.
In the new century, Kyiv repeatedly became the
center of protest actions. At the end of 2000 and the beginning of 2001,
Kyiv became the center of the political action "Ukraine without Kuchma".
It was the largest demonstration of force against the authorities during
the time of independence. From November 2004 to January 2005, mass
protests against the falsification of the presidential elections took
place in the city, which were called the Orange Revolution. From
November 2013 to February 2014, Kyiv became the center of the Revolution
of Dignity, during which more than a hundred protesters were killed and
several hundred were seriously injured in clashes with Berkut special
forces in the city center.
On March 11, 2016, 79 boulevards,
streets, squares and alleys in Kyiv received new names as part of the
implementation of the law on decommunization (the corresponding document
was published on the website of the Kyiv City State Administration).
Read more: 2019 coronavirus pandemic and 2019 coronavirus in Ukraine
On March 11, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution on
preventing the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus on the territory of
Ukraine, which established a quarantine on the territory of Ukraine from
March 12 to April 3, 2020, and prohibited:
visits to educational
institutions by its recipients;
conducting all mass events in which
more than 200 people participate, except for events necessary to ensure
the work of state authorities and local self-government bodies. Sports
events are allowed to be held without the participation of spectators
(fans).
On March 16, 2020, Ukraine closed its borders. Citizens of
Ukraine traveling in their own transport can cross checkpoints. The
checkpoints will work for Ukrainians returning to Ukraine. Foreigners
who have a local residence permit can also enter Ukraine. Checkpoints
will be open for cargo transportation, medical cargo will be inspected
by customs in one day.
Late in the evening of March 16, 2 cases
of coronavirus disease were detected in Kyiv. One Kyiv case originates
from Radomyshl. Church services and rituals were also temporarily banned
on March 16.
Russian-Ukrainian war
The military aggression of
the Russian Federation as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
continued on the outskirts and in the city itself from February 24 to
April 2, 2022. It was accompanied by massive rocket, air and artillery
shelling.
Lasted 1 month, 1 week and 1 day, causing serious war
crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied territories during
this period. This led to sharp criticism of the Russian government by
the United States of America, the countries of the European Union and
other developed countries. In response to the Buch massacre, Denmark,
Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Spain and
Sweden decided to expel some of the Russian diplomats from their
countries, which was followed by a powerful package of economic
sanctions.
After the large-scale publicity of the tragedy by the
international media, the US Congress passed the pro-Land-Lease law to
defend Ukraine's democracy.
A city that claims the origin story
Kyiv’s self-image begins with
the founding legend of three brothers (Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv) and their
sister Lybid. The city sits on the high right bank of the Dnipro, a
north-south river corridor that once linked the Baltic to the Black Sea.
That geography made Kyiv a trading and political hub long before Moscow
existed.
In the 9th-13th centuries it was the capital of Kyivan Rus.
Prince Volodymyr the Great’s baptism of Rus in 988 and Yaroslav the
Wise’s building program in the 11th century turned the city into a
Christian, literate, European-facing court. St. Sophia Cathedral (begun
c. 1037) and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (founded 1051) are not only tourist
sites. They are the physical charter of Ukrainian high culture:
Byzantine mosaic and fresco, monastic chronicle-writing, icon painting,
and a claim that Kyiv - not later imperial capitals - is the “mother of
Rus cities.”
Later layers never fully erased that claim. Cossack
Baroque rebuilt churches after Mongol destruction and Polish-Lithuanian
pressure. Imperial Russian and Soviet periods added palaces, boulevards,
and monumental housing, while also demolishing churches and suppressing
Ukrainian as a public language. Independence in 1991, the Orange
Revolution, Euromaidan, and the full-scale war since 2022 have each
pushed the same question into the street: whose past is this city
telling?
The answer Kyivans give today is increasingly explicit.
Culture is treated as heritage and as defense.
Language and
identity on the street
Ukrainian is the official language and the
language of signs, schools, government, and most new cultural
production. In the 2001 census about 72% of Kyiv residents named
Ukrainian as their native language and about 25% Russian. Everyday
speech has long been mixed. Many families still move between Ukrainian,
Russian, and surzhyk (a blended vernacular).
Since 2014, and
especially since 2022, public language has shifted hard toward
Ukrainian: menus, theater, bookstores, radio, and official speech.
English is growing among younger people in cafés and galleries, but it
is not a default. For a visitor, a few Ukrainian phrases matter more
than Russian ones. Kyivans notice the choice.
Ethnic texture is real
but secondary to civic identity. The city has long included Russians,
Jews, Poles, Armenians, Tatars, and others. Jewish Kyiv left deep marks
in literature, trade, and memory (Babyn Yar is part of the city’s moral
landscape). The dominant cultural frame now is Ukrainian national
culture centered on Kyiv as capital, not as a “southern Russian” city.
Faith, ritual, and the golden-domed skyline
Orthodox Christianity
is the main religious culture. Churches are not background scenery.
Golden domes, bell towers, and monastery courtyards organize the
historic core: St. Sophia, St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, St.
Andrew’s Church on the descent, St. Volodymyr’s, and the Lavra complex
with its caves and mummified monks.
Practice is a mix of belief,
family custom, and national ritual. Christmas (now widely observed on 25
December as well as, in some families, the older January date), Easter,
and Epiphany still structure the year. On Christmas Eve (Sviat Vechir)
many families still keep a meatless table of twelve dishes, with kutia
(wheat, poppy seed, honey, nuts) first and uzvar (dried-fruit drink) on
the table. A sheaf of wheat (didukh) can stand for ancestors and
harvest. These rites survived Soviet suppression and have returned as
both piety and identity.
Bell ringing at St. Michael’s is itself
treated as living heritage: festive peals for victory, a continuous toll
for tragedy. Pilgrimage to the Lavra caves remains one of the most
distinctive Kyiv experiences - dim tunnels, lamp light, and a sense that
the city’s sacred history is underground as well as on the hilltops.
Secular Kyiv is equally strong. Cafés, bookstores, and parks hold as
much daily meaning as churches. The culture is not theocratic. It is a
city that rebuilt churches after they were dynamited and then filled the
same streets with galleries and coffee.
Folk culture that never
stayed in the village
Kyiv is an urban capital that still performs
peasant and Cossack culture at a high level.
Vyshyvanka (embroidered
shirt) is the most visible national garment. Geometric and floral
stitches once marked region and family. In Kyiv it appears on holidays,
at protests, in fashion, and on Vyshyvanka Day in May.
Folk song and
dance were professionalized by ensembles such as the Verovka chorus and
the Virsky dance company. Stage versions of hopak and ritual songs sit
beside village styles that collectors still record.
Pysanky
(wax-resist Easter eggs), rushnyky (embroidered ritual towels), and wood
carving show up in markets on Andriivskyi Descent and at the open-air
Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in Pyrohiv, just outside the city -
one of the best places to see regional wooden churches and cottages as a
single cultural map.
This is not costume tourism only. Embroidery,
song, and food are how many Kyiv families mark belonging after decades
when “Ukrainian” was treated as provincial.
High arts: opera,
theater, books, and contemporary art
Kyiv has the institutions of a
European capital.
The Taras Shevchenko National Opera is the grand
house: ballet and opera in a late-imperial interior. Ivan Franko and
Lesia Ukrainka theaters carry the dramatic canon and new Ukrainian
plays. Conservatory and philharmonic life never disappeared. Street and
club music absorbed Western pop, hip-hop, and electronic scenes;
Eurovision wins and hosting (2005, 2017) were civic events, not just
contests.
Literature is a founding myth. The written culture of Rus
began here. Modern Ukrainian literature is still taught as a national
line from Kotliarevsky and Shevchenko through Franko, Ukrainka, and the
executed generation of the 1930s, to contemporary novelists and poets
writing under air-raid sirens. Bookstores multiplied during the war.
Ukrainian-language publishing is treated as infrastructure.
Visual
art runs from medieval mosaic and Baroque iconostasis to the National
Art Museum and the free PinchukArtCentre, which put international
contemporary art in the city center. Independent spaces and artist
collectives have become part of the wartime story: exhibitions continue
after strikes, sometimes in damaged buildings. Culture is framed as a
“living chain of resistance,” not a luxury.
Cinema has deep roots
(Dovzhenko studio) and a present festival culture (Molodist and others).
Puppet theater, circus, and open-air concerts fill the rest of the map.
Food as identity
Kyiv cooking is hearty, sour-cream-forward, and
now politically self-conscious. Borscht is the emblem. Ukrainian
versions are deep red, built on beet, cabbage, tomato, beans or meat,
finished with dill and smetana. In 2022 Ukraine successfully listed the
culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking on UNESCO’s list of intangible
heritage in need of safeguarding. In Kyiv that is not a trivia fact. It
is a statement that the national kitchen is not a dialect of Russian
cuisine.
Everyday and festive dishes you will actually meet:
Varenyky - boiled dumplings with potato, cabbage, cheese, meat, or
cherries
Holubtsi - cabbage rolls
Salo - cured pork fat,
thin-sliced on dark rye with garlic and pickles
Chicken Kyiv - the
famous butter-filled cutlet (touristy, still eaten)
Kyiv cake -
meringue, hazelnut, buttercream; a Soviet-era factory legend that became
a city brand
Kyivska perepichka - fried sausage in yeast dough from a
kiosk near Khreshchatyk, cult street food since 1981
Pampushky -
garlic buns with borscht
Christmas kutia and uzvar
Markets
matter. Bessarabsky Market is the classic central hall for cheese,
honey, pickles, meat, and flowers. Coffee culture exploded in the 2010s;
Kyiv now drinks specialty coffee as seriously as it drinks horilka at
toasts. Modern restaurants reinterpret regional Ukrainian cooking
(Galicia, Poltava, Odesa, Crimean Tatar) instead of only serving “Soviet
restaurant” menus.
Hospitality rules are simple: shoes off in homes,
a small gift for the host, eye contact on the toast (Budmo - “let us
be”). Food is how the city argues it has always been itself.
Calendar, streets, and daily rhythm
Kyiv Day in late May turns
Khreshchatyk into a pedestrian festival: concerts, crafts, fireworks,
local pride. Chestnut blossom in spring is a civic aesthetic (the city’s
trees are part of its postcard image). Independence Day (24 August) and
commemorations of Holodomor, Babyn Yar, and Maidan are political culture
as much as holiday culture.
Daily life is river and hill. Right-bank
historic Kyiv (Podil, Pechersk, the Upper Town) is churches, descents,
and dense 19th-early 20th-century fabric - Kyiv kept a large share of
its 1907-1914 buildings. Left bank is later, more Soviet and post-Soviet
housing. Parks, chestnut alleys, and the Dnipro embankments are where
the city breathes. Andriivskyi Descent is the souvenir and gallery
slope: vyshyvankas, paintings, kitsch, and serious crafts mixed
together.
Social style is a blend of reserve and sudden warmth.
Formal greetings matter. Once invited in, generosity is large. Humor is
dry. Queues, marshrutkas, and the very deep Arsenalna metro station are
part of the civic folklore.
Wartime culture: continuity as
defiance
Since 2022 Kyiv has lived with missiles, drones, blackouts,
and curfews while keeping theaters, bookstores, galleries, restaurants,
and schools running. That is now part of the culture itself.
The
National Opera, Ivan Franko Theater, museums, and new bookstores have
performed through alerts. Audiences treat a ticket as a claim on the
future. Artists document the war and also refuse to let the war be the
only subject. Festivals return to St. Sophia’s grounds. Collectives
reopen after strikes. Officials and artists say the same thing in
different words: attacks on museums and libraries are attacks on memory;
keeping the stage lit is a form of sovereignty.
This does not make
Kyiv a normal tourist city in the old sense. It does mean that “culture”
here is not a museum label. It is the practice of remaining a European
capital with its own language, kitchen, saints, and jokes.
How to
read the city as a visitor
Start with the two UNESCO cores - St.
Sophia and the Lavra - not as photo stops but as the origin of the
city’s claim. Walk Andriivskyi Descent and Podil for craft and street
grain. Eat borscht and varenyky in a place that cooks for locals, then
try one modern Ukrainian restaurant. Hear a folk ensemble or an opera if
you can. Buy a vyshyvanka you would actually wear. Notice what language
the menu uses.
The city lies at the meeting point of three major landform regions of
the East European Plain. The historic right (western) bank belongs to
the Dnieper Upland, specifically the Kyiv Plateau. The northern
outskirts enter the Polesian Lowland. The left (eastern) bank occupies
the Dnieper Lowland. This junction produces one of Ukraine’s most varied
urban landscapes.
Relief and the Kyiv Hills
The right bank is
an elevated, rolling plateau dissected by dozens of ravines, gullies,
and small stream valleys. Absolute elevations on the plateau reach
196.8–197.7 m above sea level at the Pechersk elevation (Levashov Hill /
area of Slava Square and near Arsenalna metro station). The Dnipro water
surface inside the city stands near 91.5–92 m, so local relief exceeds
100 m. This contrast created the city’s famous skyline of wooded bluffs
dropping steeply to the river.
Residents traditionally call the
individual heights “mountains.” Principal ones include:
Pechersk
Hills (highest)
Starokyivska Hora (Old Kyiv Hill, ~188 m)
Batyeva
Hora (~176 m)
Khorevytsia (~174 m)
Shchekavytsia, Zamkova Hora,
Lysa Hora, Chorna Hora, and others
These hills, together with
intervening ravines such as Khreshchatyi Yar, gave rise to many Kyiv
toponyms: Podil (“the lower place”), Pechersk (“caves”), and numerous
uzvizy (steep descents). The same rugged topography forced unusually
deep metro stations; Arsenalna is among the world’s deepest at 105.5 m.
The left bank is a broad, low alluvial floodplain of sandy terraces.
Large parts were raised by hydraulic filling and protected by dams in
the 20th century to allow residential expansion. The river valley itself
is classically asymmetric: high, steep, forested right bank versus low,
gentle, often pine-covered left bank.
Hydrography
More than 20
km of the Dnipro flow through Kyiv, forming a complex of channels,
islands, harbors, and backwaters. The river is the city’s dominant
geographic axis and has shaped settlement, transport, and recreation for
centuries. Immediately north lie the Kyiv Reservoir (created by the Kyiv
Hydroelectric Station) and the mouth of the Desna. South of the city
begins the Kaniv Reservoir. Smaller right-bank streams (Lybid, Syrets
and others) have been heavily modified or buried but still influence
local drainage and ravine systems.
Climate
Kyiv has a
moderately continental climate (Köppen Dfb) with warm summers and
relatively mild winters by East European standards. Long-term averages
are roughly –5 °C to –6 °C in January and +19.5 °C to +21 °C in July.
Absolute recorded extremes reach about –33 °C and +39–40 °C. Annual
precipitation averages around 635 mm, with the wettest months in early
summer. Snow cover typically lasts from mid-November to late March; the
frost-free period averages 180 days. The large reservoirs and the urban
heat island produce measurable local modifications of temperature and
humidity compared with the surrounding countryside.
Natural
landscapes and green space
Kyiv sits on the boundary between the
mixed-forest zone of Polesia to the north and the forest-steppe to the
south. Original vegetation on the right-bank plateau consisted of
broadleaf and mixed woods on gray forest soils; the left bank and
northern districts retain more pine forest on sandy soils. Today parks,
forest-parks, botanical gardens (notably the Hryshko National Botanic
Garden), and river islands occupy a substantial share of the municipal
territory. The wooded hills and Dnipro islands remain the city’s most
distinctive recreational and scenic resource.
Urban structure
The historic core occupies the high right-bank bluffs: Upper Town around
St. Sophia and the Golden Gate, the lower terrace of Podil, and the
government and monastic quarter of Pechersk. Khreshchatyk and
Independence Square form the modern commercial spine on a former ravine.
The city is divided into ten administrative raions. Post-war and
late-Soviet growth produced extensive high-rise districts on both banks,
especially the planned Left Bank neighborhoods. The river islands
(Hydropark and others) function as linear recreation zones between the
two banks.
Surrounding Kyiv Oblast
The oblast covers 28,131
km² and repeats the same three-part physical division: Polesian Lowland
in the north (including the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone), Dnieper Upland on
the right bank south and west of the city, and Dnieper Lowland on the
left bank. Major tributaries of the Dnipro within the oblast include the
Prypiat, Teteriv, Irpin, Ros (right bank) and Desna and Trubizh (left
bank). The oblast’s landscape is a gently rolling plain dissected by
river valleys and ravines, with extensive forests in the north and more
agricultural forest-steppe farther south.
The founding brothers and sister
The oldest written city-origin
story appears in the Primary Chronicle (Povist vremennykh lit, early
12th century). Three brothers of the Polianian tribe - Kyi (the eldest),
Shchek, and Khoryv - and their sister Lybid settled on the high right
bank of the Dnipro. Each brother took a hill: Kyi on the slope later
known as Borychiv Uzviz, Shchek on Shchekavytsia, Khoryv on Khoryvytsia.
They built a fortified settlement and named it after the oldest brother.
A nearby stream received Lybid’s name.
The chronicle also records a
rival, more modest version that Kyi was only a ferryman. The compilers
reject it as unworthy of a prince who, they claim, later traveled to
Constantinople and founded a town called Kyivets on the Danube. Scholars
treat the four siblings as an etiological myth that explains existing
toponyms rather than as documented biography. Archaeology does confirm
early Slavic settlement on the Kyiv hills from the 6th–7th centuries, so
the legend sits on a real landscape even if the named founders remain
legendary.
A monument to the four founders stands on Navodnytskyi
Park overlooking the river. The story still functions as Kyiv’s official
origin myth.
Apostle Andrew on the hills
A second foundation
legend, also recorded in the Primary Chronicle, places the Apostle
Andrew on the same hills centuries earlier. Traveling north from the
Black Sea, he stopped on the steep Dnipro bank, planted a cross, and
prophesied: a great city would arise here and God would raise many
churches on these heights.
The site later became St. Andrew’s Church
(Andriivska tserkva), the Baroque church designed by Rastrelli that
crowns Andriyivskyi Descent. Local additions grew around the core story.
One version says Andrew struck the ground with his staff and the waters
receded, leaving an underground lake inside the hill. That is why the
church has no bells: ringing them would wake the waters and flood Podil.
Another variant claims seven hidden springs under the hill feed the
city; damage to the church or the slope would release them.
The
Andrew legend gave Kyiv an apostolic pedigree that later churchmen used
to argue the city’s Christianity did not begin only with the baptism of
988.
Perun, the baptism, and Vydubychi
When Prince Volodymyr
ordered the baptism of Kyiv in 988, he had the wooden idols of the pagan
pantheon - especially Perun, the thunder god with the silver head and
golden mustache - dragged down from the hill, beaten, and thrown into
the Dnipro. The chronicle and later retellings describe the remaining
pagans running along the bank crying “Perune, vydubai!” (“Perun, swim
out!” or “emerge!”).
The idol, according to the story, finally washed
ashore farther downstream. That landing place became known as Vydubychi
(“the place of emerging”). A monastery was founded there in the 1070s by
Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavych. The name of the monastery and the whole
district is therefore tied to the moment pagan Kyiv was forced
underwater.
Alternative, less dramatic explanations exist: a ferry
crossing that used oak boats (duby) or an older crossing point. The
Perun story remains the one told on site.
Kyrylo Kozhumiaka and
the Serpent
One of the most popular Kyiv-specific hero tales is that
of Kyrylo (or Mykyta) Kozhumiaka, the tanner. A dragon or multi-headed
serpent (Zmiy Horynych) lived near the city and demanded yearly tribute
of young people. When the prince’s daughter was taken, she learned the
monster’s secret: only one man in Kyiv could defeat it - the
leather-worker who soaked twelve hides at once in the Dnipro and whose
smoke rose to the sky.
Kyrylo at first refused. After the princess’s
plea he wrapped himself in hemp and tar, took a massive mace, and fought
the serpent. In some versions he kills it outright. In others he
harnesses it to a giant plow and forces it to cut a furrow from Kyiv
toward the Black Sea, creating the Serpent’s Walls (Zmiievi Valy), the
long earthen ramparts south of the city. The district of Kozhumyaky in
Kyiv takes its name from the hero’s workshop.
The tale belongs to a
wider East Slavic dragon-slayer cycle but is firmly localized: the
tanner lives by the Dnipro, the princess is Kyivan, and the resulting
earthworks still exist as archaeological features. In 2022 some
commentators even noted that the historic ramparts helped slow a Russian
armored column.
The caves of the Pechersk Lavra
The
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra grew out of a hermit’s cave. In the mid-11th century
Anthony of Liubech, after years on Mount Athos, settled in a small cave
originally used by the future Metropolitan Hilarion. Disciples gathered.
Anthony later moved to a new cave (the Near Caves); the original complex
became the Far Caves associated with Theodosius, who introduced communal
(Studite) monastic rule.
The Kyiv-Pechersk Paterikon and later
miracle collections fill the caves with stories: incorrupt relics,
myrrh-streaming skulls, demons defeated by prayer, a buried
archaeologist saved, voices answering “Indeed He is risen” from the
tombs on Pascha. One cave is called Varangian because, legend says,
Vikings hid treasure there. The Lavra’s dual identity - royal patronage
on the surface, extreme asceticism underground - is itself part of the
city’s self-image.
Bald hills and the city of witches
Kyiv has
several “bald” or treeless hills traditionally associated with witches’
gatherings: Zamkova Hora (Castle Hill) near Andriyivskyi Descent, Lysa
Hora, and others. Writers from Gogol onward repeated the claim that “all
the women at the Kyiv market are witches.” Local historian Anatoliy
Makarov suggested a more mundane origin: herbalists and “sorcerers” who
regularly collected plants on the hills, their voices and laughter heard
by residents who then invented a witches’ sabbath.
Friday the 13th
and Walpurgis Night still draw people who want to test the old
reputation. The same hills appear in Mikhail Bulgakov’s work; he grew up
nearby.
Later urban legends
Podil and the riverfront keep
their own ghosts. Foggy nights at the River Station produce “night
passengers” - silent figures waiting for a boat that never comes, said
to be victims of 19th-century floods and steamer wrecks. On the slopes
between Volodymyrska Hirka and Khreshchatyi Park a tall woman in black
is reported between 2 and 4 a.m.
Other sites accumulate stories: the
Sulyma mansion and its unforgiving ghost, the “House with Cats,” a
cursed building on Yaroslaviv Val linked to a pact with a witch, the
absence of bells at St. Andrew’s Church, and the claim that drinking
from the Samson fountain on Kontraktova Square binds a person to Kyiv
forever.
These are living oral traditions rather than chronicle
texts. They attach themselves to specific addresses and keep being
retold.