Attractions of Kyiv region

A popular natural photo location between Vasylkiv and the village of Velyka Buhaivka is called "Kazkovy yar" (Fairy Yar) or "Ukrainian Iceland".

This is quite typical for the Vasylkiv region, but an incredibly picturesque truss-beam system with steep slopes, the height of which sometimes reaches 30 meters.

It often serves as a location for filming and professional photo shoots. In particular, Vasylkiv landscapes can be recognized in the films "Toloka" and "Zakhar Berkut", the TV series "And there will be people". Jamala and Pianoboy's music video for the song "Endorphins" was filmed directly in the "Kazkovy yar".

The tract does not have a nature conservation status, but on the slopes of the ravines in some places the typical typchakovo-kovila steppe vegetation has been preserved, wild animals live. The hunting grounds of the Vasylkiv region Hunting and Fishing Club are located on the territory of the "Kazkovy yar".

The location is to the right of the road from Vasylkiv to Velyka Buhaivka, a dirt driveway leads to it.

On the opposite side of the village of Velyka Buhaivka, there is another raft and beam system - the landscape reserve of local importance "Vasylkivski Carpathians", with which the "Kazkovy yar" is often confused.

The museum of the outstanding Ukrainian artist Mykola Pymonenko was opened in Maliutianka in 1997 at the place where his workshop used to be.

At the age of 11, Mykola helped his father, an icon painter, to paint churches in Maliutianka and neighboring Boiarka.

Pymonenko studied at the icon-painting school at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, then at Mykola Tereshchenko's Kyiv Art School, and in 1882 was enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.

From 1888 to 1911, Mykola Pymonenko and his family spent every summer in Maliutianka, where he created more than 100 of his famous canvases in the style of realism, which are now exhibited in museums in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, St. Petersburg, Paris and other European cities. Among the main ones: "Divination on Christmas Eve", "Home", "Wedding in the Kyiv province", "Matchmakers", "Divination", "On the river", "Ford", "Geese, go home".

Part of the exposition of Mykola Pymonenko's museum was made up of unique exhibits from the family collection, which were given to the museum by the artist's great-grandson.

Today, it is a branch of the Boiarka Museum of Local Lore.

Church of Saints Borys and Hlib in Pereyaslav was built in the early XIX century on the site where in 1015 by order of Sviatopolk the Damned was killed Prince Borys, son of Volodymyr the Baptist, who became one of the first Rus saints.

The first shrine at the confluence of the Alta and Trubezh was erected by the will of Prince Volodymyr Monomakh. In 1125, according to the chronicles, Monomakh died "near his favorite church built on the Alta, seventy-two years from birth." After some time Borys and Hlib Church was destroyed by the Polovtsians, but in 1806-1839 it was rebuilt in the style of classicism.

Architectural monument of national importance. The main shrine is a stone cross that pours myrrh, made in 1664 by the folk craftsman Kharko Bespaly. In fact, the Saints Borys and Hlib Church was built around it. The anointing of the cross began in the 1980s.

To mark the 1000th anniversary of the deaths of Saints Borys and Hlib, an eight-meter wooden cross has been erected on the church grounds.

The historic Andriyivsky Uzviz Street has long been connecting the Upper Town with Podil.

The rough stone-paved road winds steeply between old one- and two-story houses. This is a colorful place that preserves the spirit of old Kyiv, favored by artists and souvenir sellers, and there are always many tourists here.

In the upper part of Andriyivsky Uzviz there is Saint Andrew's Church, below are museums, theaters, art galleries, antique shops, restaurants and cafes. The Bulhakov Museum is open in the Turbiny House (Andriyivsky descent, 13), where the writer created the White Guard. A monument to Bulhakov has been erected near the museum. "Castle of Richard the Lionheart" (Andriyivsky descent, 15) is a profitable house of the merchant Orlov in the English Neo-Gothic style. Opposite - the stairs to the top of the Castle Hill (the wooden castle stood during the Polish-Lithuanian rule in the XV-XVII centuries). The Museum of One Street is located in building No. 2B.

The Chornobyl nuclear power plant was closed in 2000 due to the pressure of the world public on the leadership of Ukraine.

In 1986, the largest man-made accident in world history occurred at the 4th power unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which resulted in radiation contamination of large areas of Ukraine and Belarus. A protective sarcophagus was built over the destroyed power unit.

Visiting is possible only with special passes. Excursions from Kyiv are organized.

The temple, dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, is located on the historical site known as "Askold's grave" (in ancient times - the Hungarian tract).

In 882, Prince Oleh killed the Kyiv rulers Askold and Dir here. Since the time of Princess Olha, the wooden church of Saint Nicholas has stood here (according to another version, the burial place of the first Christian prince Askold is located higher, on the top of the hill in the area of the current Slava Square).

The stone temple in the form of a rotunda was built in the 19th century according to the project of the architect Andrii Melenskyi.

In 1918, Kyiv patriotic students who died in the battle with the Bolsheviks near Kruty were buried at the Askold grave. During Soviet times, a park was built on the territory of the cemetery. Recently, the cross in memory of the heroes of Kruty has been restored.

A memorial sign was installed (1997, architect Janos Vih) dedicated to the events of the 9th century, when the tribes of Ugrians (Hungarians) stopped at the Askold grave on their way from the Volga region to present-day Hungary.

Nowadays, in the lower part of the Church of Saint Nicholas, three memorial signs have been installed, on which the history of the latest Russian-Ukrainian war is engraved: the first - in honor of the "Cyborgs" who defended the Donetsk airport, the second - to the defenders of Debaltsevo, the third - to the heroes of Ilovaisk. A chapel called "military" was also rebuilt and restored. Paintings in the chapel were made by the famous artist Maryna Sochenko. The paintings depict prominent military figures, from the Kyiv princes and hetmans to the present day - portraits of Simon Petliura, Yevhen Konovalts, Andriy Melnyk, Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevich, Oleh Olzhych, Olena Teliha, as well as Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred.

Therefore, Askold's grave becomes the pantheon of the Ukrainian people.

The Dormition Church of the Virgin of Pyrohoshcha is the oldest church preserved in its original form in Podil.

It was built at the behest of Prince Mstislav the Great for the icon of the Mother of God Pirhotissa, i.e. "tower" brought from Constantinople (the bell tower of the Blacherna Monastery was depicted next to the Mother of God). Probably, the unusual overseas word in the vernacular split into two interrelated ones: "pie" (bread) and "guests" (merchants) - "Pyrohoshcha".

According to the "Word about Igor's Regiment", Prince Igor thanked the Holy Virgin of Pyrohoshcha in this church for his rescue from Polovtsian captivity.

In the 16th-19th centuries, the Church of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God in Pyrohoshcha was the cathedral church of Podil. Magisterial ceremonies were held here, and the city archive was kept.

It was destroyed under Soviet power in 1935, restored in 1998 in its original Byzantine forms.

The Holy Intercession Church on Podil in Kyiv was built by the architect Ivan Hryhorovych-Barsky on the site of the ancient Armenian Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God.

The church is made in the typical Ukrainian Baroque style. Nearby - a bell tower of the 18th century. Opposite - the bell tower of the church of Nicholas the Good (1716), destroyed in Soviet times, where the writer Mykhailo Bulhakov was married.

The Church of the Saviour at Berestove is an ancient temple located behind the northern wall of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

Berestovt (now the territory of Glory Park) was the suburban residence of Prince Volodymyr the Great of Kyiv and his descendants.

It is believed that the construction of the temple in this place was started by Volodymyr Monomakh in the 12th century as the main cathedral of the Transfiguration Monastery - the residence of the princes of the Monomakhovich family. His daughters Yevfimiya and Sophia are buried here, as well as the founder of Moscow, Yuriy Dolhoruky, and his son, Prince of Kyiv, Hlib Yuriyovych.

In the 17th-18th centuries, the temple was reconstructed and became five-domed, the interiors were painted by Kyiv and Athos masters. In the 19th century, the architect Andriy Melensky added a bell tower to it.

The Church of the Savior on Berestove has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1990.

The Cossack Church of John the Baptist is an example of folk wooden architecture, the oldest wooden church in Pereyaslav. It is located on the territory of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life. Transported from the village of Ostriyki (Bilotserkivske Starostvo).

A Cossack cemetery with stone crosses has been recreated around the church. Nearby is a three-tier bell tower (XVIII century) from the village of Busheve, Kyiv region. A church bell weighing 25 tons is installed in it.

Another wooden church is located nearby - the Church of the Intercession (1778) from the village of Sukhyi Yar in the Stavyshchen district. In Soviet times, it housed the Museum of Atheism, and now it is the Museum of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Fastiv was built at the beginning of the 20th century according to the project of the architect Vladyslav Dombrovsky in the neo-Gothic style at the expense of Countess Branytska.

The main facade is crowned by two different towers, between which the central entrance to the church is located. Above the entrance there is a characteristic round Gothic rose window. The facade features a sculpture of a bishop and a bas-relief composition "Christ Blessing the Children". The interior decoration of the church is quite ascetic, except for the columns with magnificent capitals.

The original asymmetric temple with rich decor is considered a business card of the city.

The building of the Catholic seminary is located nearby. Father Zygmund Kozar, the abbot of the church, thanks to whom the Catholic shrine of Fastiv was revived and restored in the 1990s, is buried on the territory of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church.

During the creation of the Kaniv Reservoir in 1972, several villages on the outskirts of Rzhyshchiv were flooded. On the site of the former village of Husyntsi, the half-flooded Transfiguration Church with a bell tower has been preserved.

It was built by the local landowner Husynskyi in 1812 (according to other data, in 1822). The temple in the Ukrainian Baroque style stood on a hill that turned into an island. It could only be reached by water in summer, and in winter it was possible to approach it on ice from the opposite bank of the Dnipro from Rzhyshchiv (difficult access through the forest).

For a long time, the church remained dilapidated. In 2009, shore strengthening works, raising the level of the island and reconstruction of the temple began. A long bridge connects the island with the shore, where the Nicholas monastery-hermitage was recently founded. In the summer, you can organize a trip to the island by boat from the Rzhyshchiv pier.

The famous Kyiv "House with Chimeras" is one of the most extravagant creations of the architect Vladyslav Horodetskyi (he lived in this building until 1920).

The house is located on a steep cave slope, has three floors on one side, and six on the other. The facades are decorated with intricate sculptures on the themes of ancient myths and hunting, which served primarily as an advertisement for a new building material - cement. The legend attributes the gloomy sculptural subjects to the grief of Horodetskyi for his daughter who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.

In Soviet times, the building was a communal building, then a hospital of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Currently, it is a small residence for receptions of the President of Ukraine. Excursions are organized by the Kyiv Museum of History. The Administration of the President of Ukraine is located opposite.

The Intercession Church in Fastiv is a masterpiece of Ukrainian wooden architecture in Central Ukraine.

It was built in 1740 on the site of the ancient temple, founded by the famous Fastiv colonel Semen Palyi. The three-log Intercession Church is distinguished by harmonious proportions and completeness of forms. An arcade gallery surrounds the temple along its perimeter.

In 1781, the temple bell tower was built. In Soviet times, a thorough restoration was carried out.

On June 23, 2022, the Intercession Church officially transferred to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The palace in Baroque style was built in Klov (present-day Lypky), in the possessions of the Kyiv Pechersk Monastery, to house the honored guests of the Lavra.

The authors of the project were the German architect Johan Schedel and the Ukrainian architect Pero Neelov, the construction was supervised by the self-taught serf architect Stepan Kovnir. In 1863, the third floor was completed. The interior was painted by Ukrainian artists in 1757.

Klovsky Palace was never destined to serve its purpose - representatives of the royal court who visited Kyiv did not stay here. The palace briefly housed the Lavra printing house, later a military hospital. Later, various educational institutions were located in it, and in Soviet times - museums.

In recent years, the building was completely restored, and it housed the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The walls and ceiling were decorated with sculptures of ancient Roman and ancient Greek gods of justice and fairness. The furniture is made according to the author's drawings in the style of the middle of the 18th century.

Excursions are planned.