Attractions of Kyiv

The Kyiv Museum of Wax Figures is a private collection of the Sazhyn's family.

The idea of creating a museum came to them in 1997 after getting acquainted with the exposition of the branch of the London Museum in Amsterdam. In 2000, it took three years to present to the audience an exhibition of twenty figures, which formed the basis for the creation of the future museum.

Currently, 60 figures of political figures of the past and present, famous writers, popular actors and singers, glorified athletes are presented in five halls.

In the gallery you can see: politicians (Mykhaylo Hrushevsky, Leonid Kravchuk, Leonid Kuchma and others), writers, poets (Lesya Ukrayinka, Taras Shevchenko, Mykhaylo Bulhakov), musicians (Andriy Makarevych, Viktor Tsoyand others), actors (Heorhiy Vitsin, Yevhen Morhunov, Yuriy Nikulin others), athletes (Valeriy Lobanovsky, Liliya Podkopayeva) and others.

The "Museum of One Nation on Poshtova Square" in Kyiv is an informal public initiative to preserve and popularize the archaeological site of Ancient Kyiv - the remains of the medieval coastal quarter in the underground space of Poshtova Square.

According to historians, it was at this place, by order of Prince Volodymyr Svyatoslavych, that pagan idols were thrown into the Dnipro River, and it was here in 988 that the mass baptism of the people of Kyiv took place.

In the spring of 2015, during the construction of an underground shopping and entertainment center on Poshtova Square, a street from the time of Kyivan Rus (XI-XII centuries) was excavated. Found parts of wooden houses and workshops, remains of the customs house, old stockades, fragments of ceramic dishes, princely seals, weapons, jewelry, etc. Separately, a wooden fortification building of the 17th century was found - the remains of the Khreshchatyk gate tower.

The construction of the shopping center was stopped, and archaeological research and conservation of the monument began. In 2019, the archaeological site "Section of the Coastal City Quarter of Medieval Kyiv" received the status of a monument of national importance. Discussions about museification are still ongoing.

Meanwhile, activists of the public organization "Museum of One Nation on Poshtova Square" conduct unofficial tours of the underground space. Here you can see the remains of the medieval coastal quarter, visit the exhibition "Kyiv History of Bricks" and the photo exhibition "De-Occupied" by the famous photographer Victoria Skuratovska.

Pre-registration is required to get on the tour. The entrance to the location is opposite the funicular, to the left of the entrance to the Church of the Nativity of Christ.

The Znoba-Holembiyevsky creative dynasty museum-workshop was created in 2006 in the house on Pechersk in Kyiv, where since 1965 the Ukrainian sculptor, People's Artist of Ukraine Valentyn Znoba lived with his wife, the artist Tetyana Holembiyevska.

The exhibition presents a large collection of author's sculptures of three generations of artists - Ivan Znoba, Valentin Znoba, Mykola Znoba and their creative families.

Mykola Znoba continues to live and work in the house, supporting the creative atmosphere of the workshop. There is a garden of sculptures in the courtyard, the main one of which is the figure of the Cossack Mamay in front of the entrance to the house, the original of which was installed on Maydan Nezalezhnosti.

The museum-workshop of the Znoba-Holembiyevsky creative dynasty often serves as an artistic venue for meeting cultural figures, artists of various directions and styles.

The historical and memorial museum of Mykhaylo Hrushevsky in Kyiv was opened in 1992 in a three-story building, which the Hrushevsky family purchased in 1908.

The outstanding Ukrainian historian, politician and public figure, chairman of the Central Council of the Ukrainian People's Republic Mykhaylo Hrushevsky lived here for many years together with his brother Oleksandr, daughter Kateryna and nephew Serhiy Shamray. Many figures of the Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1921 visited Hrushevsky here.

In the premises of the House of Hrushevskys, the authentic environment has been preserved: interior decor, staircase, parquet, window fittings, wooden terraces. The exposition presents pieces of furniture, household items, personal documents, manuscripts, a complete collection of Hrushevsky's works and publications under his editorship.

Two rarities are presented in the daughter's room - a photo portrait of the historian, presented to him by his students on the day of his 60th birthday, and a painting portrait of Kateryna Hrushevska painted by Ivan Trush.

Also in the exhibition you can see a clock from Mykhailo Hrushevskyi's office, English porcelain and Mezhyhirya faience from the collection of the Hrushevsky family.

The museum is located in a closed courtyard (entrance through an arch), surrounded by a garden, which was the decoration of the manor during the time of the Hrushevskys.

The museum regularly holds evening events "Coffee stories of the Hrushevskys" and others.

The Kyiv Literary and Memorial Museum-Apartment of Mykola Bazhan was opened in 2004 to mark the centenary of the poet's birthday in the house where the Bazhan family lived for about forty years.

The original interiors of the office, living room, art library, the room of the poet's wife and father have been preserved in the apartment. Antique furniture, objects of decorative and applied art, other personal belongings of the poet convey the special atmosphere of intellectual life of the second half of the 20th century.

A collection of works of fine and decorative applied art, collected by the owner himself and his wife, is presented, including paintings by Mykola Pymonenko, Fedir Krychevskyi, Ivan Trush, Kateryna Bilokur, Mykola Hlushchenko and other artists.

The literary part of the exposition illuminates the creative path of Bazhan. Extant editions of the artist's poems, manuscripts, translations, photos from movies shot according to his scripts, etc. are exhibited. Mykola Bazhan's personal library has more than 8,000 books.

The apartment museum of Mykola Bazhan is a branch of the National Museum of Literature of Ukraine.

In the same building is the Literary Memorial Museum-Apartment of Pavlo Tychyna, who was a neighbor of Bazhan.

A spectacular equestrian monument to the Soviet military leader Mykola Shchors stood from 1954 to 2023 on Tarasa Shevchenko Boulevard in the city of Kyiv, where Shchors was appointed commandant in 1919. Dismantled as part of decommunization after long discussions and public pressure.

The monument was located at the intersection of Shevchenka Boulevard and Symona Petlyury Street, which leads to the Central Railway Station. Until 1926, a monument to Count Oleksiy Bobrynskyi, the organizer of the construction of the railway in Kyiv, stood on this place.

The heroization of the personality of division commander Mykola Shchors, who was of little significance in the history of the Soviet-Ukrainian war, began in 1935 at the initiative of Yosyp Stalin, who wanted to create a propaganda image of the "Ukrainian Chapayev". Shchors commanded the 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division, which captured Kyiv in February 1919 and fought with the troops of Symon Petlyura's Ukrainian People's Army, Denikinians and units of the Ukrainian Galician Army. Shchors died near Korosten under unexplained circumstances (he was probably shot by his associates).

The monument to the red commander was erected 18 years after the relevant government decree was issued, and was erected for the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Council. According to legend, 20-year-old student Leonid Kravchuk - the future president of Ukraine - posed for the sculptors Mykhaylo Lysenko, Vasyl Boroday and Mykola Sukhodolov.

In 2015, the Shchors monument came under the influence of the law "On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols", but a few years before that it was entered into the State Register of immovable monuments of cultural heritage of national importance, which prevented its immediate dismantling. After long public discussions and under the pressure of public activists, in 2023 the monument was removed from the state register and dismantled.

The sculpture was sent for storage to the State Aviation Museum named after Oleh Antonov.

The largest collection of works of Ukrainian painting, sculpture and icon painting from the XII-XX centuries is the National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU) - one of the oldest and largest museums in Ukraine. Its museum funds number about 40 thousand exhibits.

The neoclassical museum building at the beginning of Hrushevskoho Street in Kyiv was built in 1899 by architect Vladyslav Horodetskyi specifically for the Kyiv Art, Industry and Science Museum. It was officially opened in 1904 with the assistance of patrons and art connoisseurs Khanenko, Tereshchenko and others. After the historical exposition was separated in 1934, only a collection of fine arts remained in the museum.

The oldest exhibit is a polychrome wooden relief "Saint George with life" of the XII century of Byzantine origin. Among the pearls of Ukrainian baroque art: Bereznyanskyi iconostasis (1760s, Chernihiv region), the icon "Shroud with a portrait of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi" (first half of the eighteenth century), Cossack portraits of the XVIII century and one of the largest collections in Ukraine popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth. centuries of folk paintings " Cossack Mamay".

Modern art is represented by the works of prominent Ukrainian artists Taras Shevchenko, Mykola Pymonenko, Oleksandr Murashko and others. Among the outstanding achievements of the Ukrainian avant-garde are the works of the world-famous sculptor Oleksandr Arkhipenko and the founder of the monumental artistic style "Boychukism" Mykhaylo Boychuk. The paintings of artists of the Soviet period: Fedir Krychevskyi, Tatyana Yablonska, Mykola Hlushchenko, and others are of great artistic value.

Also in the National Art Museum of Ukraine you can see the original sculptures "Samson with the Lion" and "Andrew the First-Called" from the stone rotunda on the Podil.

Since 1998, the Kyiv Circus has had the status of the National Circus of Ukraine, which gives it the right to be called the main circus arena of the country.

The first stationary Kyiv circus Hippo-Palace of the rich horse breeder and trainer Petro Krutikov was built in Pechersk in 1903 according to the project of the architect Vladyslav Horodetskyi. At that time it was the largest in Europe.

The current fundamental building of the National Circus of Ukraine was built according to the project of the architect Valentin Zhukov in 1960, becoming one of the three main arenas of the USSR.

Today, the National Circus of Ukraine has its own artists of various circus genres, a ballet troupe, and one of the best musical groups.

Excursions "Traveling through the circus building" are held, during which visitors have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the real circus atmosphere, learn interesting historical facts, architectural features of the building, details of the creation of performances.

National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine" (VDNG) is the main exhibition site of the country.

The complex on the southwestern outskirts of Kyiv was built in 1958 as the Republican Agricultural Exhibition, but already at the time of its opening it was named "Exhibition of Best Practices in the National Economy of the Ukrainian SSR". Soon the complex was renamed "Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy" (VDNG). In 10 pavilions, the best samples of products of Ukrainian enterprises were presented.

Currently, "Expocenter of Ukraine" is the organizer of many international and national exhibitions and fairs, a modern demonstration center of Ukraine's achievements in the economic, scientific, industrial, humanitarian and other spheres. The closed exhibition display area is 18,000 square meters, the open area is 21,000 square meters.

From a tourist point of view, the Expocenter is interesting as a sample of grand Soviet architecture - 20 of the 180 buildings located on the territory have the status of historical and cultural monuments of Ukraine.

The National Cultural, Art and Museum Complex "Art Arsenal" (Mystetskyi Arsenal) in Kyiv is a leading Ukrainian cultural institution that integrates various types of art - from contemporary art, new music and theater to literature and museum work. Founded in 2005 on the initiative of President Victor Yushchenko.

The museum is located in the complex of historic buildings of the Old Arsenal opposite the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. This is the best preserved building of the Old Pechersk Fortress of the XVIII century, which later became the citadel of the New Pechersk Fortress. The large two-storey rectangular building was erected in 1784-1801 by the military engineer Carl de Chardon from yellow Kyiv bricks without external plastering, which is why contemporaries called the Arsenal porcelain. Also preserved is part of the main fortress wall with bastions, Vasylkiv and Moscow gates, two powder cellars. From the beginning of the XIX century the Arsenal was at the disposal of the Kiev military garrison, during the XX century the military unit was located here, the defensive Kiev repair plant worked.

Since 2005, the restoration and transformation of the monument of architecture and military engineering into a modern cultural and artistic space has been carried out. So far, less than half of the total exhibition area, reaching 60,000 square meters, is used for exhibitions of contemporary art and various art events.

In the future, the Art Arsenal will become a progressive museum complex that will present the history of Ukrainian art from ancient times to the present and will host collections of masterpieces from the world's leading museums. Now there is a Small Gallery, which presents young Ukrainian art, as well as chamber projects of leading domestic artists. The largest annual event is the Book Arsenal International Festival.

According to the project "Inclusive Travels in Ukraine: accessibility of museums of Ukraine", this largest cultural, artistic and museum complex in Ukraine is successfully implementing a program to increase inclusiveness.

The National Historical and Architectural Museum "Kyiv Fortress" was established in 1927 on the basis of part of the fortifications of one of the world's largest surviving stone and earth fortresses.

The history of the Kyiv fortress in Pechersk begins in the second half of the XVII century, when the Cossacks under the leadership of Hetman Ivan Samoylovych built an earthen quadrangular fortress with a fence around the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Larger fortifications were carried out during the reign of Peter I, when the laurel was surrounded by a stone wall with loopholes and four towers at the expense of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, and later a more perfect fortress with nine earthen bastions was added to it.

In 1831-1856, the New Pechersk Fortress was built, consisting of the Kyiv-Pechersk Citadel, Vasylkivsky and Hospital fortifications, separately located defensive towers, barracks, arsenal workshops and other buildings.

One of the key nodes of defense was the Hospital Fortification, which is perfectly preserved to this day - on its territory is the Main Military Clinical Hospital.

The Kosyi caponier, located outside the main shaft of the Hospital Fortification, houses the Kyiv Fortress Museum with expositions "History of Fortification in Ukraine" and "History of the Use of Kyiv Fortress Buildings", an exhibition "From Nuclear to Shell", as well as an open-air exposition from defensive ramparts, fortress wall caponiers and ancient guns.

Parts of the museum complex are the Spassky bastion of the Kyiv-Pechersk citadel and the largest in Europe Lysohirsky fort with an area of almost 120 hectares in Holosiyvskyi district of Kyiv.

The National Historical and Memorial Reserve "Bykivnia Graves" was established at the site of the mass burial of victims of the political repressions of 1937-1941.

In Stalin's time, a special purpose NKVD facility was located near the village of Bykivnia (now within Kyiv near the Kyiv-Brovary highway), where executed Kyivans, Polish officers, and other victims of Bolshevik terror were secretly buried. In particular, prisoners of Kyiv prisons, who were shot after the German attack on the USSR, were hastily buried here.

According to preliminary data published in Soviet times, 6,783 victims of repression are buried near Bykivnia, but the actual number may be several times higher. Research continues today.

A monument to the victims of repressions has been erected at the entrance to the Bykivnia Graves Memorial.

Funeral services are held every year in mid-May.

The National Military History Museum of Ukraine is located in the Officers' House on Pechersk in Kyiv.

The museum tells about the development of military affairs over many centuries: the Cimmerian-Scythian period, Kyivan Rus, the Cossack era, the First World War, the National Liberation Struggle, the Second World War, the Cold War, the formation of the armed forces of independent Ukraine.

The exposition is based on authentic weapons that were used in different historical eras on the territory of modern Ukraine. In the halls of the museum, you can view military chronicles, documentary and artistic military-historical films.

The museum also conducts patriotic education classes, where you can independently disassemble and assemble automatic firearms.

The National Museum "Chornobyl" is a multifunctional historical and cultural institution that preserves and tells the story of the nuclear accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 as the most severe radioecological catastrophe of the twentieth century.

The museum was opened in 1992 at the initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the historic building of the Fire Tower of the early XX century, which originally housed the Podolsk Fire Department, and later the Kyiv Regional Fire Department, which coordinated the liquidation of the Chornobyl accident.

The exposition covers an area of 1100 square meters has more than 7 thousand exhibits: declassified documents, secret cards, photographs, special devices, personal belongings of the liquidators, items from the exclusion zone.

Perceptions are expanded by modern audiovisual and information media, art installations. The current three-phase diorama "Chornobyl NPP before, during and after the accident" is presented, as well as the current model of the 4th power unit of the Chornobyl NPP. The electronic "Book of Memory of the participants of the liquidation of the Chornobyl accident" is supported.

The museum offers excursions in Ukrainian, Russian, English and German, audio guides, tours to the Chornobyl zone from the museum's partners.

The exhibition halls of the museum are located on the second floor of the building. In order to ensure comfortable movement through the territory of the "Chornobyl" museum for visitors in wheelchairs, the possibility of using an electric lift from the first floor is provided. The main video locations of the museum exposition are adapted to the needs of visitors with hearing impairments.

The National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine "Pyrohiv" gives an opportunity to feel the Ukrainian national flavor and all the diversity of nature and ethnic cultures of different regions of Ukraine.

The country's largest open-air museum (open-air museum) with an area of 133 hectares was founded in 1969 on the southern outskirts of Kyiv, on the relief territory of the ancient suburban village of Pyrohiv, from which it received its informal name.

Among the various landscapes reminiscent of the pastoral hills of the Dnipro, and the steep Carpathian Mountains, and dense Polissia forests, and dry southern steppes, scattered typical of these regions hamlets with authentic wooden buildings of the XVIII-XX centuries. All of them were brought from different parts of the country: temples, houses, outbuildings. In total, more than 300 buildings.

The compositional center of the complex is a group of windmills on a hill above the Singing Field. The landscape panorama is complemented by wooden churches, the oldest of which is the Church of Saint Paraskeva in 1742 from the village of Zarubyntsi in Cherkasy region. The church of Saint Michael the Archangel may be even older - radiocarbon dating dates some of its parts to 1528.

Authentic interiors with ethnographic collections are recreated in the houses of traditional peasant yards, which give an idea of typical occupations and life of different ethnographic groups of Ukrainians: Bukovyna, Volyn, Hutsuls, Podilia, Polishchuky, Slobozhanshyna and others.

You can taste the most popular dishes of Ukrainian cuisine (borsch, kulish, dumplings), prepared according to traditional recipes, in an existing tavern or ham. There is also a food court on the main avenue, which offers popular street food.

During the traditional folk festivals (Kolodiy, Easter, Green Holidays, Ivan Kupala, Pokrova) the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine "Pyrohiv" organizes folk festivals, concerts and performances with the participation of folk groups.

Themed festivals and fairs are held regularly.