Attractions of Kyiv

Ukrainian Sixtiers Dissident Movement Museum in Kyiv opened in 2012 in the building that houses the party "People's Movement of Ukraine".

The Art Nouveau mansion with a lion sculpture on the facade was built in 1907-1908 by architect Ihnatiy Ledokhovsky. Before the Bolshevik coup of 1917, housed the surgical hospital of Dr. Ihnatiy Makovsky. In 1911, the Prime Minister of the Russian Empire, Petro Stolypin, died in the Makovsky clinic, mortally wounded by a terrorist during a performance at the Opera House.

Since 1999, the central office of the People's Movement of Ukraine, one of the oldest political parties in Ukraine, whose founders were the famous Ukrainian sixties Vyacheslav Chornovil, Ivan Drach, Mykhaylo Horyn and others, moved to the building. Their political and human rights activities began during the "Khrushchev thaw" in the USSR in the 1960s, but later some of the sixties were repressed.

The Sixtiers Museum was opened on the basis of the collection collected by the activists of the sixties public organization. The exposition includes about 20,000 exhibits.

The Ukrainian Sixtiers Dissident Movement Museum is a branch of the Kyiv History Museum.

The Museum of Useless Things in the area of the Livoberezhna metro station in Kyiv is called the "Museum of Antiques" or the "Museum of Recycled Materials".

It was opened in 2007 on the territory of the "Kyivmiskvtorresurs" plant, which is engaged in the procurement and processing of secondary raw materials. Back in the middle of the 20th century, interesting things began to be systematically selected from the garbage here, and later, having learned that the factory accepts antique items, people began to bring them here.

Among the unique rarities are the very first vacuum cleaner in the Russian Empire, an ancient set of hairdressing tools, a set of torture tools for the tsarist gendarmerie, a sledge, a hemp processing machine.

An entire stand is dedicated to the Soviet theme, with about 40 different figures of the leader of the revolution, and the famous 7-meter statue of Lenin, brought from Crimea, is installed in the yard of the plant.

The large exhibition is located on the street under a canopy, and the small one is in a wooden old-fashioned house.

The Victoria Museum of Costume and Style was founded in Kyiv in 2017 by private collector Victoria Lysenko.

The exhibition was located in a renovated eclectic-style tenement house built at the end of the 19th century by the merchant of the first guild Lazar Chornoyarov.

Seven exhibition halls on two floors presented more than 1,500 authentic exhibits from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including clothing, shoes, accessories, jewelry, and ordinary household items used by residents of cities in Ukraine and Europe at that time.

The first hall presented costumes from 1900-1920, reflecting the pre-revolutionary style of Kyiv residents. The second hall was used for temporary exhibitions. The third hall exhibited clothing from the end of the 19th century, a characteristic feature of which were obligatory women's corsets. The exhibits of the fourth hall reflected the fashion of the first half of the 19th century, which was characterized by women's dresses with crinolines. The fifth hall was equipped with a recreation area and photo locations. The sixth hall provided an opportunity to examine some exhibits in detail almost up close. The seventh hall was equipped with a cinema hall and another photo zone.

Among the unique exhibits of the Victoria Museum is the only dress in Ukraine from the Charles Worth Fashion House of the early 20th century. A collection of fans of the 18th-20th centuries is also presented.

ATTENTION! On April 26, 2025, the owner and founder of the Victoria Museum Costume and Style Museum, Victoria Lysenko, announced the closure of the Museum due to low attendance, which did not cover the costs of operating the institution.

The memorial museum-apartment of the composer Viktor Kosenko was founded in 1938 by his widow Anhelina Kanep-Kosenko.

The museum recreates the interiors of Kosenko's living room and office as they were during his lifetime. Among the personal belongings of the composer presented in the exposition, the oldest is the name silver spoon from Kosenko's parental home. An album made of crocodile skin with sheet music of themes from Kosenko's symphonic works attracts attention. Books from Kosenko's personal library are presented with the authors' gift inscriptions.

Now the Museum-apartment of Viktor Kosenko is a branch of the Museum of Theater, Music and Film Arts of Ukraine.

"Vysotsky" Gallery is the first museum of the poet, singer and actor Volodymyr Vysotskyi in Ukraine.

It is located on Vozdvyzhenka in Kyiv, next to Andriyivskyi Uzviz. Valuable exhibits, as well as unique memories of Vysotsky's contemporaries are collected here. In particular, rare photos of Arkadiy Hershman's work, books with poems by and about Vysotsky, discs with films in which Vysotsky starred are presented.

There is a cafe "Tahanka", where recordings of Vysotsky's songs are constantly played. In memory, you can buy souvenir products - t-shirts, mugs, etc.

WARNING! Since the beginning of 2020 due to quarantine, and since 2022 due to martial law, the museum exposition has been temporarily closed.

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 writer's building of the "Worker of Literature" cooperative (Rolit) at the intersection of Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street and Mykhaylo Kotsyubynskoho Street is the "most memorable" building in Kyiv. 29 memorial plaques have been installed on its facade - a kind of record.

The building in the style of constructivism and classicism, designed by Vasyl Krychevskyi, was built in 1934 by the housing cooperative of the Union of Writers. At different times, about 130 writers and other artists lived here, including Oles Honchar, Pavlo Tychyna, Maksym Rylskyi, Volodymyr Sosyura, Mykola Bazhan, Oleksandr Korniychuk, Andriy Malyshko, Ostap Vyshnya and others. Oles Honchar's "Cathedral" was created here and Andriy Malyshko's "Song about a Towel" was written.

The writer's house is also mentioned in several literary works and memoirs of writers.

In 1970, the Rolit building was declared a historical monument.

Archangel Michael Zvirynets cave monastery is an ancient Rus underground abode founded in the 10th-11th centuries on the territory of Zvirynets - the country hunting grounds of Prince Vsevolod of Kyiv.

The monastery was destroyed by the Polovtsy in 1096-1097. The caves were opened in 1888 by the Ukrainian artist Dmytro Zaychenko.

The internal arrangement of the complex is similar to the caves of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. A small cell was discovered near the entrance to the caves, to the left of it - a straight underground corridor with 40 burial niches. A cave church was also discovered. In the caves, cypress boards from tombs, slate slabs and plinths, remains of felt and leather shoes, ceramics and other things were found. Old Rus drawings and inscriptions have been preserved on the walls, including the famous Zvirynets Cross, which became the most popular Orthodox symbol of the Moscow Patriarchate in Kyiv.

At the end of the 19th century, the monastery was partially restored as a hermitage of the Saint Jonas Monastery with the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. Today it is an independent Archangel Michael monastery in Zvirynets.