Attractions of Kyiv

The beautiful building with many spiers belonged to the Baltic baron Volodymyr Ikskull-Hildenband (his coat of arms is preserved above the double arch of the front entrance and entrance).

It was built in 1901 according to the project of civil engineer Mykola Vyshnevsky as a profit house, designed in the Gothic style. During the Second World War, the wooden parts burned down, and the Gothic spiers were lost. After the war, the building was renovated, changing the layout. The main details of the facade and a beautiful stylish lobby (it can be seen in one of the episodes of the film "His Excellency's Adjutant") have survived.

In recent years, the Baron Ikskull-Hildenband House was reconstructed again, according to the author's drawings that have survived, the spiers were restored, and an extension was added to the yard.

The monument to Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi is one of the oldest and most outstanding city monuments, a business card of Kyiv.

The idea of its installation belongs to professor Mykhaylo Maksymovych, historian Mykola Kostomarov, poet Mykhaylo Yuzefovych and artist Mykhaylo Mykeshin, who convinced Tsar Oleksandr II to start collecting donations for the monument "to the one who returned the Kiev shrine to the Rus people, who saved, perhaps, Orthodoxy on the banks of the Dnipro".

The multi-figure composition of the monument conceived by Mykeshin had to be greatly simplified for financial and political reasons, excluding anti-Polish and anti-Semitic elements. The idea was embodied in bronze by sculptors Pius Velionskyi and Artemiy Ober.

The city authorities decided to place the monument on Sofiyivska Square, where in 1648 the people of Kyiv met the Cossack regiments led by Khmelnitsky, who entered the city after the victory over the Polish nobility. Eight years were spent on disputes about the place of installation and placement of the monument, as a result of which the hetman began to "threaten" with his mace not Warsaw, but somewhere in the direction of Moscow. Only in 1886, the architect Volodymyr Mykolayiv began the construction of a pedestal from granite blocks that remained after the construction of the pillars of the Lantsyuhovy Bridge.

The opening of the monument took place on the day of the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Rus.

After the Bolshevik coup of 1917, the inscription on the pedestal "We want an Eastern, Orthodox tsar" and "Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, one indivisible Russia" were replaced by one laconic one: "Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. 1888."

Since that time, the square around the monument has repeatedly become the scene of important social and political events, both in the revolutionary times of the beginning of the 20th century and now - usually, rallies and demonstrations of national patriots are held here.

Castle Hill (Khoryvytsya) is a historical area of ​​Kyiv associated with the legend of the founders of the city. Along with Shchekavytsya Hill, Starokyivska Hill and Lybid River, Khoryvytsya is one of the main symbols of Kyiv.

According to legend, when the first Kyiv prince Kyi founded Kyiv Castle on Starokyivska Hill, his brother Khoryv built his city on the nearby Khoryvytsya Hill. Traditionally, Khoryvytsya is identified with the mountain that is now known as Castle Hill (Kyselivka), although according to another version, Khoryvytsya should be called the current mountain Yurkovytsya.

At the end of the 14th century, when Podil became the center of Kyiv, a wooden castle of the Lithuanian voivode was built on Castle Hill. In 1482, it was burned by the Tatars, but it was soon restored, and at the end of the 16th century it became the residence of the Polish voivode. The mountain began to be called Kyselivka in the middle of the 17th century after the Kyiv voivode Adam Kysil. The castle had 15 towers, its area was 16 thousand square meters. In 1651, the Ukrainian Cossacks burned down the castle, and since then it has not been restored.

In the 19th century, Castle Hill was transferred to the Florivsky Monastery, and a cemetery appeared on it. Now this place is popular with representatives of informal youth movements and followers of pagan cults. Reconstruction of the castle and the creation of a museum complex are planned.

The Central Kyiv Synagogue was built in 1897-1898 at the expense of a large sugar factory, Lazar Brodsky, and informally bears his name.

The design of the synagogue in the Moorish style was developed by architect George Shleifer. The building functioned as a Jewish religious center for three decades. In Soviet times, a puppet theater was located here. Since 1992, the service has been resumed.

A small museum has been created in the hall of the Brodsky synagogue - here you can see a Hanukkah by the famous Israeli sculptor Frank Meisler, a fragment of a Torah scroll of the II-V centuries, a copy of the key from the opening of the synagogue in 1898, old books, stacks, tefillin, mezuzahs, candlesticks.

The mansion of the timber producer Semen Mohylyovtsev in Pechersk Lypky in Kyiv is nicknamed the "Chocolate House" for the color and texture of the exterior walls.

Academician of architecture Volodymyr Nikolaev is called the author of the project. Unique interiors are made in various artistic styles (modern, renaissance, gothic, baroque).

In the Soviet period, the "Chocolate House" was used as a residence, then as the city's Palace of Marriages. Until recently, it was in a state of emergency.

Currently, the "Chocolate House" is a branch of the Kyiv Art Gallery National Museum.

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 Feofaniya tract is a picturesque area on the southern outskirts of Kyiv, where the Feofaniya park and the Saint Panteleymon women's monastery are located.

It was mentioned for the first time in 1471 as a tract of Lazarivshchyna, belonging to the Kyiv administrator Khodyk. In 1803, Bishop Feofan of Chyhyryn settled here, and the village was named Feofaniya. At the same time, the first wooden temple in honor of the Miracle of Michael the Archangel and the bishop's house were built. In 1861, a hermitage was founded in Feofaniya, and in 1912, the majestic Panteleymon Cathedral was built here.

The monastery was closed by the Soviet authorities in the 1930s, medical institutions of various departments, the main observatory and field experimental laboratory of the Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine were located here. Only in 1990, the mutilated cathedral building was returned to the Orthodox Church. Three years later, Feofaniya became a hermitage of the Holy Intercession Church Convent, and in 2002 the monastery became independent.

The territory of the tract has the status of a monument of garden and park art, subordinated to the State Reserve Farm "Feofaniya" of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Since 2003, the recreation area near the ponds has been reconstructed with the arrangement of water supply, drainage, gazebos, fountains, the laying of paths, lining of the shores, etc. The reconstruction has not yet been completed, but the park is already popular among the townspeople.

"Golden Gates" - one of the few monuments of the fortification of Ancient Kyiv. They were the main, ceremonial gate of the city of Yaroslav.

Mentioned in the chronicle article of 1037, which tells about the construction activities of Prince Yaroslav the Wise. However, recent research proves that the construction of Kyiv fortifications, together with the "Golden Gates", was begun by Volodymyr the Great, and completed by his son Yaroslav the Wise, who erected the Church of the Annunciation on them, consecrated in 1022. The name of the gate comes from the golden dome of the Annunciation Church, which crowned the structure.

In 1832, thorough archaeological excavations were carried out. In 1982, to the 1500th anniversary of Kyiv, the "Golden Gates" were reconstructed. During the reconstruction, the late masonry adjacent to the walls of the first half of the 11th century, and the buttresses of the 19th century were preserved. The modern superstructure does not put pressure on the old walls, it rests on metal structures hidden in its thickness. The ancient foundations can be viewed inside the building.

In 1983, the pavilion-reconstruction "Golden Gates" became a museum. It is part of the National Reserve "Sophia of Kyiv".

Nearby in the park is a monument to Yaroslav the Wise (1997), a cast-iron fountain (19th century). From here begins Yaroslaviv Val Street, laid along one of the defensive ramparts of Ancient Kyiv.

The Museum of Hetmanship in Kyiv is dedicated to the history of state formation of Ukraine during the Zaporizhzhian Cossack Army and the Hetmanshchyna of the XVII-XVIII centuries, as well as the Hetmanate of the early XX century.

The museum's exposition reveals the essence of the specific hetman form of government and the structure of military-civilian administration in contemporary Ukraine, and tells about the history and traditions of the Cossack-Hetman era.

The Hetmanship Museum was founded in 1993 and is housed in a late 17th-century architectural monument known to Kyivans as "Mazepa's House." Indeed, this two-story mansion in the Baroque style typical of Cossack architecture was built during the reign of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, although there is no direct evidence of his stay here.

From 1717 the house was owned by the Cossack-bourgeois Sychevskyi family, whose representatives were part of the city magistrate. Among the few Podil mansions, this house survived the fire of 1811, as indicated by its location at an angle to later street planning. During the reconstruction of Podil, the architect Andriy Melenskyi completed the second floor and the pediment with columns.

In Soviet times, there were communal apartments. In 1992, the Ivan Mazepa Foundation carried out a restoration to create the Museum of Hetmanship. It is part of the State Historical and Architectural Reserve "Ancient Kyiv".

The museum has more than 9,000 museum items. In the hall of Bohdan Khmelnytsky the banner of the hetman with his family coat of arms is presented. The scientific exhibitions "Hetman Ivan Mazepa", "Pylyp Orlyk - Hetman, the author of the first democratic constitution of Ukraine" and "Pavlo Skoropadskyi and the Ukrainian state of 1918" are constantly open. Among the exhibits: an engraving of 1706 "Mazepa among his good deeds", a map of Ukraine by Johann Baptist Homann in 1716, items from the personal collection of the Skoropadskyi family.

The museum periodically holds meetings of the discussion club "Hetman's Living Room".

RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

On the night of October 23, 2025, as a result of a Russian air attack, the Hetmanship Museum suffered significant damage - 21 windows were broken in the museum, shrapnel cut the facade of the building, the blast wave deformed the entrance metal door, and some decorative wooden doors on the second floor were broken.

The Holy Intercession Cathedral on Solomyanka in Kyiv is the work of Ipolit Nikolaev.

The church was built on the order of the Kyiv City Council during 1895-1897 in memory of the Metropolitan of Kyiv and Halytskyi Platon (Horodetskyi). It is also known by the name "Platon's Church" among Kyivans.

In 1905-1919, the future creator and first metropolitan of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Vasyl Lypkivskyi, was the rector of the church.

Holy Intercession Cathedral belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The artisan settlements in the Honchari-Kozhumyaki tract in Kyiv Podil arose during the time of Kyivan Rus. The names of the streets Honcharna, Kozhumyacka and Dehtyarna reflect the nature of the residents' activities.

During Soviet times, the area fell into decline. Since the early 2000s, the Honchari-Kozhumyaki microdistrict has been built up with elite mansions in the style of the 19th century, creating a new architectural ensemble of the historical center of Kyiv.

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 "House with Chimeras" 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. Tours to the "House of Chimeras" are organized by the Kyiv History Museum. The President of Ukraine Office is located opposite.

A monument to the great Ukrainian philosopher and educator Hryhoriy Skovoroda is erected on Kontraktova Square in Kyiv in front of the building of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, where he studied from 1738 to 1750, sang in the choir, and later taught.

Hryhoriy Skovoroda is depicted as if returning to his alma mater. According to the idea of the author of the sculpture, Ivan Kavaleridze, he was supposed to be barefoot, with a Bible under his arm and a cross around his neck, but at the request of the party leadership, the philosopher was put in shoes, and the Christian symbols were removed.

The Skovroda monument became the mascot of the students of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. According to tradition, every year on the day of the academy on October 14, the monument is washed, and on June 28, on the day of the awarding of diplomas, a bonnet - a black graduate cap - is put on Skovoroda's head. It is also a traditional place for informal youth meetings.

The National Center of Folk Culture "Ivan Honchar Museum" was created in 1993 on the initiative of the People's Artist of Ukraine Ivan Honchar, co-founder of the Ukrainian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments, and one of the largest open-air museums in the world - the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine.

The museum is housed in an ancient building - an architectural monument of the 18th century. The exposition is based on the private collection of Ivan Honchar, who in Soviet times searched for and collected highly artistic works of Ukrainian folk art, as well as the works of professional painters who could not enter state museums for ideological reasons.

A large collection of icons of the 16th-18th centuries, fabrics, ceramics, and musical instruments is presented.

The National Museum of Arts named after Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko in Kyiv presents the world art of Europe, Asia and the Ancient World in Ukraine.

The exposition is based on the artistic collection of the Khanenko family - prominent Ukrainian entrepreneurs, collectors and philanthropists of the XIX-XX centuries. The museum is located in their family mansion, built in the late XIX century in the style of historicism using artistic features of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo.

The Khanenko Museum represents about 4,000 years of art development in different parts of the world, more than 1,000 works in a permanent exhibition. Western European art of the XIV-XVIII centuries is represented by the works of such masters as Francois Boucher, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacques-Louis David, Giovanni Bellini and others. Among them are two masterpieces of Spanish painting - "Still Life with a Chocolate Mill" by Juan Surbaran and "Portrait of Infanta Margarita" by Diego Velázquez. The Khanenkos themselves valued the painting "Venus Dedicates Bacchanalia in the Secret of Love", which was attributed to Titian, but modern researchers have concluded that it is only an imitation of the master of an unknown Venetian artist of the XVII century.

The Khanenko Museum also has a huge collection of art from the Middle and Far East: Japanese Nets, Chinese porcelain, Persian rugs and Tibetan bronze sculptures. A small collection of artifacts from South America and Africa is presented.

GENERAL INFORMATION ON ACCESSIBILITY: The premises of the Khanenko Museum are located in historical buildings, which makes it difficult to create proper conditions for accessibility. In 2022, the Museum Courtyard was opened as a fully accessible and inclusive space. For blind and partially sighted people, the Khanenko Museum offers a tactile experience of art - 3 tactile copies of ceramics, 2 plastic albums with 17 tactile copies of objects from the museum's collection, and 2 special tactile maps that help navigate the space.