Attractions of Kyiv

The Church of Mykola Prytyska is one of the oldest in Podil.

According to legend, the fallen icon of Saint Nicolas was "pressed" by a thief who tried to rob the church. According to another version, the name comes from the image of Mykola Prytyska, which stood near the pier ("prityk").

The exact date of foundation of the original wooden church is unknown (probably it was built in the 16th century on the site of an ancient Rus temple), and the stone building was erected in the 17th century at the expense of a merchant nicknamed "Iron Hrosh".

The Church of Mykola Prytyska was reconstructed three times after fires. The last reconstruction was carried out according to the project of the architect Andriy Melensky, preserving the original forms.

Nearby is a two-story church building in which priests lived, a church school and a library.

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 Volha 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 Symon Petlyura, Yevhen Konovalets, Andriy Melnyk, Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych, 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 Monomakhovych 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 Church of Saint Feodosius of Pechersky was built on the place where in 1091, during the transfer of the relics of one of the founders of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra from the Far Caves to the Dormition Cathedral, the monks stopped to rest. The trunk of the oak, on which the crab stood, became the basis of the altar.

The wooden Feodosius Church was first mentioned in the 1630s. The stone temple was rebuilt in 1698-1700 in the Ukrainian Baroque style at the expense of the colonel of the Zaporizhzhia Army Kostyantyn Mokiyevskyi.

In 1992, the Saint Feodosius stauropygial Monastery was opened on the basis of the Church of Saint Feodosius. After the Unification Council of Ukrainian Orthodox Churches on December 15, 2018, it became part of the United Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

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 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.

The Gallery of Protest Art is part of the National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum.

It is located on Pechersk in Kyiv, on the second floor of the Uvarova manor of the early 20th century, where the Institute of National Remembrance is also located.

Exhibitions are held here that interpret and reflect the themes of protests, the Maidan and the struggle for independence and democratic values both in Ukraine and in the world. In particular, the reconstruction of the "Artistic Barbican" is presented - a Maidan location created by artists as a place for meetings, rest, heating and 24-hour duty on the territory of the protest.

The Golden Gate is one of the few monuments of the fortification of Ancient Kyiv. They were the main, main gates of the city of Yaroslav the Wise.

The name comes from the golden bath of the Church of the Annunciation, which crowned the building.

In 1832 archeological excavations were carried out. The Golden Gate was reconstructed for the 1500th anniversary of Kyiv. Ancient foundations can be seen in the museum inside the building.

Nearby in the square - a monument to Yaroslav the Wise (1997), a cast-iron fountain (XIX 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 exposition reveals the essence of a specific Hetman form of government and the structure of the military-civil administration in the then Ukraine, tells about the history and traditions of the Cossack-Hetman era.

The museum was founded in 1993 and is housed in an architectural monument of the late seventeenth century, known to the people of Kyiv as "Mazepa's House". In fact, this two-story mansion in the typical Baroque style 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.

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".

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.

Belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Craft settlements in Podil arose during the time of Kyivan Rus, the names of Honcharna, Kozhumyatska and Dehtyarna streets reflect the nature of the residents' activities.

During Soviet times, the area fell into disrepair.

Currently, elite mansions in the style of the 19th century are being built.

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 History Museum. The Administration of the President of Ukraine 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.