Attractions of Kyiv

The rectangular building of shopping rows, warehouses and an inn in the center of Kontraktova Square was designed by the architect Luyidzhi Ruska as a two-story building, but due to the fire of 1811, he was only able to build the first floor. They were able to complete the construction in only 25 years.

Nearby is the "Samson" fountain (1749), which was part of the first Kyiv water supply system. In the 19th century, the pavilion was complemented by a naive sculptural composition "Samson tearing the lion's mouth" (the original is kept in the National Art Museum). A sundial is placed above the columns, and the figure of the Apostle Andrew is above the dome.

On August 4, 2023, Hostynnyi Dvir was officially recognized as an architectural monument of national significance.

The Art Nouveau mansion was built in 1907 by architect Eduard-Ferdinand Bradtman by order of Serhiy Arshavsky, a Poltava merchant of the 2nd guild.

In 1918, the building was nationalized, and to this day it houses government structures.

The facade is decorated with a sad female face, which drips water during the rain, and it seems that the mask is crying. Hence the popular name of the mansion.

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.

Hydropark in Kyiv is one of the most popular summer vacation spots on the Dnipro River, convenient thanks to the metro station.

It is located on the site of Predmostova slobidka, which arose near the first Kyiv Chain Bridge and was nicknamed "Venice of Kyiv". The modern recreation complex unites the Venetian and Dolbetsky islands.

Many beaches, attractions, sports grounds, restaurants, cafes and night clubs.

The Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Priorks in Kyiv was built in 1902-1906 on the site of the wooden Saint Demetrius temple.

The name of this area is connected with the word "prior", that is, the abbot of the Catholic monastery in Podil, abolished in the 19th century.

The five-domed church is made in the neo-Rus style with the use of platbands, kokoshniks and brick ornamentation. In the western part there is a bell tower, also topped with a dome. There are three thrones in the church: the main one - in honor of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin, on the north side - in the name of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, on the south side - in the name of the Holy Great Martyrs George the Victorious and Demetrius of Thessalonica.

In the 1920s, the Intercession Church belonged to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, then to the Old Slavonic community, and now to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The former building of the Institute of Noble Girls is located on the hill dominating Khreshchatyk in Kyiv, which offers the best view of Maydan Nezalezhnosti.

The building of the institute was built according to the project of the architect Vikentiy Beretti, and was the property of the Kyiv noble assembly. The institute provided general education, aesthetic and ethical education, graduates were given the right to work as tutors in noble and merchant families. Mykola Kostomarov, Oleksiy Stavrovsky, Vitaliy Shulhyn, Mykola Bunhe, Mykola Lysenko, Yosyp Vytvytsky and others taught here. Natalya Zabila, Olena Pchilka, Natalena Koroleva, Thalberр sisters (singer and pianist) studied at the institute at different times.

During the Soviet rule, the building was occupied by various institutions, including the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR. A memorial cross was erected in honor of repressed Ukrainians, the creation of a museum is being discussed.

Currently, the building has the status of the International Center of Culture and Arts (the former "Zhovtnevy Palace"), the audience hall is used for public and cultural events, the annex houses the first high-tech cinema "Kinopalats" in Kyiv.

In front of the entrance is the "Alley of Stars", on which the names of prominent Ukrainians are placed.

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 Museum-Workshop of the outstanding Ukrainian sculptor, film director and playwright, People’s Artist of Ukraine Ivan Kavaleridze opened in 1993 in a house on Andriyivsky Descent in Kyiv, where the artist worked on a project of a monument to Princess Olha in 1911.

The museum has about 3.5 thousand exhibits. The exhibition presents projects of monuments, easel sculptures, in which the sculptor refers to the image of Taras Shevchenko, Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Lev Tolstoy, Fedir Shalyapin, Amvrosiy Buchma, Lesya Ukrayinka, Mykola Amosov and other prominent personalities.

The museum also exhibits materials that highlight the life and career of Ivan Kavaleridze.

The sightseeing tour includes the artist's memorial room, where furniture and his personal belongings are exhibited. Visitors are shown digital copies of Kavaleridze's films.

The Contemporary Art Center "Ivan Marchuk Museum" is planned to be opened in the former premises of the US Embassy in Kyiv. The artist personally developed the project of reconstruction of the administrative building into a modern museum and exhibition center.

Ivan Marchuk is People's Artist of Ukraine, laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, Knight of the Order of Freedom, recipient of the "National Legend of Ukraine" award of the President of Ukraine, member of the Golden Guild of the Roman Academy of Modern Art. In 2007, he was included in the rating of "Top 100 living geniuses", according to The Daily Telegraph.

The Ivan Marchuk Museum and Cultural Center of Contemporary Art was created in 2021 by decree of the President of Ukraine.

The creative work of the master includes about 5,000 paintings, which are exhibited in museums on all continents of the world. Some of them are kept in the National Art Museum of Ukraine, a branch of which is the Contemporary Art Center "Ivan Marchuk Museum".

Exhibitions of Ivan Marchuk's paintings from the museum's collections are currently being held at other venues.

The Jellyfish Museum in Kyiv was opened in 2018 by a team of professional aquarists under the leadership of Oleksandr and Yana Yanovsky. The institution is located in the very center of the city, on Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

About 20 types of live jellyfish are presented in the exposition. Among the exhibits are fire jellyfish, Atlantic aurelia, "cannonball", Cassiopeia jellyfish, Amakusa jellyfish, spotted Australian jellyfish, "lion's mane" jellyfish and others.

During the tour, you can find out, in particular, how many species of jellyfish known to mankind inhabit the Earth, which of them are deadly poisonous, and which jellyfish is the only immortal creature on the planet.

Dream Island Aquapark in Kyiv is the largest indoor water park in the CIS and one of the largest indoor water parks in Europe (25,000 square meters). Its capacity is up to 4 thousand people.

Located in the "Dream Town" shopping and entertainment center.

The creators of the water park call it the "Jurassic Aquapark" because it is designed in the style of the Lost World: an island with blue lagoons, wild plants and prehistoric animals.

The arsenal of the "Dream Island" water park includes 14 slides, 2 wave pools, 3 pools with current, a lagoon with an aqua bar for 55 seats, a jacuzzi, all types of baths, as well as a children's area with an area of about 700 square meters. Animation for children and adults.

The SPA-zone "Banny world" presents the bath cultures of different peoples of the world: Roman steam room, Indian, Moroccan, Russian bath, Turkish hammam, Finnish or Egyptian sauna, hydromassage showers, etc.

On weekends, aqua parties with exotic cocktails are held in the "Dream Island" water park. There is a tent town where you can stay for the night.

Currently, the "Dream Island" water park is closed for reconstruction.

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 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.

Khreshchaty Park on the hill near the beginning of Volodymyrsky descent in Kyiv is also called Kupetsky (Merchant's) Garden. Initially, this area was part of the Tsarsky (City) Park, until the Kyiv merchants leased from the city a corner of the garden adjacent to the building of the Merchants' Assembly (now the National Philharmonic of Ukraine).

In 1982, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the USSR, a sculptural composition consisting of the Arch of Friendship of Peoples and two sculptural groups below it was installed on the Dnipro Creek behind the Philharmonic. In 2022, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the sculptural part of the monument was dismantled, and the arch was renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People.

A picturesque panorama of the Dnipro opens from here. The Water Museum is located nearby in the water tower (1877). The building next to it, resembling a fairy-tale castle, is the new premises of the Kyiv Academic Puppet Theater (2005).

Khreshchaty Park is connected to the City Garden by a 60-meter Park Bridge (1912) - one of the most romantic places in Kyiv. Also known as the Bridge of Lovers (according to tradition, lovers leave inscriptions and ribbons here) or the Devil's Bridge (the unlucky often chose this place to settle scores with their lives).

Khreshchatyk is the main street of Kyiv, the most popular place for city walks from the 19th century to the present day.

The name comes from Khreshchaty Yar, from which the street began in the area of the current Yevropeyska (European) Square. In turn, the name of the ravine is associated with the baptism of Rus or with the word "christened" - cross-shaped.

For a long time it was a wasteland, the first houses appeared in the 18th century. Due to its favorable location between the Upper Town, Podil and Pechersk, Khreshchatyk quickly became the central and most fashionable street of the city. Most of the old building was destroyed in 1941, after the war it was rebuilt in the "Stalinist" style.

The street starts from the Yevropeyska Square, which is dominated by the modern building of the Ukrainian House. The square tower above the House of Trade Unions became a business card of Kyiv thanks to the electronic clock light board installed in 1981 (now it is replaced by plasma panels). The oldest building on Khreshchatyk is the Kane Hotel (1874), which now houses the Central Deli. Expensive shops and restaurants can still be found in Passage (1914) and on Arkhitektor Horodetsky Street. The street ends at Bessarabian Square, where the oldest indoor Bessarabian Market in Kyiv (1910-1912) is located.

On weekends and holidays, Khreschatyk turns into a pedestrian zone. Concerts and other mass events take place here.

The Museum of Sports Achievements of the Klitschko Brothers was organized on the initiative of the sportsmen's official fan club. It is located on the territory of the "Olimpiyskyi" National Sports Complex in Kyiv.

The Klitschko brothers donated about 70 of their exhibits for the exhibition, including their championship belts, robes, boxer briefs, medals, cups and other trophies of honor. Vitaliy Klitschko also handed over his Hero of Ukraine star and order to the museum.

Museum visitors are shown a film that tells about the most outstanding episodes of the career of the Klitschko brothers. With the help of modern multimedia equipment, visitors to the exhibition can feel the atmosphere of boxing matches.