Attractions of Kyiv

The pompous building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on Mykhaylivska Square in Kyiv appeared in 1938 on the site of the ancient Church of the Three Saints.

It was the first building of the government complex of the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, which was planned to be built on the space from Mykhaylivska to Sofiyivska Square. In 1934, the Saint Michael's Gold-Domed Cathedral was demolished to clear the space under the Government Square, and the demolition of Saint Sophia of Kyiv was planned.

The first building for the Central Committee of the CP(b)U was built according to the project of the Leningrad architect Yosyp Lanhbard. The second twin building was to be built on the site of Saint Michael's Cathedral. A giant monument to Lenin was supposed to be placed between them. The implementation of these barbaric plans was prevented by the war. The Germans did not use the building. After the war, it again housed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Currently, it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

The Museum "Kamyanytsya of Kyiv Voit" is located in Kyiv in the oldest of the surviving civil buildings of Podil, which has undergone many reconstructions. According to the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine, the building has the name - "Residential building of Yan Bykovskyi (Petro I House)".

According to legend, in 1706 Petro I, who directed the construction of the Pechersk fortress, stopped here. However, the information about the Russian tsar's residence here is not documented.

Later, the house belonged to the Viyt of Kyiv Yan Bykovskyi, who kept a tavern in it. Then there was a "house of humility", a parish school, an orphanage.

Now the premises are occupied by the Museum "Kamyanytsya of Kyiv Viyt", which functions under the rights of a subdivision of the State Historical and Architectural Reserve "Ancient Kyiv".

The museum exposition explores the history of the medieval monument at the corner of Kostyantynivska and Khoryva streets in the context of self-government and traditions of charity in Kyiv. Among the most valuable exhibits is the rare baroque icon "Mother of God with the Child" of the 18th century.

The Museum of One Street is dedicated to the history of Andriyivsky Descent, the most famous and colorful street in Kyiv.

Founded by the literary search association "Mayster", whose activists decided to reveal to visitors some secrets of Andriyivsky Descent, to acquaint with its most famous inhabitants, to recreate and preserve a special aura that surrounds this romantic street - Mecca of artists, writers and other creative people.

The interiors of some typical rooms have been reconstructed, showing the peculiarities of Kyiv life in the 19th century. Separate exhibitions are dedicated to M. Bulhakov, F. Krasitsky, I. Kavaleridze and others.

In 2002, the One Street Museum was named one of the best museums in Europe. Historical, documentary and art exhibitions are held regularly.

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.

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 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.

The Church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker is the first in Ukraine to be built on water.

It is located near the Saint Illya Church in Podil (a number of historians believe that the baptism of Rus took place in this place). Construction near the Kyiv river station was started in 2003 at the initiative and at the expense of the Ukrrichflot company, and a year later the church was consecrated.

The church in honor of the heavenly patron of annuals was erected in the Dnipro water area on stilts, 15 meters from the embankment. The height is 23 meters.

Park-Museum "Ukraine in Miniature" is an open-air exhibition of models of the most famous sights of Ukraine in Kyiv.

Collected in the park area on the banks of the Dnipro, on the territory of the Hydropark. The exhibition opened in 2006 as the park "Kyiv in miniature". About 50 models of famous Kyiv buildings, monuments and structures on a scale of 1:33 have been collected on an area of 1.8 hectares. All models are made of modern synthetic material, but require regular maintenance due to environmental exposure.

At the moment, the "population" of mini-Kiev is almost 1,000 figurines of residents. It has its own Khreschatyk and Independence Square, and the mini-Dnipro is crossed by four bridges: Northern, Pedestrian, Metro, and Southern. In the parks and squares of the mini-city there are monuments to figures of culture, politics and art of Ukraine, and five planes from different countries of the world landed at the airport.

Recently, the exposition has been replenished with models of the most famous monuments of other cities of Ukraine. Among them are the famous Crimean palaces, Chernivtsi University, Kachanivka palace and park complex, Donbas Arena stadium and others.

Park-museum "Ukraine in miniature" works all year round.

The first private pharmacy in Kyiv was opened in 1728 by the German pharmacist Yohann Heyter, but it went down in history as a "Bunge pharmacy" (named after Geiter's son-in-law).

In 1986, the pharmacy was restored in the surviving building, an exposition of the history of pharmacology and pharmacy was opened. The museum displays utensils for preparing herbal mixtures, various jars and glasses for medicines, ancient recipes, tools of pharmacists of past centuries, alcoholic snakes and crabs and many other interesting things.

In the basement of the museum there are installations - the basement of the alchemist and the house of the sorceress.

Here you can buy fragrant handmade soap.

One of the most beautiful and romantic buildings of pre-revolutionary Kyiv - Pidhorsky's house - is sometimes called the "Baron's Castle" by Kyivans.

The house on the corner of Yaroslaviv Val and Lysenko Street, near the Golden Gate, was built at the end of the 19th century by order of the Polish landowner Mykhaylo Pidhorskyi (architect Mykola Dobachevskyi) in the modernized Gothic style popular at the time. The house is crowned with a high spire, the facade is decorated with sculptures of fantastic animals. It was nicknamed the "Baron's Castle" not only because of its characteristic "knightly" appearance, but also because the house next to it really belonged to Baron Rudolf Steinhel, and many believed that the baron owned both houses.

Pidhorsky's house was profitable. On the first floor there was a confectionery cafe "By the Golden Gate" (then a cinema hall), and on the remaining floors there were residential apartments that were rented out.

The extravagant building has survived to this day in an almost unchanged form. Stucco molding, beautiful fireplaces and other decorative elements have been preserved in many rooms of the house. Throughout the Soviet period, it housed communal apartments.

Pidhorsky's house is currently in private ownership and is being restored. On the first floor, there is a gallery of differences "Miracle Icons of Athos" with copies (lists) of the most famous Athos icons: "Abbess of the Holy Mount of Athos", "Sweet Kiss", "All-Empress", "Rejoice and Consolation", "It is Worthy", "The Quick Obedient" ”, “Iverska” (or “Vorotarnytsia”), “Triruchnytsia” and others.

The complex of buildings of the Presence places was erected in the middle of the 19th century on the site of city fortifications.

The project was developed by architects Ivan Shtrom, Mykhaylo Ikonnikov and Ksaversh Skarzhynskyi. In 1900, the building was reconstructed by adding a third floor.

The bureaucratic apparatus of pre-revolutionary Kyiv, including the judicial and police departments, was located here. In Soviet times, the premises retained their purpose, and the address "Korolenko, 15" (the former name of Volodymyrska Street) became a common name.

Currently, the building houses the regional office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Court of Appeal and other authorities.

Pushcha-Vodytsia is a suburban resort village on the northwestern outskirts of Kyiv, the most famous country area near the capital. Even in the 11th century, the princes of Kyiv loved to hunt in the forests of Pushcha-Vodytsia ("Pushcha" means a dense forest, Vodytsia is the name of a small river).

In 1724, state forestry was created, and in the 1890s, the city council, on the initiative of entrepreneur and public figure Mykola Chokolov, founded the country village of Pushcha-Vodytsia.

In 1904, anti-tuberculosis sanatoriums were built, and later general health sanatoriums, a tram line and a telephone connection were laid. In the pre-revolutionary years, maivkas were held here. The sanatorium-resort profile was preserved in the village even in Soviet times. More than 60,000 people were treated here during the year. He received elite status thanks to the departmental "Tsekiv" sanatorium "Pushcha-Ozerna". By the mid-1990s, most of the sanatoriums had closed, many areas with forest areas fell into private ownership, but some examples of summer cottages from the beginning of the 20th century were preserved.

The neo-Gothic building under the mountain Uzdyhalnytsia on the Andriyivsky descent bears the romantic name "Castle of Richard the Lionheart", built on the order of the merchant Dmytro Orlov as a profitable house.

According to legend, the builders, dissatisfied with the payment, specially planned the ventilation in such a way that the wind would howl in the pipes, which led to rumors of ghosts in the house.

During Soviet times, bohemians lived here. In 1992, the building was bought by an American investor for a hotel, but due to problems with the local authorities, the reconstruction was suspended.

The Saint Dimitry Church on Podil in Kyiv was founded in the 17th century as the church of Equal-to-the-Apostles Kostyantyn and Olena.

The beginning was wooden. In 1742-1750, according to the project of the famous architect Ivan Hryhorovych-Barskyi, the stone Kostyantyn and Olena temple with a bell tower and a refectory of the Saint Dimitry church was built.

In the 1930s, the main church was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, but the refectory building, which housed the school gym for a long time, was preserved.

Currently, the Church of Saint Dimitry belongs to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, reconstruction is planned with the restoration of the lost dome.

The gloomy Neo-Renaissance building of the Zemska Administration, built on the order of the provincial authorities, in Soviet times was transferred to the NKVD department, then the KGB. During the German occupation, it served as the premises of the CD.

The entire block around the building is equipped for the needs of the secret police, including temporary detention cells.

The building still retains its profile - the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) is located here.