Pedestrian & Bicycle Bridge
The glass bridge over the Volodymyrskyi Descent is one of the best viewing points of the capital. This is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that connects the Volodymyrska Hirka (St. Volodymyr Hill) Park with the Peoples’ Friendship Arch. The length of the bridge is 210 meters, the overpass is made of concrete and plastic. The height of the supports exceeds 30 meters.
House with Chimaeras
A fairy-tale embodied in stone resides in the centre, on Bankova Street. This is the architectural image of the city of the times when every house had its own history. The house built in early 1900s according to the project of Władysław Horodecki is decorated with sculptures of fairy-tale and fantastic creatures mixed with the animals we know. Now, it is the reception house of the President of Ukraine.
Chocolate House
When you see this brown house on 17/2 Shovkovychna Street, you get the feeling as if it is made of chocolate. Each room here is made in its own style. The same storey has, according to the principle of artistic divertissement, French, Byzantine and Oriental styles, as well as Modern and Renaissance, in close neighbourhood. Even among new buildings, this small house looks like a precious ornament.
St. Nicholas Catholic Cathedral
The beautiful, majestic old building of the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral is located on Velyka Vasylkivska Street. Also, for 50 years, the cathedral has been used as the House of Organ and Chamber Music, so that classical music fans can get double pleasure both from contemplating the architecture and from listening to a real live organ.
Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
For a long time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy had been the only higher educational institution in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and the entire Orthodox world. Its graduates opened schools, founded libraries, contributed to the development of culture, art, literature, music, and theatre. Touch the majesty yourself by going inside the walls of the main building and the museum in the territory of the KMA.
Mariinskyi Park
This ‘openwork’ building in the Baroque style was built according to the project of the architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1752. Now this building, which is located next to the building of the Parliament, is the ceremonial residence of the President of Ukraine. Amazingly beautiful, it is also beautiful during the day, but absolutely mesmerising when illuminated by the mysterious light of lanterns at night — that’s when it seems to be floating in streams of light.
Golden Gate
Learn the most interesting facts about the defensive architecture of that time. This building is a grand fortress with a wide passage. You can appreciate the greatness of the tower only when you visit it. Currently, an interesting museum exhibition is open in the Golden Gate building.
Andriivskyi Descent
Andriivskyi Descent is Kyiv’s Montmartre and the second most popular street in Kyiv after Khreshchatyk.
Painters come here with their works for sale, as well as musicians and performers. Here, you can look at, and buy, Ukrainian souvenirs: embroidered shirts (vyshyvankas), painted dishes, figurines.
A landmark of the street is building No. 13, where the writer Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of the novels The Master and Margarita, The White Guard, and The Days of the Turbins lived... This building is now the Bulgakov museum.
A dedicated museum was opened in honour of Andriivskyi Descent, and it focuses on the history of that street and called The One Street Museum; the history of the Descent is presented here in paintings, photographs and other artefacts from ancient times to the present day.
The Castle of Richard the Lionheart
The house at the address 15 Andriivskyi Descent is poetically called the Castle of Richard the Lionheart. The building was erected in early 20th century in the English Neo-Gothic style by order of the merchant Dmitry Orlov as a revenue house. The legend says that the builders dissatisfied with their payment, purposefully planned the ventilation in such a way to make the wind howl in the pipes, which led to rumours that the house was haunted. In Soviet times, Bohemians lived here.
Sofiiska (Sophia) Square
Sofiiska Square is one of the most famous squares in Kyiv. It is located near Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square and Volodymyrska Street, in the historical centre of Kyiv.
The square is named after the St. Sophia Cathedral built here almost a thousand years ago. Sofiiska Square is also a calling card of the capital; it is here where the famous monument to Bohdan Khmelnytskyi stands, and it opens Kyiv to guests and tourists.
Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square)
Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square, with its Independence Monument, is the central square of the city set up in the 19th century.
With the independence achieved by our country, there was a need to immortalise that historical event in a monument on the main square of the state. Thus, in honour of the tenth anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, a 62-meter column was built in the central square of the capital, crowned by the girlish figure of Orans in the Ukrainian national costume with a viburnum branch in her hands.
