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Museum of the Great Patriotic War
There's not much to say about Rodina Mat (literally 'Nation's Mother', but formally called the Defence of the Motherland Monument). However, from certain parts of Kyiv it's highly visible and so requires a fittingly high-profile explanation. Especially when you're journeying in from the left (or east) bank, this 62m-tall statue of a female warrior is liable to loom up on the horizon and make you wonder, 'What the hell is that?'
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Museum of Ukrainian Folk and Decorative Arts
The cluster of buildings just south of the Assumption Cathedral includes the mildly interesting Museum of Ukrainian Folk and Decorative Arts and the Refectory Church of St Antoniy & St Feodosiy, sporting the monastery's most famous gold-striped dome. The main domed space is slightly reminiscent of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), with its ring of small narrow windows along the base of the drum. The interior is beautifully painted with biblical scenes, saints and Art Nouveau patterns.
Read more about Museum of Ukrainian Folk and Decorative Arts
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National Art Museum
The National Art Museum displays early Ukrainian icons, and paintings from the 14th to the 19th centuries, including some by polymath national poet Taras Shevchenko.
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National Museum of Ukrainian History
The huge Stalinist building behind the Desyatynna Church ruins on Andriyivsky uzviz, with a wonderful view of Podil and Kyiv's northern suburbs, is the National Museum of Ukrainian History. It has exhibits of archaeological and recent historical interest, including books and currencies.
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Nearer Caves
The entrance to the Nearer Caves is inside the Church of the Raising of the Cross (1700). Before the stairs head downwards. There's a table selling candles to light your way through the dark passages. The use of cameras is forbidden in the caves.
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PinchukArtCentre
The rotating exhibits at the world-class PinchukArtCentre feature elite names in the world of European contemporary art and design, all financed by billionaire mogul Viktor Pinchuk. British giants Antony Gormley and Damian Hirst were among those whose works were on display when we visited.
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Podil
The funicular to the rear of St Michael's Gold-Domed Monastery and Andriyivsky uzviz both lead down to the riverside mercantile quarter of Podil. An appealing grid of streets lined with quaint lanterns and eclectic turn-of-the-20th-century buildings, it's the antidote to all those Soviet façades that dominate vul Khreshchatyk. Dating back to the earliest settlements, the area grew quickly around the port. Today it's a buzzing restaurant district.
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Pyrohovo Museum of Folk Architecture
Ukraine is dotted with 'open-air' museums like this, full of life-size models of different rustic buildings. However, the Pyrohovo Museum of Folk Architecture, 12km south of Kyiv, is one of the most fun and best maintained.
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Russian Art Museum
The Russian Art Museum has 2000 paintings that comprise the largest collection of Russian artwork outside Moscow and St Petersburg.
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St Andrew's Church
Andriyivsky uzviz is named after Kyiv's first Christian preacher, Andrivy, who is said to have climbed the hill here, affixed a cross to its summit and returned via this path. That blue, beautiful piece of baroque dominating the view as you walk up 'the uzviz ' is St Andrew's Church. Built in 1754 by Italian architect Bartelomeo Rastrelli, who also designed the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, this is a magnificent interpretation of the traditional Ukrainian five-domed, cross-shaped church.
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St Michael's Gold-Domed Monastery
Looking from St Sophia's Cathedral past the Bohdan Khmelnytsky statue it's impossible to ignore the gold-domed blue church at the other end of proyizd Volodymyrska. This is St Michael's Gold-Domed Monastery, named after Kyiv's patron saint. As the impossibly shiny cupolas imply, this is a fresh (2001) copy of the original St Michael's (1108), which was torn down by the Soviets in 1937.
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St Michael's Gold-Domed Monastery Museum
St Michael's Gold-Domed Monastery's fascinating history is explained in great detail (in Ukrainian and English placards) in a museum located in the monastery's bell tower. The museum also explains the sad history of the neighbouring Tryokhsvyatytelska Church, destroyed by the Soviets in 1934. They then added insult to injury by building the gargantuan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (pl Mykhaylivska 1) on the site.
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St Nicholas Naberezhny
Church lovers will find several attractive and historic specimens in Podil. Right on the river is St Nicholas Naberezhny, dedicated to Nicholas Naberezhny (Nicholas by the River), the patron saint of sailors and others journeying along the river to do business.
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St Nicholas' Church
In the northwest section of the grounds is the small, late-17th-century St Nicholas' Church, its unique blue dome adorned with golden stars. It's now an administrative building.
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St Sophia's Cathedral
The interior is the most astounding aspect of Kyiv's oldest standing church, St Sophia's Cathedral. Many of the mosaics and frescoes are original, dating back to 1017-31, when the cathedral was built to celebrate Prince Yaroslav's victory in protecting Kyiv from the Pechenegs, tribal raiders.
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St Volodymyr's Cathedral
Although not one of Kyiv's most important churches, St Volodymyr's Cathedral arguably has the prettiest interior. Built in the late 19th century to mark 900 years of Orthodox Christianity in the city, its yellow exterior and seven blue domes conform to standard Byzantine style. However, inside it breaks new ground by displaying Art Nouveau influences.
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Taras Shevchenko Memorial House Museum
The Taras Shevchenko Memorial House Museum is in a beautifully restored, 19th-century wooden house where the great man once lived.
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Trinity Gate Church
The main entrance to the Caves Monastery's upper lavra is through the striking Trinity Gate Church, a rather well-preserved piece of early-12th-century Rus architecture. Rebuilt in the 18th century, it once doubled as a watchtower and as part of the monastery fortifications. It's well worth going inside to observe its rich frescoes and lavish gilded altar. To access the church turn left immediately after entering through the main gate.
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Tsekh
Refuge for underground artists; can be either spectacular or substandard.
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Vydubytsky Monastery
Few churches appear more frozen in time than those of the Vydubytsky Monastery, nestled into the hill's dense foliage beneath the Botanical Gardens. If you found the crowds at the Lavra a little too much to bear - or if you're just into intense serenity - you should not hesitate to come here. The monastery, which is thought to be at least as old as Kyiv, is looking in fine fettle today after centuries of catastrophes followed by years of Soviet neglect.
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Zhyvopysna aleya
About three-quarters of the way up Andriyivsky uzviz on the left, just before you get to St Andrew's Church, is Zhyvopysna aleya, which turns into a giant outdoor art gallery on weekends. We can't say much for the art (anyone for an air-brushed portrait of a semi-clad vixen in front of St Andrew's Cathedral?), but the leafy path leading southeast from here to Volodymyrska Hirka park makes for a pleasant walk or jog.
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Zoloti Vorota
Part of Kyiv's fortifications during the rule of Yaroslav the Wise, the famous Zoloti Vorota sounds much better than it looks, but the summer patio around the fountain out front is a great place to have a drink. Erected in 1037 and modelled on Constantinople's Golden Gate, this was the main entrance into the ancient city, with ramparts stretching out from both sides. However, the gate was largely destroyed in the 1240 Mongol sacking of Kyiv, and what you see today is a 1982 reconstruction.
