Things to do in Kyiv
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Kievo-Pecherska Lavra
Tourists and Orthodox pilgrims alike flock to the Kievo-Pecherska Lavra. It’s easy to see why the tourists come. Set on 28 hectares of grassy hills above the Dnipro River, the monastery’s tight cluster of gold-domed churches is a feast for the eyes, the hoard of Scythian gold rivals that of the Hermitage in St Petersburg, and the underground labyrinths lined with mummified monks are exotic and intriguing.
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Vesuvio Pizza
Vesuvio serves delicious pizza and sensibly priced Italian food in a quiet, no-frills space near Zoloti Vorota. Long one of Kyiv’s most popular pizzerias, it now has a second location on bul Tarasa Shevchenka, near the St Petersburg Hotel. Both restaurants deliver.
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Maydan Nezalezhnosti
Fountain-filled maydan Nezalezhnosti is the city's most popular meeting place. This was made plain on worldwide TV at the end of 2004 when the square became ground zero for Ukraine's Orange Revolution and makeshift tent city.
The square has held protests since the Orange Revolution and will probably see many more. But 'Maydan' does not require political strife to affirm its place as Kyiv's loudly thumping heart. All streets in the centre seem to spill into maydan Nezalezhnosti, and with them spills a cross-section of Kyiv life: vendors selling food and souvenirs, teenagers carousing under the watchful gaze of winged angel statues, skate rats and snake charmers, lovers and…
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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?'
What the hell, indeed. It's the icing on top of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. The statue has been nicknamed 'the Iron Lady' and 'Tin Tits'. Even if you don't like such Soviet pomposity, don't say too much; you'd be taking on a titanium wom…
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Antoniy Caves
The Antoniy Caves, Chernihiv's answer to Kyiv's Kievo-Pecherska Lavra lurk beneath the ground a short walk north of the Troyitsko-Illynsky Monastery. The caves consist of 315m of passageways, galleries and chapels constructed from the 11th to 13th centuries.
These are very different from those in Kyiv in that they lack both dead mummies and, for the most part, live tourists. The conditions here were too cold and humid to support mummification. Instead, the bones of monks killed during the Mongol invasion are preserved in a windowed sarcophagus; touching the sarcophagus is considered good luck. The cave's benefactor and namesake, St Antoniy of Pechersk, also helped burrow …
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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.
Podil was last rebuilt in 1811 after a devastating fire and emerged largely unscathed from WWII.
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Zoloti Vorota
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. The statue to the side is of Yaroslav.
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St Andrew’s Church
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. Entry to the rich interior, where English placards explain the history of the church, is free during frequent services and 6uah at other times.
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Andriyivsky uzviz
It says a lot for Andriyivsky uzviz that it has retained its charm despite the souvenir stalls overflowing on its cobblestones. Historically this curving incline linked the high ground of the administrative centre, or Upper Town, to Podil. Nowadays it's frequented by purveyors of Ukrainian crafts, Soviet memorabilia, Yuri Gagarin T-shirts and the occasional stunning photo of Kyiv. Yet the quaint houses and crooked pavements still give the place plenty of atmosphere.
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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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Kaffa
The recent onslaught of coffee houses has not changed one thing: long-standing Kaffa still serves the most heart-pumping, rich-tasting brew in town. Coffees and teas from all over the world are served in a pot sufficient for two or three punters in a blissfully smoke-free, whitewashed African-inspired interior – all ethnic masks, beads and leather.
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Varenichnaya #1
Specialising in varenyky (Ukrainian dumplings), this mimics the homy interior of an early-20th-century private apartment. Nearly 25 different varenyky fillings are offered. Surely, though, the live piglet in the basket near the door (so cute!) must deter anyone from ordering pork? Careful – beer is obnoxiously expensive here.
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Puzata Khata
Puzata Khata ‘Hut of the Pot Belly’ is an upscale stolova and an excellent place for budget travellers to sample traditional Ukrainian cuisine. There are cheap veggie options, delicious pastries and beer, and even hard booze. Other branches are on vul Sahaydachnoho 24 and Pasazh.
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Funicular
Heading around the left of St Michael's Gold-Domed Monastery to the rear, you'll find the quaint funicular that runs down a steep hillside to the river terminal in the mercantile district of Podil. Although in the summer trees partially obscure your view, this is still the most fun public-transport ride in town.
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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 is one of the most fun and best maintained.
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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.
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TsUM
This purely Soviet monolith is where you should head when replacing any lost or damaged essentials.
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Babyn Yar
On 29 September 1941, Nazi troops rounded up Kyiv's 34,000-strong Jewish population, marched them to the Babyn Yar ravine, and massacred them all in the following 48 hours. Victims were shot and buried in the ravine. Over the next two years, many thousands more lost their lives at Babyn Yar when it was turned into a concentration camp, called Syrets after the Kyivan suburb it was in. Romany people, partisans and even footballers would be among those killed.
The place's dreadful history only came to light after the war, and three monuments have been erected over time. The first was a colossal Soviet effort dating from 1976, which is found in the southern sector of the park…
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Hydropark
City beaches are a hot talking point these days, thanks to Paris' plage, but Kyiv had them long before sand along the Seine was even a grain of an idea. Thanks to a dam a few kms downstream, the Dnipro around Kyiv is full of islands and beaches, which are packed with sunbathers in summer. Water sports like wake-boarding and sailing are popular summer pursuits, while in the winter ice fishers descend on the frozen river en masse and intrepid 'walrus' swimmers take to the frigid bouillabaisse.
It's better to merely sunbathe than to spend much time in the river, which isn't the cleanest - although that doesn't deter thousands of locals from diving right in. The most central …
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Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Arts
Kyiv’s most impressive collection of European art is at the sumptuous Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Arts. Bosch, Velazquez and Rubens are among the many masters represented, but they are only part of the attraction. The house, with its frescoed ceilings and intricately carved woodwork, alone is worth the price of admission. All the better that it’s packed with priceless antique furniture, ancient Greek sculptures, porcelain ceramics and dazzling paintings, such as a version of Hieronymus Bosch’s Temptation of St Anthony. The museum’s climax is on the top floor: four rare religious icons from the 6th and 7th centuries. Even if icons aren’t your thing, it’s ha…
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Museum of Microminiature
The Museum of Microminiature provides something even for atheists within this holiest of holies – and, boy, is it popular! The world’s smallest book (with some verses of Shevchenko), a balalaika with strings one-fourtieth the width of a human hair and a flea fitted with golden horseshoes are just some of his works of whimsy. Each is so small that microscopes are needed to view them, but you can occupy yourself with the brief English explanations while you wait. The museum also bears one of Kyiv’s great Everything is Illuminated –style creative English translations: ‘At the time of atmospheric precipitates exhibit is not function’.
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Desyatynna Church ruins
Up Andriyivsky uzviz past St Andrew's Church, look for a dense cluster of vendors selling Dynamo Kyiv & other sports paraphernalia on the right. The fenced-off archaeological site behind them covers the foundations of the Desyatynna Church ruins. Prince Volodymyr ordered the church built in 989 and devoted 10% of his income to it, hence the name (desyatyn means 'one-tenth'). The church collapsed under the weight of the people who took refuge on its roof during the Mongol sacking of Kyiv in 1240.
Today the Moscow and Kyiv patriarchates of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are fighting over the fate of the site - the latter wants to rebuild the church.
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outdoor gym
Kyiv's quirkiest sight might just be Hydropark's giant, makeshift outdoor gym. The machines here are cobbled together from used truck parts and salvaged scrap metal. It's a testosterone-fuelled affair, although you'll usually see one or two women amid the muscle. On weekends and summer evenings the gym is packed. Beware: the sight of hundreds of sweaty dudes in Speedos pumping primitive iron could be a little off-putting. To get here, cross the footbridge and bear right.
Next to the outdoor gym is a gymnastics zone that sees surprisingly competent amateurs swinging from horizontal bars.
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Dormition Cathedral
Back out on the main path, you can't miss the seven gleaming gold domes of the Dormition Cathedral , a year-2000 replica of the famous and sacred original. To this day historians are unsure whether the Nazis or the Soviets were responsible for blowing up the original. You can enter the church only during services, typically held Saturday afternoons at 17:00 and Sunday mornings at 07:00. The big rock in the square between the cathedral and the bell tower is a fragment of the original cathedral.
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Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery
Novhorod Siversky is the site of the idyllic Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery - a complex of wood-shingled buildings and golden-domed churches surrounded by charming 19th-century country homes and perched over the leafy banks of the Desna River. The monastery dates back to Igor’s era, although it has been rebuilt several times. Its last facelift was in 2004, on the occasion of a summit between presidents Kuchma, Lukashenko and Putin (Kuchma was born about 30km from here).
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