Kyiv
The interior is the most astounding aspect of Kyiv's oldest standing church. Many of the mosaics and frescoes are original, dating back to 1017–31, when…
Kyiv
The interior is the most astounding aspect of Kyiv's oldest standing church. Many of the mosaics and frescoes are original, dating back to 1017–31, when…
Kyiv
Tourists and Orthodox pilgrims alike flock to the Lavra, set on 28 hectares of grassy hills above the Dnipro River in Pechersk. It's easy to see why…
Central Ukraine
Built of wood in the 10th to 13th centuries, then redesigned and rebuilt in stone by Italian military engineers in the 16th century, K-P's fortress is a…
Odesa
Odesa's elegant facade, this tree-lined, clifftop promenade was designed to enchant the passengers of arriving boats with the neoclassical opulence of its…
Central Ukraine
Between May 1942 and July 1943, Adolf Hitler paid several visits (accounts vary) to his regional military headquarters in a vast bunker 8km north…
The Carpathians
University buildings are often called 'dreaming spires', but Chernivtsi's is more like an acid trip. This fantastic, Unesco-listed red-brick ensemble,…
Lviv
Don't leave town until you've seen this amazing 42-hectare cemetery, only a short ride on tram 7 from the centre. This is the Père Lachaise of Eastern…
The Carpathians
Built atop a 68m-tall volcano, Mukacheve's highlight is this dramatic castle that pops up from the surrounding plain west of town, like something in a…
Kyiv
Be it celebration or revolution, whenever Ukrainians want to get together – and they often do – 'Maidan' is the nation's meeting point. The square saw pro…
Odesa
Fresh from a controversial renovation, which changed its original outlook, the Potemkin Steps lead down from bul Prymorsky to the sea port. Pause at the…
St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery
Kyiv
Looking from St Sophia's past the Bohdan Khmelnytsky statue, it's impossible to ignore the gold-domed blue church at the other end of proyizd Volodymyrsky…
Kyiv
It's hard to characterise this beachfront hippie haven on Trukhaniv Island. It derives its name from the smattering of raised wooden chill-out huts that…
National Museum and Memorial to the Victims of Occupation
Lviv
This infamous building on vul Bryullova was used as a prison by the Poles, Nazis and communists in turn, but the small and very moving exhibition over two…
Western Ukraine
A block back from bul Shevchenka, this former KGB prison is where several prominent members of UPA and OUN were held, tortured and shot in the years of…
Lviv
Lviv was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1998, and this old market square lies at its heart. The square was progressively rebuilt after a major…
Kyiv
The rotating exhibits at this world-class gallery feature elite names in the world of European contemporary art and design, all financed by billionaire…
Lviv
Revamped in 2017, the museum belonging to Lviv's brewery is an impressive, modern experience, a world away for the rickety post-Soviet repositories of the…
Kharkiv
Kharkiv's most famous museum owns one of many versions of Ilya Repin's Zaporizhsky Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan, which is found in a…
Odesa
Odesa's main commercial street, pedestrian vul Derybasivska is jam-packed with restaurants, bars and, in the summer high season, tourists. At its quieter…
Lviv
Around a 2km walk from pl Rynok, visiting the High Castle (Vysoky Zamok) on Castle Hill (Zamkova Hora) is a quintessential Lviv experience. There’s little…
Lviv History Museum – Rynok 24
Lviv
This branch of the Lviv History Museum expounds on the city's very early days starting with early cultures that inhabited Galicia and ending with the…
Lviv
The city fathers have occupied this location since the 14th century, but the present-day Italianate look dates to 1835. In a sign of openness and…
Lviv
This fascinating pharmacy museum is located inside a still-functioning chemist's shop dating from 1735. Buy a ticket from the pharmacist and head down…
Odesa
The war in the east and regular political strife give Ukrainian artists a lot of here-and-now material to reflect on, and the result is often brilliant,…
Odesa
The jewel in Odesa's architectural crown was designed in the 1880s by the architects who also designed the famous Vienna State Opera, namely Ferdinand…
The Carpathians
On the hill overlooking the town stands the 15th-century castle with massive walls and beefy bastions built to withstand Turkish assaults. The main palace…
Kharkiv
Locals claim that this enormous expanse of cobbles is the second largest in the world after Beijing's Tiananmen Sq. At 750m long it's indisputably huge…
Eastern Ukraine
Vaguely reminiscent of MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall, this giant structure looming over the remains of the Old Town is the slick new heart of the city's…
The Carpathians
This well-curated exhibition of Hutsul artefacts is probably the best of its kind in Ukraine. Decorated stove tiles and other ceramics, musical…
The Carpathians
Kolomyya's most eye-catching attraction is a monster concrete Easter egg, which sits rather self-consciously on the town's main square. Inside in an…
Avtomotovelofototeleradio Museum
Central Ukraine
Big name for a small museum but worthwhile for anyone with a wistful soft spot for the days of Soviet mass production. This octagonal building near the…
Cathedral of the Holy Resurrection
The Carpathians
The city's punctiliously renovated Greek Catholic cathedral is a fine example of baroque symmetry crafted in the mid-18th century. Huge bronzes of St…
The Carpathians
A few steps off pl Rynok stands this eye-pleasingly symmetrical baroque church built by the Armenian community in 1762. Beyond the golden doors the…
Crimea
When she was busy ordering the mass destruction of Bakhchysaray's mosques in the 18th and early 19th centuries, Catherine the Great spared the Khans'…
Crimea
Rising 200m, this long and bluff plateau houses a honeycomb of caves and structures where people took refuge for centuries. It's wonderful to explore,…
Sevastopol
The city's bay-facing showcase greets seafarers with an array of whitewashed colonnaded buildings. Fresh from a Russian-funded spruce-up, the boulevard is…
Sevastopol
A massive piece of fortification seen across the bay from central Sevastopol, the battery served as a hospital when the Russians withdrew to the northern…
Crimea
Crimea's largest museum consists of three main sections. The first is a collection of golden artefacts, produced by Hellenized Alano-Goths in the…
Crimea
Everyone's favourite pastime in Yalta is walking up and down the seafront nab Lenina and the pedestrian zone along the Uchan-su River, where you'll find a…
Western Ukraine
Its ornate golden domes rising up from the surrounding plain, Pochayiv Monastery is a beacon of Ukrainian Orthodoxy (Moscow Patriarchate) on the edge of a…