Things to see in Kyiv (Kiev)

This impressive church complex on hills of the west bank of the Dnieper River is Kyiv's (Kiev's) most important tourist draw and the reason why Kyiv is sometimes referred to as the ‘Russian Jerusalem’. As well as attracting numerous foreign visitors, the complex also serves as an important pilgrimage site for Ukrainian Orthodox Christians. Originally an underground monastery founded by Saint Anthony in 1051, the gold-domed churches of the monastery were built above ground and the caves beneath found use as a burial place for monks. The monastery complex has UNESCO World Heritage status and there are numerous burials in the churches and catacombs of the Lavra that include several Ukrainian saints.

The Golden Gates (Zoloti Vorota) is a 1982 reconstruction of the last remaining part of Kyiv’s (Kiev’s) medieval fortified walls that were destroyed by invading Mongols in the 13th century. With construction beginning in 1017 and completed in 1924, the wall was a principal gateway into the city. The gate houses a small museum and tourist information centre. A modern bronze statue of Yaroslav the Wise, a stalwart 11th-century defender of Kyiv and the founder of St Sophia’s Cathedral, kneels in front of the gate holding a model of the cathedral.

A little further down the same street at Volodmyrska 50 is the National Opera of Ukraine, an attractive building in the secessionist style.

Owned by the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences and located near the bank of the Dnieper River these beautiful gardens are best known for their arboretum and spring display of flowering lilacs. The gardens are beautiful all year round but if you want to see the lilacs in full bloom, visit in May.

Next to the gardens stands the Vydubychi Monastery. This sacred site, established in the late 11th century by Yaroslav the Wise, takes its name from a legend about the pagan god Perun, who’s wooden figures resurfaced in the river after having been disposed of upstream. Most of the original churches have been destroyed by fire or Soviet intolerance, but a few survive. St Michael’s Church dates from the early 11th century, although it was partly reconstructed in the 18th century.

Although monasteries have stood on this spot since the early 12th century, the sky-blue, golden-domed structure that stands today is barely a decade old as the original St Mykhail’s church was destroyed by Stalin in the mid 1930s. A reminder of Stalin’s excesses stands by the main gate in the form of a monument commemorating the Ukrainian famine of 1932-3, the result of Stalin’s supposedly deliberate policy of starvation for the Ukrainian peasantry. Also overlooking the square are marble statues representing Princess Olga alongside the Apostle Andrew and St Cyril and St Methodius. The bell tower at the entrance houses a small museum.

Located on Andriyivsky Uzviz, this eccentric house museum gives an interesting insight into the family life of Kyiv’s (Kiev's) most famous son, the writer Mikhail Bulgakov, who lived here in a flat on the upper floor from 1906-1916 and also in 1918-1919. The museum houses around 3000 exhibits in total, about 500 of which originally belonged to the Bulgakov family. The main exhibition focuses on his first novel The White Guard, which contains many autobiographical elements of his experiences in Kyiv during the Russian Revolution. Another exhibition celebrates Master and Margarita, Bulgakov’s most famous novel.