Architecture in Kyiv

Arsenalna

Kyiv

Baikove Cemetery

Kyiv

Founded in 1833, Baikove Cemetery is one of the oldest and most significant burial grounds in Ukraine. Its tree-lined paths hold the graves of poets, scientists, politicians and figures central to Ukrainian national identity, making a walk through the grounds a quiet tour of the country's cultural memory. The funerary sculpture is particularly notable: elaborate monuments commissioned from accomplished 19th and early 20th-century artists stand alongside simpler, more recent graves. Open to visitors, the cemetery draws both those tracing specific lives and those seeking a contemplative space away from the city's noise.

Bessarabska Square

Kyiv

Bessarabska Square anchors the southern end of Khreshchatyk, Kyiv's main boulevard, where it meets the Taras Shevchenko Boulevard in the heart of the city. The circular square is best known for its centrepiece, Bessarabsky Market — a historic covered market from the early 20th century, celebrated for its elegant cast-iron Art Nouveau roof and considered one of the finest market halls in Eastern Europe. The square functions as a busy traffic junction and a natural gathering point for Kyivans, blending the rhythms of everyday city life with the grandeur of the surrounding architecture. It remains one of those places that captures the city's character in a single glance.

Bessarabskyi market

Kyiv

Bessarabsky Market is one of the best-known landmarks in central Kyiv. Built in 1912, the building covers nearly 2,900 square metres beneath an impressive glass roof supported by a steel frame with neoclassical facade elements — one of the architectural highlights of the Ukrainian capital. Inside, a lively market trades in fresh produce: meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, and regional Ukrainian specialities. The market hall stands directly on Bessarabska Square, just steps from Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti), making it an unmissable stop for anyone wanting to explore the culinary side of Kyiv.

Brodsky Synagogue

Kyiv

The Brodsky Synagogue — also known as the Choral Synagogue — is one of Kyiv's oldest and most significant Jewish places of worship. Built in 1898 at the initiative of Lazar Brodsky, a prominent Jewish-Ukrainian sugar magnate, it features a striking Moorish-Romantic design: horseshoe arches, oriental ornament, and a grand dome. The 20th century brought severe disruption: Soviet authorities repurposed the building as a puppet theatre, and the Jewish community of Kyiv was devastated by the Holocaust and subsequent emigration. Reconsecrated as a synagogue in 2000, it serves once again as a spiritual home for Kyiv's Jewish community — and stands as a testament to the city's rich and turbulent Jewish history.

Co-Cathedral of St. Alexander, Kyiv

Kyiv

St. Alexander's is the oldest and most prominent Roman Catholic church in Kyiv, built in 1817 in neoclassical style. Serving as co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kyiv, it is the centre of the Latin Church in the Ukrainian capital. Its neoclassical facade with portico distinguishes it clearly from the city's Orthodox church architecture.

European Square

Kyiv

European Square is a central hub in the heart of Kyiv, not far from Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The square takes its name from a hotel that once stood here and today serves as an important transport node where several main roads, bus lines and the Teatralna metro station converge. The surroundings are shaped by theatres, shopping centres and the everyday city life of the Ukrainian capital. Forming part of the axis towards the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, it sits in the immediate vicinity of the city's historic cultural sites.

Golden Gate

Kyiv

The Golden Gate is one of the most significant medieval monuments in Ukraine, representing the golden age of Kievan Rus. Built around 1018 under Prince Yaroslav the Wise as the main entrance to Kyiv's upper city, it was named after the Golden Gate of Constantinople. The imposing fortified gateway was designed both to provide military protection and to demonstrate the power and prosperity of the Kievan realm. Over the centuries the structure fell into ruin before an extensive reconstruction was completed in 1982, incorporating surviving medieval remains. Today the gate houses a museum of Kievan Rus history and is one of the city's most visited historical monuments.

House with Chimeras

Kyiv

The House with Chimeras in Kyiv is one of the strangest and most captivating buildings in Eastern Europe. Architect Władysław Horodecki had it built in 1902 in Art Nouveau style and covered the facade with a veritable menagerie of stone fantasy creatures: rhinoceroses, elephants, frogs, mermaids, and chimeras crowd the balconies, cornices, and bay windows. Built on a sloping plot near Kyiv's government quarter, the house was originally Horodecki's own residence. Over the twentieth century it changed hands and uses several times — at various points serving the Soviet state as accommodation for official guests. Today it belongs to the Ukrainian presidential administration and is used for official receptions; viewing from outside remains possible.

Khreshchatyk

Kyiv

Khreshchatyk is Kyiv's main street and the heartbeat of the Ukrainian capital — a boulevard up to 100 metres wide with six traffic lanes cutting through the city centre. The buildings lining it are largely products of Stalinist reconstruction in the late 1940s and 1950s, after the Nazis dynamited the original Khreshchatyk during their retreat. Despite this traumatic backstory, the boulevard today radiates vitality: wide chestnut-lined pavements invite strolling, and a continuous run of cafés and shops keeps the street busy. On weekends and public holidays it is closed to traffic — transforming entirely into a pedestrian zone filled with street musicians, families and impromptu gatherings. Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), inseparably linked to Ukraine's recent history, lies at its eastern end.

Kiev TV Tower

Kyiv

The Kyiv TV Tower soars 385 meters above the Ukrainian capital and is the world's tallest free-standing steel lattice tower — a record it has held since its completion in 1973. The delicate steel lattice construction is a masterpiece of Soviet engineering: despite its slender appearance, the tower is designed to withstand winds of up to 37 m/s and earthquakes. It serves as a broadcasting station for FM radio and television. The tower is located in the Syrets district in northwestern Kyiv and is clearly visible from far away. Although it has no public observation deck, it is a remarkable landmark of city skyline and engineering heritage.

Mariinskyi Palace

Kyiv

The Mariinskyi Palace stands on the steep right bank of the Dnipro River in Kyiv, one of the finest examples of Elizabethan Baroque architecture in Ukraine. Built in 1752 under Empress Elizabeth, it served as an imperial summer residence before falling into disuse and later being restored. Today it functions as the official ceremonial residence of the President of Ukraine and is a protected architectural monument. The palace's vivid blue facade with white stucco ornaments is the work of architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli — the same architect behind the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Its location directly beside the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, gives the site unusual political and symbolic weight.

Monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Kyiv

Kyiv

The Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument on Sofiyivska Square in Kyiv is one of the most iconic landmarks of the Ukrainian capital. Unveiled in 1888, the equestrian statue depicts the Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who in the 17th century led the uprising against Polish noble rule and founded the Zaporizhian Hetmanate. With his mace raised, he appears to point into the distance — historically interpreted as a gesture toward Russia, but today read as a symbol of Ukrainian strength and independence. The monument stands close to Saint Sophia's Cathedral and is a key point of interest for locals and visitors alike.

Monument to the Magdeburg Rights

Kyiv

The Monument to the Magdeburg Rights on the Kyiv bank of the Dnipro is considered the oldest surviving monument in the Ukrainian capital. The neoclassical white stone column was erected in 1802 to commemorate the city charter that Kyiv received in the 15th century, based on the Magdeburg Law — one of the most important documents of medieval self-governance in Eastern Europe. The monument stands in the Podil district directly on the riverbank, connecting the memory of Kyivan Rus, the city's Christian heritage and the history of civic freedoms. The location also offers a pleasant view of the river.

Motherland Monument

Kyiv

The Motherland Monument — known in Ukrainian as Rodina-Mat — stands 102 metres tall and is the highest statue in Europe. Erected in 1981 as the centrepiece of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, the stainless steel colossus depicts a woman raising a sword and shield. Conceived as a Soviet symbol of victory over Nazi Germany, it underwent a symbolic transformation in 2023 amid the Russo-Ukrainian War: the Soviet coat of arms on the shield was replaced with Ukraine's national emblem, the tryzub. Set on a museum hill above the Dnipro River, it is visible from much of Kyiv.

St. Cyril's Church Kyiv

Kyiv

St. Cyril's Church is a medieval monastery in the northwestern part of Kyiv's historic centre, representing one of the finest surviving examples of 12th-century Kievan Rus architecture. The church combines its original Romanesque-Byzantine interior structure with a Ukrainian Baroque exterior added in later centuries. Notably preserved are 12th-century frescoes alongside 19th-century additions by Mikhail Vrubel, one of the most celebrated Symbolist artists of Eastern Europe. The complex is a protected heritage site and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Kyiv.

T-64 Main Battle Tank

Kyiv

The T-64 was a quantum leap in Soviet tank design: the first vehicle to combine composite armour, a compact engine, an autoloader, and a 125mm smoothbore gun — all in a 38-tonne package. Developed in Kharkiv by Alexander Morozov, it was significantly more advanced than the concurrent T-62 and T-72. Unlike those tanks, the T-64 was never exported and served exclusively in Soviet tank divisions.