The most over-saturated piece of monuments and sights in Kyiv city.
Here are highlights such as the Museum of World War II, the Song Festival Grounds - at certain times of the year an exhibition of horticultural art and Pechersk Lavra.
So let's begin to describe this piece of Kyiv ...



Of course, each of these objects deserves at least a separate article. But since we are not infantry, but a cavalry, thus it is possible to combine a description of these objects. Therefore, historical articles here are rather spacious. Who is not interested can stop reading ...

5. (Friendship of Peoples Arch – Dnipro cliffs. Black track) . This is the easiest and less spectacular route to get to the park "Dnipro cliffs." To the right is the busy road. To the left are really beautiful landscapes of Pechersk Landscape Park, but in the side! Alternatively, you can walk up the stairs to the Song Festival Grounds. But it’s not much sense in this. In order to get to the Song Festival Grounds one must use the routes described below.

6. (Friendship of Peoples Arch - Singing Field. Red track.) . The best route to "the singing field”. Very smooth climb. It passes through the park area. Good asphalt surface. No cars.

7. (Friendship of Peoples Arch - Singing Field 2. Yellow track) . A dirt trail stretches up to the museum of the Great Patriotic War. For those who are not interesting in a "pop" routes.

8. (Friendship of Peoples - Singing Field 3. Violet Track). Asphalt road, which is parallel to the main one.

9. (Singing Field - Stairway of Lavra. Violet Track) . Asphalt road leading to the junction to the stairs leading down along the Lavra’s wall to the left towards Ivan Mazepa street.

10. (Singing Field - Lavra - Heroes of Kruty. Red Track). Optimum travel through the parks to the park of Glory.

11. (2. Ladder Lavra. Black Track). Stairs down. This goes along Lavra’s fortress wall.

12. (Lavra. Violet Track) . A pass and a travel through the territory of the monastery (Lavra). Bike ride on the territory is denied! But allowed for cars, and who knows why! Therefore, we can go and take bikes in hands. And then ... Entering at Near Caves to the stairs past the seminary and the monument to Petro Mohyla.

13. (Lavra 2. Black Track) A route to the Pechersk Cemetery of priests, and the subsequent descent along the gallery to a Lower Pechersk complex.

14. (11. Lavra – Heroes of Kruty). This is very informative passage through the territory of the monastery and the Park of Glory to Heroes of Kruty. Brick road and asphalt. Very crowded and pretty cool. For beginners only on foot!

Pechersk landscape park in Kyiv


Memories of Ancient Ellade. Pechersky landscape park in Kyiv is close to Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, was established in 1981 on the slopes that descend from the complex of the National Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 to the Dnipro river. The park covers an area of about 30 hectares. The central part of the park is the Song Festival Grounds equipped for mass concerts and a cascade of steps to the Dnipro embankment. The concept of the Song Festival Grounds appeared in our vocabulary is not so long ago. Choral field commonly referred to as an open space for all sorts of concerts, singing competitions and festivals. This area should have good acoustics and be big enough to accommodate a large number of spectators. In addition a mobile summer stage is also set on the Song Festival Grounds. Song Festival Grounds in Kyiv and in Ukrainian language is called as Singing Field, located in the very heart of the city, almost on the banks of the Dnipro river. Pechersk Landscape Park regularly hosts exhibitions of flowers and landscape design. The traditional annual flower show is usually held in late August and is timed to celebrate the Independence Day of Ukraine (August, 24th).
Pushkin's fairy tale came to life – A squirrel, gnawing golden nuts. 53 of such city exhibitions of flowers in the park have already taken place, each of which a state company “Kyivzelenbud”, groups of botanic gardens, landscape designers create floral compositions on a given topic. Million pieces of colorful flowers are being usually planted throughout the Singing Field, thus creating flower compositions according to preset topics. The exhibition of flowers is always crowded - thousands of residents and guests of the capital hurry to enjoy the grand compositions to take photos of themselves, their friends and relatives at such an unusual background and effective, and at the same time buy some green miracles for their home or garden. Here you can buy plants, bulbs, seeds, flowers, live plants and flowers, as well as many souvenirs. Source here:


Kyiv Museum of the Great Patriotic War

General information

Kyiv Museum of the Great Patriotic War moved twice until it was solemnly opened at this location on May 9th (on a Victory Day) in 1981, by Leonid Brezhnev, head of the Soviet state. On June 21, 1996 the museum was accorded its current status of the National Museum of Ukraine by the decree of President Leonid Kuchma.

One of the largest museums in Ukraine (over 300 thousand exhibits) it is most associated with the 102-meter monument to Motherland, who became one of the most recognizable sights of Kyiv. Over the years the museum was visited by more then 21 million people.
Memorial complex occupies 10 hectares on a hill of the right bank of the Dnipro. It contains a giant bowl of Eternal fire, an exhibition of military equipment of World War II, as well as the post-war years, the avenue of Hero Cities.
Along the slopes of the Dnipro goes front walkway that stretches to the main entrance to the gallery leading to the square and the building of the museum. Sculptures of the gallery embody the heroic defense of the Soviet border from the German attack, the horrors of the German occupation, partisan struggle, great labor feats of the rearward war supply, the battle for the Dnipro river. Sculptures include "The first boundary fights", "Unconquered", "Heroic Undergrounders," "Heroic Partisans" and "From Rearward war supply to the Front battlefield". In the main square of the memorial there is a sculptural group "The transfer of arms" and the bronze composition "Heroic deeds of the Soviet soldiers." The retaining wall contains units with the sacred land of the hero cities – this is a walkway of Hero Cities. Monumental sculpture Motherland was built by the architect Eugene Vucetic. The sculpture is located above the museum and the entire structure is 102 meters tall and weighs 530 tonnes. The museum is a five-story building, four floors of which are in the array of the hill, while the fifth floor, where the Hall of Military Glory is located, looks out as a pedestal of sculpture "Motherland". On the walls of the opening hall are the names of 1,098 troops units, awarded by titles of liberated by them cities & towns of Ukraine and 252 titles of partisan units, which fought against the Nazis in the occupied territory of Ukraine. The following is a lecture and cinema halls with an exhibition devoted to the heroic struggle of the Soviet people against the German fascist invaders. In the Hall of Military Glory on white marble pylons are engraved the names of people, who for their deeds in the Great Patriotic War, were awarded by the title Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labor. At the center of the room is the Order of Victory with diameter of 5 meters.
The central figure of the museum is a monument to "Motherland". The sculpture stands on the slopes of the Dnipro river, and is visible from distant points of the Ukrainian capital. At the foot of the monument is a museum. Design was originally planned that the monument is to be covered with gold leaf, but this idea was later abandoned. The metal frame is made of stainless steel produced in Zaporozhye. The steel casing experts were from Paton Institute of Electric Welding. The composing sheets were of 50x50 cm thickness of 1.5 mm. The total length of sutures was about 30 km. The sculpture of this size has been made for the first time in the USSR. It is made on behalf of the Kyiv factory named after the Paris Commune, with the advice of the Institute of Electric Welding named after Paton. Welding elements of stainless steel single block sections were weighing 25-30 tons. The sculpture collected by a specially built hundred-meter crane. Later, the crane was dismantled. To monitor the status of of all created structures a strict regime of instrumental geodesic surveys was set. Regular annual survey shows the absence of any deviations with respect to the dynamic equilibrium. According to the experts, the monument "Motherland" should stand for more than 150 years. According to estimates, the statue can withstand even an earthquake measuring 9 points. For the movement of people and maintenance of the sculpture two elevators - inclined and vertical one were installed (moving on rollers at an angle of 75 degrees), also equipped areas for inspection were made. One of the elevators rises with nine stops until the "head" of the stature, which has hatches and technical platforms. You can climb to the "hand" with the shield and the other - with a sword. There are also mounting platforms. In the summer of 2002 it was allowed to rise to the platform for tourists up to marks at 36 meters and 92 meters. However, after in April 2003, a visitor fell from the top landing and crashed, access was limited to tourists. The project was started out by a well-known sculptor, author of the memorial in Stalingrad Eugene Vucetic.
Initially, it was assumed that on the pedestal will rise 80-meter bronze figure of a woman with gold. At the foot of the statue with a 30-meter height was a waterfall flowing into the Dnipro, on both sides of which the soldiers who crossed the river. After his death the work of Vucetic was headed by Ukrainian sculptor Vasiliy Boroday. The composition then has undergone significant changes. Boroday developed the project, which was implemented in cooperation with the Frid Sagoyan and Vasily Vinaykin as well as with architects Victor Elizarov, Georgiy Kisliy and Nikolai Feshenko. According to one folk legends, in the course of construction of the monument, the Metropolitan of Kyiv (head of the Orhtodox Church) held talks with First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Volodymyr Shcherbytsky that the sculpture had to be not above the Great Lavra bell tower, nearby the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Allegedly, afterwards it was decided to shorten the sword sculpture. The top of the sword is really below the top of the bell tower for 12 meters. However, the architects claim that this is done for a balance between the architectural structures of the museum of the Great Patriotic War and the monastery. The memorial complex covers an area of over 10 hectares. It includes: a museum with a monument "The Motherland", the main square with Alley of Hero Cities and sculptures "Crossing of the Dnipro river" and "Arms transfers", a gallery of heroes at front and rearward with bronze high relief compositions and the bowl "Fire of Glory", an exhibition of military equipment and weapons, a separate building, where permanent relic exposition "Tragedy and valor of Afghanistan" was deployed, a composition "On foreign wars" that all are open to tourists visiting the Li-2 aircraft and Mi-24V helicopter. The main building of the museum exposition - a three-story building with an area in front of it, which can hold up to 30 thousand people. It is here in honor of the nation-wide celebration of the victory, the liberation of Ukraine and Kyiv citywide event held with the participation of veterans and their descendants.

Technical data

The height of the sculpture "Motherland" (from the pedestal to the top of the sword) - 62 meters.
The total height of a pedestal - 102 meters
In one hand the statue holds a 16-meter-long sword, weighing 9 tons, in the other - a shield with the size of 13 ×8 m with the emblem of the USSR (weighing 13 tons)
All constructions were all-welded and weighs 450 tons.
The frame itself begins at a depth of 17.8 m ( entrance to the museum). At this depth takes concrete pit with a diameter of 34 meters.

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Kyiv - Pechersk Lavra

Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is one of the first monasteries in the old state of Kyivan Rus. It was founded in 1051 during a kingdom of Yaroslav the Wise, by monk Anthony, a native of Lubech town. Co-founder of Cave Monastery was one of the first students of Anthony - Theodosius. Knyaz (a Slavic word for King) Svyatoslav II Yaroslavich gave to the monastery a plateau above the caves, where later beautiful stone temple decorated with paintings rose with cells, towers and other structures. The monastery is closely associated with the names of the chronicler Nestor (author of "The Tale of Bygone Years") and the artist Alipiy. From 1592 to 1688 it was declared as stavropegic (canonic subordinate) of Patriarch of Constantinople; since 1688 the monastery received the status of Lavra [1] and became a "royal and the patriarchal Stavropigion (subordibation) to Moscow"; in 1786 Lavra was subordinated to the metropolitan of Kyiv, who became his saint archi-mandrate. In the Near and Far Caves Monastery lie incorrupt relics of the saints of God and burial of the laity (for example, the tomb of Peter Stolypin –head of Government at the last Russian Tsar – Nikolai, the Second). Currently, the lower Monastery is run by Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the upper Lavra - administered by the National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Reserve.
History
Foundation

Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is located in the city center, on the right, high bank of the Dnipro, and takes two hills separated by deep, descending to the Dnipro trough. In the XI century, the area was covered by forest; here moved for prayer a priest of nearby village Berestova - Hilarion, who dug himself a cave. In 1051 Hilarion was made a Metropolitan of Kyiv and its cave was empty. Around that time came to Kyiv from Mount Athos monk Anthony, a native of Lubech town; life in the monasteries of Kyiv was not to his liking, and he dwelt in a cave of Hilarion.

Piety Anthony drew his cave followers, among whom was Theodosius, from Kursk. When their number increased to 12, they made for themselves a church and cells. Anthony put in abbots Barlaam, and then went to a nearby mountain where dug for himself a new cave. This cave was the beginning of "nearby" cave, so named in contrast to the former, "the future." With the increasing number of monks, when the cave became crowded, they have built over the cave church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and cells. The number of arriving at the abode increased, and Antony asked from the Knyaz (King) Izyaslav Yaroslavich a whole mountain above the cave into possession. A church was built on the site of the current main cathedral (1062); appeared monastery was called Pechersky. At the same time Theodosius was appointed as abbot. He introduced the monastery cenobitic Studion statute, which was later taken from here to other Kyivan Rus’ monasteries. The harsh ascetic life of the monks and their piety attracted significant donations to the monastery.

In 1073 a stone church had been laid, which was finished and consecrated in 1089; Mural painting and mosaics were executed by artists of Constantinople.
Raids and restoration of the monastery:
In 1096 the monastery was severely damaged by the Polovtsy tribe invasion, but soon rebuilt. Over time it was joined up with new churches. The whole monastery was enclosed with a palisade. The monastery was a hospice, where Theodosius arranged shelter for the poor, the blind, the lame; it was released the 1/10 of monastic revenues for its needs. Every Saturday, the monastery sent a cart of bread for the prisoners. With the relocation of the brethren in the great monastery caves were turned into a tomb for the monks, whose bodies were placed on both sides of the cave corridor, in the recesses of the walls. A village Lesniki also belonged to monastery, where Theodosius dug himself out ta cave in which he lived during Lent. In the XI and XII centuries from the monastery came up to 20 bishops, all of them kept a great respect for native abode. In 1240, during the invasion of Batu-Khan, the monastery was ruined. The monks of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery were often killed, part of them run away. It is not known how long was the desolation of the monastery. In XIV century it was already renewed, and the church became the burial place of the great many knyaz (king) and noble families. In 1470, the Kyiv Knyaz (King) Simeon Olelkovich renewed and decorated great church. In 1483, the Crimean army of Mengli I Giray burned and looted the monastery, but the generous donations allowed him to recover soon. In 1593 it owned two cities - Radomysl and Vasilkov, 50 villages and about 15 villages and towns in various places of Western Kyivan Rus, with fishing, transport, mills, honey and money tributes and beaver gons. From the XV century to Monastery was given a right to send to Moscow to collect donations. In the 1555-56 biennium a great church was again renovated and decorated.
In 1596 there was an attempt to subdue the monastery in the immediate imperative of Ecumenical Patriarch, Metropolitan of Kyiv Uniate; but the monks headed by Archimandrite Nikifor Tour made an armed resistance. A second attempt to master the Uniate over monastery in 1598, was also unsuccessful. The monastery was also able to defend against the Uniate their vast estates.

At the same time, at the end of the XVI century, the monastery was granted the status of stavropegic (subordinate) Patriarch of Constantinople. In the context of the expansion of the Uniate Church, Monastery became a stronghold of Orthodoxy in the Ukraine of XVII - XIX century. In times of Archimandrite Elisey Pletenetskiy and Zechariah Kopystensky it was founded a printing house in the monastery (1616), and started printing of the liturgical and polemical books. Successor to them, Petro Mohyla, started a school there, which was later connected with a school of fraternal and was the beginning of the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium. Hetman (Kossak Leader) Samoilovich rounded Lavra with land wall, and Hetman Mazepa – with a stone wall. In times of Peter the Great from Russia the strengthen of Samoilovych were expanded and formed the modern Pechersk fortress. In 1718 a fire destroyed the great church, archive, library and printing house.
In 1729 the church was restored.
In the years 1731-1745 to the south-west of the Great Church it was built the Great Lavra Bell Tower; the height of it with a cross - 96.5 meters. The first work on the construction of the belfry were started in 1707 at the expense of Ivan Mazepa; and completed by German architect G.I. Schedel.
The structure of the monastery in the XIX century included 6 monasteries:
Main in the great church,
Hospital,
Near Caves,
Far Caves,
Goloseevskaya deserts
Kitaevskaya deserts.
Near main gates is the Trinity Hospital Monastery, founded in the XII century by the Chernigov Knyaz Nicholas of Hypocrites.
The Great Church had miraculous icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God, according to legend miraculously produced by Greek artists in the Blachernae church and brought them in Kyiv. It is also the relics of St. Theodosius and 1st Metropolitan of Kiev St. Michael and the head of Knyaz St. Vladimir. In a niche in the northwest corner of the church - the tombstone of Prince Konstantin Ivanovich Ostrog. Under the altar Stefanovsky chapel - a tomb place. The theological chapel there was an icon of the Mother of God, before which Knyaz Igor Olegovich had prayed before his slaughter in 1147 in the middle of the temple there were several tombs, among other of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla, Varlaam Yasinskiy and Field Marshal of Russian Army Rumyantsev.

In the sacristy of the monastery kept great antiquity and values of the Gospel, utensils and vestments, as well as a collection of portraits. In the gallery there were monastery’s library with its documents. Former library probably burned in 1718.
Near and Far Caves, on the banks of the Dnipro River, separated by a ravine and ridge of the mountain. In the Near relics of 80 saints in the future - 45.
In 1688 Lavra was subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate, Archimandrite had got a primacy to all Russian metropolitans.
In 1786, Lavra was subordinated to the metropolitan of Kyiv, who was granted the title of saint archimandrate. It was ruled by the governor, along with the Spiritual Council.
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