Walking route
Old Kyiv: from the Golden Gate to Andriivskyi Descent
The classic walk through the Upper Town, the oldest part of Kyiv: from the Golden Gate to St Sophia and St Michael's, then past St Andrew's Church and down the steep descent to Podil. At the end you can ride back up on the funicular from Poshtova Square.
- Distance
- ≈ 2.1 km
- Time
- ≈ 2 h 30 min
- Walking
- 30 min
- Stops
- 5
The line on the map joins the stops as the crow flies, not along the streets. The distance is estimated as the straight lines between stops × 1.25, and the time as walking at 4.5 km/h plus 1 h 55 min at the stops. Google Maps will show the exact walking path.
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Golden Gate in Kyiv: History of the Ancient City Entrance
The main entrance to ancient Kyiv, built in 1037. The walls of the fortified tower survive, with a passage up to 7.5 m wide; above them stands a 1982 pavilion with the reconstructed Church of the Annunciation over the gate. Look at the masonry: layers of stone alternate with thin flat bricks (plinthite).
To the next stop: ≈ 550 m · 7 min on foot
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St Sophia Cathedral
The principal church of Rus, built in the first half of the 11th century with thirteen domes. Inside is the largest surviving ensemble of mosaics and frescoes of its time: the six-metre Virgin Orans, known to Kyivans as the "Unbreakable Wall", and the marble sarcophagus of Yaroslav the Wise.
To the next stop: ≈ 840 m · 11 min on foot
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St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery
A monastery whose cathedral was begun in 1108, destroyed in the 1930s and rebuilt in 1997–2000. The 18th-century refectory church and Economic Gate survived and are the oldest buildings here. On the outer wall along Trokhsviatytelska Street is the Wall of Remembrance of Ukraine's fallen defenders.
To the next stop: ≈ 600 m · 8 min on foot
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St Andrew's Church
A baroque church designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1747–1754) and set on a two-storey base more than ten metres high. Inside is a carved gilded iconostasis to Rastrelli's drawings, and the terrace around the church offers one of the best views over Podil.
To the next stop: ≈ 100 m · 1 min on foot
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Andriivskyi Descent: A Walk Through Kyiv's Historic Street
One of the city's oldest streets, which historians link with the Borychiv Descent of the chronicles; its late 19th- and early 20th-century buildings have barely changed. Look for No. 13, where the Bulgakov family lived (now the writer's museum), and the neo-Gothic "Richard's Castle" at No. 15.
On foot
More routes
- Podil: from the funicular to Castle Hill≈ 3.3 km · 2 h 45 min · 7 stops
- Pechersk and the Lavra: along the Dnipro hills to Vydubychi≈ 4.5 km · 5 h 15 min · 7 stops
- From Maidan to Mariinskyi Park≈ 3.5 km · 3 h 15 min · 8 stops
- From Yaroslaviv Val to Bessarabka: theatres, cathedrals and gardens≈ 3.1 km · 3 h · 7 stops