Walking route
Pechersk and the Lavra: along the Dnipro hills to Vydubychi
A walk along the Dnipro bluffs of Pechersk: from Askold's Grave of the chronicles, past the Holodomor memorial and Mystetskyi Arsenal to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, then on to the Motherland Monument and Vydubychi Monastery. The Lavra alone deserves at least half a day, so plan for a full day.
- Distance
- ≈ 4.5 km
- Time
- ≈ 5 h 15 min
- Walking
- 1 h
- Stops
- 7
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 4 h 15 min at the stops. Google Maps will show the exact walking path.
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Askold's Grave
A hillside park where, according to the Primary Chronicle, Prince Askold was buried. Look at Andrii Melenskyi's Empire-style rotunda of 1809–1810 with its Tuscan colonnade.
To the next stop: ≈ 430 m · 6 min on foot
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Monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa (Eternal Kyiv)
A monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa by the Israeli sculptor Frank Meisler, unveiled on 19 January 2009 on the viewing platform by the Palace of Children and Youth. The composition is also called "Eternal Kyiv".
To the next stop: ≈ 410 m · 5 min on foot
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Holodomor Genocide Museum
The national memorial to the victims of the Holodomor of 1932–1933: the 30-metre Candle of Memory, the "Millstones of Fate" square and the bronze girl holding five ears of wheat, Petro Drozdovskyi's sculpture "Bitter Memory of Childhood".
To the next stop: ≈ 580 m · 8 min on foot
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Mystetskyi Arsenal
The arsenal of the Pechersk Fortress, built in 1784–1803: a rectangle of 168 by 135 metres with walls about two metres thick of pale Kyiv brick, the first Neoclassical building in Kyiv. Today it is the country's main exhibition venue.
To the next stop: ≈ 410 m · 5 min on foot
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Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
A monastery founded in 1051 in caves above the Dnipro. Don't miss the Trinity Gate Church of 1106–1108, the only above-ground building of the Lavra whose core survives from the princely era, and Johann Gottfried Schädel's Great Bell Tower, 96.5 metres high.
To the next stop: ≈ 1.2 km · 16 min on foot
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Motherland Monument
A steel monument of 1981, 102 metres tall with its pedestal; its height was capped so that it would not exceed the Great Lavra Bell Tower. In 2023 a trident was added to the shield; at its foot is the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War.
To the next stop: ≈ 1.4 km · 19 min on foot
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Vydubychi Monastery
A monastery founded by Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavych in 1070. Only the western part of St Michael's Cathedral (1070–1088) survived a 16th-century landslide; next to it stands the baroque St George's Cathedral, and close by is the lilac garden of the botanical garden.
On foot
More routes
- Old Kyiv: from the Golden Gate to Andriivskyi Descent≈ 2.1 km · 2 h 30 min · 5 stops
- Podil: from the funicular to Castle Hill≈ 3.3 km · 2 h 45 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