Must-see attractions in Ukraine

  • Saint-Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine

    St Sophia's Cathedral

    Kyiv

    The interior is the most astounding aspect of Kyiv's oldest standing church. Many of the mosaics and frescoes are original, dating back to 1017–31, when…

  • Kyevo-Pecherska Lavra

    Kyiv

    Tourists and Orthodox pilgrims alike flock to the Lavra, set on 28 hectares of grassy hills above the Dnipro River in Pechersk. It's easy to see why…

  • Artifical flowers decorating small winged angel statue on grave at Lychakivske Cemetery.

    Lychakivsky Cemetery

    Lviv

    Don't leave town until you've seen this amazing 42-hectare cemetery, only a short ride on tram 7 from the centre. This is the Père Lachaise of Eastern…

  • Khreshchatyk-Stalinist buildings on Maydan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square).

    Maidan Nezalezhnosti

    Kyiv

    Be it celebration or revolution, whenever Ukrainians want to get together – and they often do – 'Maidan' is the nation's meeting point. The square saw pro…

  • St. Michael's Monastery.

    St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery

    Kyiv

    Looking from St Sophia's past the Bohdan Khmelnytsky statue, it's impossible to ignore the gold-domed blue church at the other end of proyizd Volodymyrsky…

  • Skvorechnik

    Kyiv

    It's hard to characterise this beachfront hippie haven on Trukhaniv Island. It derives its name from the smattering of raised wooden chill-out huts that…

  • A cell in the Museum of Political Prisoners in Ternopil.

    Museum of Political Prisoners

    Western Ukraine

    A block back from bul Shevchenka, this former KGB prison is where several prominent members of UPA and OUN were held, tortured and shot in the years of…

  • Ploshcha Rynok (Market Square) with historic buildings Black Mansion and Dominican Cathedral in background.

    Ploshcha Rynok

    Lviv

    Lviv was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1998, and this old market square lies at its heart. The square was progressively rebuilt after a major…

  • The PinchukArtCentre, Kyiv, Ukraine.

    PinchukArtCentre

    Kyiv

    The rotating exhibits at this world-class gallery feature elite names in the world of European contemporary art and design, all financed by billionaire…

  • Lvivarnya

    Lviv

    Revamped in 2017, the museum belonging to Lviv's brewery is an impressive, modern experience, a world away for the rickety post-Soviet repositories of the…

  • High Castle Hill

    Lviv

    Around a 2km walk from pl Rynok, visiting the High Castle (Vysoky Zamok) on Castle Hill (Zamkova Hora) is a quintessential Lviv experience. There’s little…

  • Lviv History Museum – Rynok 24

    Lviv

    This branch of the Lviv History Museum expounds on the city's very early days starting with early cultures that inhabited Galicia and ending with the…

  • Ratusha

    Lviv

    The city fathers have occupied this location since the 14th century, but the present-day Italianate look dates to 1835. In a sign of openness and…

  • Apteka Museum

    Lviv

    This fascinating pharmacy museum is located inside a still-functioning chemist's shop dating from 1735. Buy a ticket from the pharmacist and head down…

  • Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra, a monastery in Pochayiv, Ukraine.

    Pochayiv Monastery

    Western Ukraine

    Its ornate golden domes rising up from the surrounding plain, Pochayiv Monastery is a beacon of Ukrainian Orthodoxy (Moscow Patriarchate) on the edge of a…

  • Mezhyhirya National Park, Novi Petrivtsi, Kyiv region, Ukraine - October, 16, 2020: Museum of Corruption. The large natural complex Mezhyhirya Residence with a beautiful garden, a cascade of lakes.

    Mezhyhirya

    Kyiv

    Kyiv's newest tourist attraction is Mezhyhirya, the estate that once 'belonged' to ex-president and wannabe Ukrainian dictator, Viktor Yanukovych,…

  • Izolyatsia

    Kyiv

    Izolyatsia is a self-described platform for cultural initiatives and contemporary culture occupying an old shipyard in north Podil. Originally from…

  • Khanenko Museum of Arts

    Kyiv

    This museum's 'Western Art' wing houses Kyiv's most impressive collection of European paintings, with Bosch, Velázquez and Rubens among the many masters…

  • Khreshchatyk

    Kyiv

    Kyiv's main drag is named after a river, which these days runs underneath, enclosed in an underground pipe. Getting gussied up and strolling Khreshchatyk…

  • Ukraine, Kiev, St Andrews Church (1754 by Bartelomeo Rastrelli) on Andrews Decent (Andriyivsky Uzviz)

    Andriyivsky Uzviz

    Kyiv

    According to legend, a man walked up the hill here, erected a cross and prophesied, 'A great city will stand on this spot.' That man was the Apostle…

  • St Andrew's Church

    Kyiv

    The gold-and-blue baroque masterpiece that dominates the view as you walk up Andriyivsky uzviz was built in 1754 by Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli…

  • Ternopil Lake in Ukraine.

    Ternopil Lake

    Western Ukraine

    Summer in Ternopil is all about the town's lake, actually a reservoir that started life as part of a defence system for the now all-but-defunct castle…

  • Babyn Yar

    Kyiv

    On 29 September 1941, Nazi troops rounded up Kyiv's 34,000-strong Jewish population, marched them to the Babyn Yar ravine and massacred them. Victims were…

  • wooden church pyrohovo folk museum kiev ukraine

    Pyrohiv Museum of Folk Architecture

    Kyiv

    Some 300 traditional structures, some dating back to the 16th century, have been transplanted form various parts of Ukraine to this open-air folk museum…

  • Chornobyl Museum

    Kyiv

    It's hard to convey the full horror of the world's worst nuclear accident, but the Chornobyl Museum makes a valiant attempt. It is not so much a museum as…

  • House of Chimeras

    Kyiv

    Many of the 'chimeras' that adorn the awning of Kyiv's weirdest building are depictions of architect Władysław Horodecki's hunting trophies – antelope,…

  • Great Patriotic War Museum

    Kyiv

    Located at the base of the towering Rodina Mat, this museum was built belatedly in 1981 to honour Kyiv's defenders during the Great Patriotic War (as WWII…

  • National Museum of Ukrainian History

    Kyiv

    Located more or less at the spot where history began for Kyiv, this huge museum has been fully modernised in recent years and represents a fantastic…

  • Bulgakov Museum

    Kyiv

    The much-loved author of The Master and Margarita lived in this house between 1906 and 1919 – long before writing his most famous book. The house became…

  • Zoloti Vorota

    Kyiv

    Part of Kyiv's fortifications during the rule of Yaroslav the Wise, the famous Zoloti Vorota was erected in 1037. Modelled on Constantinople's Golden Gate…

  • Prospekt Svobody

    Lviv

    In summer the broad pavement in the middle of this wide prospekt is the town's main hang-out and a hub of Lviv life, where homegrown tourists pose for…

  • National Art Museum

    Kyiv

    In a historic neoclassical building designed by Władysław Horodecki, this long-running museum has a wide-ranging collection of Ukrainian paintings…

  • Ukrainians place candles in memory of the victims of the Holodomor famine during a ceremony at the Holodomor memorial in Kiev on November 22, 2014. Ukraine marked 81 years since the Stalin-era Holodomor famine, one of the darkest pages in its entire history that left millions dead and which is regarded by many as a genocide. The 1932-33 famine took place as harvests dwindled and Soviet leader Josef Stalin's police enforced the brutal policy of collectivising agriculture by requisitioning grain and other foodstuffs. AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY        (Photo credit should read SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

    Holodomor Victims Memorial

    Kyiv

    At the far end of Vichnoy Slavy Park, which is centred around a Soviet-era war memorial, you will find a shrine from an entirely different epoch. Former…

  • Kyiv Botanical Garden, Ukraine

    Hryshko Botanical Gardens

    Kyiv

    The long, steep hill running along the Dnipro River from Olympic Stadium and Mariyinsky Palace to Rodina Mat continues south for several kilometres,…

  • Latin Cathedral

    Lviv

    With various chunks dating from between 1370 and 1480, this working cathedral is one of Lviv’s most impressive churches. The exterior is most definitely…

  • Museum of Folk Architecture and Life

    Lviv

    This open-air museum displays different regional styles of farmsteads, windmills, churches and schools, which dot a huge park to the east of the city…

  • Museum of Microminiature

    Kyiv

    Beneath the Great Bell Tower on the south side of the Upper Lavra, the Museum of Microminiature provides something even for atheists within this holiest…

  • Lviv History Museum – Kornyakt Palace

    Lviv

    The smallest branch of the Lviv History Museum is housed in a palace, once a residence of the of Polish King Jan Sobieski III, which rises from the…

  • Boyim Chapel

    Lviv

    The blackened facade of the burial chapel (1615), belonging to Hungarian merchant Georgi Boyim and his family, is covered in magnificent if somewhat…

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