KIEV
Golden domes and shimmering spires peek out from the wooded hills rising
above the wide Dnipro River. Leafy-green
Kiev, with its traffic-packed boulevards, shopping malls, countless churches,
brilliant music and lively nightlife, has embraced capitalism but held
firmly to its heritage. The Caves Monastery is the spiritual heart of
Ukraine; nearby, a gigantic Brezhnev-era Motherland statue bearing sword
and shield casts her all-encompassing
eye over the city, the river, and its island beaches.
loudly – from caves left by scholarly monks
and dazzling blue St Michael’s, completed
in 2001 on the site of a monastery razed
under Communism, through distinctive
buildings by Rastrelli, darling architect of
St Petersburg, via art collected by
pre-revolutionary sugar magnates to the
Babi Yar massacre memorial, wedding cake
Stalin Empire architecture, the Chernobyl
Museum and proud Independence Square,
its feet firmly planted in the western
capitalist future.
are now government buildings; the Caves
Monastery, parks and Soviet statues define
ancient Pechersk. The Upper City has
landmark churches – St Sophia’s was
modelled on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul –
and bohemian Andrew’s Descent delights
as it winds down into 19th-century Podil.
Across the river lies a concrete forest of
Soviet apartment blocks. Kiev’s music is
unmissable, particularly the superb ballet
and opera at the Viennese-style Opera
House.