Trip in Kiev

During my Chrismas school break I had the chance to go to Kiev for 1 week, I will try to relate my fellings and my "discoveries" through photos and few tips in pages dedicated to Kiev and Ukraine.

You can find a little page about Ukraine / Kiev History and Religion, and of course a page about Ukrainian food.

So now let's go to a virtual visit of Kiev.... (too see photos on the real size and use the diaporama, click on any photo)

What about starting with St. Michael's Golden Domed Monastery. Built during middle age and extend between 1713 and 1719, the cathedral has been built for orthodox monks. The building you will see on the photos is not the authentic one, this one has been destruct by the soviet army and re-built between 1991 and 2000, when the Ukraine became independent.

View from outside,
foreground the entrance gate to the monastery and the Bell Tower.

View from the Bell Tower

A part of the hundreds bells.

View from the Bell Tower (you can see the nexts visits...)

From left to right: Andrew representing the religion and indicating Moscow, Olga, the first "reborned" and 2 holy saints.

The imposing Eastern architectur of a part of the Parliament

We are now arriving to Ste Sophia Cathedral. Protected by the UNESCO, its name comes from the Ste Sophia Mosque of Istanbul. Built in 1037 by and for prince Yaroslav Mudriy, it is the place used for Rousian and Ukrainian princes coronation. It has been a cultural, religious, political and social centre of Kiev for many centuries.

Let's first stay a little bit on the square front of the building.

Bohdan Khmelnitski, Cossack Leader

Again, similar building configuration to St Michel Golden Domes

Ste Sophia from inside the walls

Ste Sophia made of Easter eggs (Ukrainian tradition)

Let's continue with one of the biggest Cathedral: Kiev Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian Monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev. Since its foundation as the cave monaster in 1051 the Lavra has been a preeminent center of the Eatern Orthodox Christianity in eastern Europe. Together with the Ste Sophia Cathedral, it is inscribed at the UNESCO. The monastery complex is considered a separate national historic-cultural preserve (sanctuary), the national status to which was granted on 1996.

First building of the huge area

View from the other side

Second Building

Next visit will be in St Volodymyr's Cathedral is one of the city's major landmarks and the Mothe cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church -Kiev Patriarchy, one of two major Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In 1852, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow suggested a large cathedral should be built in Kiev to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Kievan Rus' by prince Vladimir (Volodymyr) the Great of Kiev (St. Vladimir). People from all over the Russian Empire started donating to this cause, so that by 1859 the cathedral fund had amassed a huge sum of 100,000 rubles.

View from the other side of the street

Front

Inside photomontage (there is not a lot of Churches where we can take pictures)

The last Church visited is the Saint Andrew's Church, a major Baroque constructed in 1747–1754, and designed by the Rissian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The Saint Andrew's Church overlooks the historic Podil neighborhood, situated on a steep hill to which the church gave its current name—Andriyivska Hill

The baroque three-tier Iconostasis

Now we are done with Churches we will continu with key buildings in Kiev. the first one is the Ukrainian Parliament. Probably the must massive building of the city. You cannot see it in once without moving your head. This is where you can see the famous diplomatic fights (see video from BBC below).

 

Famous Ukrainian diplomatic fights ;) 

Next building is the House with Chimaeras or Gorodetsky House. Architect Vladislav Gorodetsky originally constructed the House with Chimaeras for use as his own upmarket apartment building during the period of 1901–1902. However, as the years went by, Gorodetsky eventually had to sell the building due to financial troubles, after which it changed ownership numerous times before finally being occupied by an official Communist Party polyclinic until the early 2000st The building is now use as a presidential residence for official and diplomatic ceremonies since 2005. The street in front of the building is closed off to all automobile traffic, and is now a patrolled pedestrian zone due to its near proximity to the Presidential Administration building.

^{House with Chimaeras}

The golden gates were built in 1017-1024 (6545 by the Byzantine calendar) at about the same time the Saint Sophia Cathedral was erected. While some believe that the gates stood some time before that - as depicted, for example, in a painting by Jan Matejko that portrays Bolelaw Chrobry and Sviatopolk I entering the city during the Kiev succession crisis in 1018 - this is now regarded as legend. Originally named simply the Southern Gate, it was one of the three main entrances to the walled city, along with the Lyadski and Zhydivski Gates. The later two have not survived Currently it serves as a museum.

The colorful Taras Shevchenko University

The National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War (of 1941-1945) is a memorial complex commemorating the German-Soviet War. The monumental sculpture of the "Motherland", built by Yevgeny Vuchetich stands 62 meters tall upon the museum building with the overall structure measuring 102 m and weighing 530 tons. The sword in the statue's right hand is 16 m long weighing 9 tons, with the left hand holding up a 13 m by 8 m shield with the Coat of arms of the Soviet Union. The Memorial hall of the Museum displays marble plaques with carved names of more than 11,600 soldiers and over 200 workers of the home-front honored during the war with the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of Socialist Labor.

Motherland

Statues at the memorial complex depicting the 1943 Battle of the Dnieper

 Before arriving to the main building (the Motherland), you can see several military equipments

Afgan War Helicopter

"Scud B" rocket launcher

Scub B

"ZIS 2" 22mm

Statue representing the 1933' starvation in Kiev

April 26th, 1986

1:23 44s am

Tchernobyl

Tchernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded

The official Soviet casualty count of 31 deaths has been disputed, and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, 2600 km2, 186 comunities, 120 000 persons

The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then officially Ukrainian SSR), which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe.

The Chernobyl disaster is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers.

^{Made in Ukraine....}

Electrical lines maintenance

Police car...

Gate security

Tourism center

Ukrainian car tuning

And to end the article, Panoramas of Kiev

Left side of Kiev

View from Kiev Pechersk Lavra