14 of the best · Kyiv, Ukraine
St Sophia’s and the Lavra on UNESCO’s list, St Michael’s and St Andrew’s, the Golden Gate, the Andriivskyi Descent and Podil, and the memorials of Babyn Yar and the Holodomor.
Our 14 favourites, listed A–Z · Updated November 2026
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Three Kyiv moments we keep coming back to: the Lavra’s bell tower over the river in the morning, the walk down the Andriivskyi Descent to Podil, and a matinee at the National Opera.
UNESCO World Heritage
The cave monastery above the Dnipro: churches, bell tower and underground passages.
UNESCO World Heritage
The eleventh-century cathedral at the heart of the old town, with its mosaics and frescoes.
The blue and gold domes
The blue walls and golden domes facing St Sophia’s across two squares.
Reading the city of golden domes.
The back story
St Sophia’s and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on UNESCO’s list, the Golden Gate, St Michael’s and St Andrew’s, the Andriivskyi Descent down to Podil, and the memorial at Babyn Yar: how to read Kyiv.
St Sophia’s and the Lavra.
UNESCO World Heritage
The cave monastery above the Dnipro: churches, bell tower and underground passages.
UNESCO World Heritage
The eleventh-century cathedral at the heart of the old town, with its mosaics and frescoes.
Churches and gates.
Rastrelli’s church on the hill
Rastrelli’s baroque church at the top of the Andriivskyi Descent.
The blue and gold domes
The blue walls and golden domes facing St Sophia’s across two squares.
Yellow walls, painted vaults
The yellow cathedral on Shevchenko Boulevard, painted inside from floor to dome.
The city’s old gate
The gate of the medieval city, now a museum of the Sophia preserve.
Down to the river.
The heart of Podil
The merchants’ square of the lower town, beside the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
The cobbled street
The cobbled street that winds from St Andrew’s down to Podil.
Khreshchatyk and the funicular.
Babyn Yar and the Holodomor.
National memorial preserve
The ravine where tens of thousands of Kyiv’s Jews were murdered in September 1941, now a memorial preserve.
44 Yuriia Illienka Street, Kyiv 04119Explore View on map
Memorial museum
The memorial museum to the victims of the famine of 1932–33, above the Dnipro.
15-A Ivana Mazepy Street, Kyiv 01010Explore View on map
The zoo and VDNG.
Pavilions and parkland
The great exhibition grounds of pavilions, gardens and events in the south of the city.
