Kiev oblast

 

Kiev oblast. Tourism map Kyiv. First settlements appeared on the territory of the city about 20,000 years ago. Archaeologists found the sites of our ancestors almost in all corners of Kyiv. The most famous is the Kyrylivs'ka Site in the Podil district. In remote ages people lived also in Protasiv Ravine, Solomianka, Obolon', Priorka, on Lysa Mount, in Pyrohiv, Sovky and Korchuvate.
Legend tells that about the 5th c. brothers Kyi, Schek and Khoryv and their sister Lybid' reached by the Dnipro high hills rising above the river down the Lybid' entry and founded a city there. In honour of the founders were named Kyevytsia (now Zamkova), Schekavytsia and Horevytsia Hills, the Lybid' River and the city itself.
Kyiv was first mentioned in chronicles under the year of 862 when the city was governed by Princes Askold and Dir. In 882 the Novgorodian Prince Oleh killed Askold and Dir and captured the city. A picturesque locale in Kyiv where Prince Askold was supposedly buried is still called Askold's Grave. During the reign of Princes Oleh and Ihor, Princess Olha and Prince Sviatoslav Ihorevych the Kyivan state reached its heyday. In 988 Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych introduced Christianity in Rus. The stone Church of Our Lady or the Tithe Church (989-996) became the first sanctuary of the new religion. Around it arose stone palaces of princes protected by earthen ramparts with moats and several city gates.
Prince Yaroslav the Wise expanded boundaries of the city. During his reign the monumental St. Sophia Cathedral was built. In 1051, monks Anthony and Theodosius founded a cave monastery near the village of Berestove, which later became the famous Kyiv-Pechers'k Lavra. In the latter half of the 11th c. Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavych built his summer residence – the Red Court – in Vydubychi, a picturesque area over the Dnipro, and later the Vydubytskyi Monastery.
In 1108 in honour of the Archangel Michael Kyivan Prince Sviatopolk Iziaslavych founded St. Michael's Cathedral of the Golden Domes, an outstanding monument of architecture. After Kyivan Rus' disintegration into several principalities, the Olhovychi Princes of Chernihiv founded on the high hill called Dorohozhychi the patrimonial Monastery of St. Cyril of which St. Cyril's Church (12th c.) has survived. In 1136, during the reign of Kyivan Prince Mstyslav, the Church of the Dormition of Our Lady (Pyrogoscha) in Podil was built. The devastating invasion of the hordes of Batu Khan in 1240 led to the decline of Kyiv and Kyivan Rus for almost two centuries.
In the latter half of the 16th - first half of the 17th c. Kyiv again became the centre of Ukrainian culture. By efforts of the Kyiv Brotherhood (Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi entered it with the entire Zaporozhain Cossack army) the Brotherhood Monastery of the Epiphany (17th c.) was founded. The school at the monastery became the first institution of higher learning in Ukraine.
The development of education and culture had an effect on the city architecture. Instead of wooden structures there appeared new brick bell towers, refectories, cells, residences for monastery superiors, fortification walls with towers and gates. At that time new brick churches were erected: of St. Elijah (1692), of All Saints (1698) and of St. Theodosius of Pechersk (1700).
Along with cult architecture, civil and military construction was going on. As far back as 1679, the Cossacks of Hetman I. Samoilovych began to construct an earthen fortress around the Kyiv-Pechers'k Lavra to fortify Kyiv and avert the constant menace of the Turkish attack. On Hetman I. Mazepa's donations new stone walls with five towers were constructed around the Upper Lavra. Olden houses of confectioners Balabukha belong to that time, as well as the so-called house of Peter the Great in Podil, and some palaces in the Lypky area. The opening in 1834 of Kyiv University, whose first rector was an outstanding scientist M. Maksymovych, became a notable event for the development of science and culture. A great role in the development of education in Kyiv was played by outstanding scientist and talented surgeon N. Pirogov. In the 18th - 19th cc. world-famous writers and poets lived and worked in Kyiv: H. Skovoroda, T. Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, Marko Vovchok, I. Nechui-Levyts'kyi. A. Pushkin, A. Griboedov, N. Gogol, L. Tolstoy, A. Mickiewicz, Honore de Balzac and many other famous men visited Kyiv at different times.
In the southern outskirts of Kyiv, in Pyrohiv settlement the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine was opened in 1969. Its territory of 120 ha houses more than 150 structures, monuments of Ukrainian folk architecture of the 16th - 20th cc., monuments of material and spiritual culture of different epochs from all regions of Ukraine grouped according to historico-ethnographic and geographical zones.

Baryshivka. Several burial mounds and a site of the Kyivan Rus times have been found near the settlement.
In chronicles of the 17th c. Baryshivka is mentioned as an important fortified settlement. Its residents took part in peasant uprisings led by Taras Triasylo.
The well-known churchman, translator, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. Bratanovskyi-Romanenko (1761-1805) was born here. In 1843 T. Shevchenko was in the settlement and visited the excavated burial mound of Kyivan Rus times.

Bila Tserkva. The town stands on the picturesque banks of the Ros' River. In 1032, Kyivan Prince Yaroslav the Wise built there the Yuriiv Fortress to protect southern borders of the Kyivan state from the devastating incursions of the Polovtsians. In 1050-1057 on Zamkova Hill a white-stone church (bila tserkva in Ukr.) appeared and gave the name to the town.
During the Liberation War (1648-1657) Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyi formed here his detachments. In 1651 in the vicinity of the town his troops defeated the Polish army. At the beginning of the 18th c. there was the residence of Semen Paliy, the leader of the peasant movement. In the 19th c. Bila Tserkva became one of the centres of the Decembrist movement.
Among the well-known architectural monuments of the town mention should be made of St. Nicholas' Church (1702), the House of the Nobility Assembly (late 18th - early 19th cc.), the row of stalls (1809-1814), the Roman Catholic Church of St. John the Forerunner (1812), and the Transfiguration Cathedral (1834). The Oleksandria dendropark, an outstanding monument of landscape architecture of the 18th c., evokes general admiration.

Bohuslav. The town was one of the centres of Old Rus culture. Near it the remains of an Old Rus settlement of the 11th - 13th cc. were found. In 1240 the town was destroyed by the Mongol-Tatar hordes.
For a long time these lands belonged to Polish magnates. Freedom-loving residents of the town took an active part in the peasant-Cossack uprisings led by K. Kosyns'kyi (1590-1593) and S. Nalyvaiko (1594-1596), in the Liberation War of the Ukrainian people (1648-1657) under the guidance of Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyi. Bohuslav's history is associated with the names of popular heroes, leaders of the Haidamaky movement Maksym Zalizniak and Mykyta Shvachka.
Here famous writer I. Nechui-Levyts'ky was born and later worked as a teacher, well-known artist I. Soshenko also was born here. The town was visited by T. Shevchenko, Marko Vovchok, and writer and teacher S. Vasyl'chenko.

Boryspil'. First mentions of the town in chronicles date to the 11th c. In Boryspil' a silver coin of Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych was found and the remains of the defensive rampart of the olden church – the Lets'ka Chapel built by Prince Volodymyr Monomachus in 1117, have been preserved. In 1015, returning from the campaign against the Pechenegs, Prince Borys, son of Volodymyr Sviatoslavych, fell a victim to hired assassins.
Since that time the locality had got the name of Borys' field {pole in Ukr.), hence the contemporary name of the town. The history of Boryspil' is closely connected with the peasant-Cossack uprisings of the 16th - 17th cc.

Fastiv. The territory of the town was populated already in the Palaeolithic age, which is evidenced by a late palaeolithic site. Fastiv is first mentioned in historical documents in 1390. Its residents took an active part in the Liberation War of the Ukrainian people (1648-1657). Since the mid-1680s till 1702 Fastiv had been a regimental town. In 1702-1704 there was a centre of S. Paliy's insurrection and during the Koliivschyna peasant uprising (1768) the Haidamak detachments gathered in the town. In 1846 T. Shevchenko visited Fastiv and took part in archaeological excavations in its vicinities.
The wooden Church of the Intercession (1779-1781) and the Roman Catholic Church (1903-1911) have survived to the present day.

Pereiaslav-Khmel'nyts'kyi. The first chronicle mention of Pereiaslav-Rus'kyi dates from 906. Kyivan Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych built a citadel with the main gates facing Kyiv. Even nowadays you can see some outlines of olden ramparts and streets radiating from the citadel. From those times the foundations of the Church of Our Saviour (11th c.) have remained. The excavations of St. Michael's Cathedral (1089) can be seen near to St. Michael's Church built in 1646-1666.
There is a monument on the place where the Pereiaslav Council took place.
The architectural ensemble of the 18th c. is represented by the Ascension Cathedral (1695-1700), a three-tier bell tower (1770-1776), and the building of the Collegium (1735-1757) where the great Ukrainian enlightener, philosopher and poet H. Skovoroda lectured for some time. In his honour the Literary-Memorial Museum was opened in the town.
The contemporary town is an original open-air museum. There functions the historico-cultural reserve. Its oldest establishment is the History Museum located in the former house of doctor A. Kozachkovs'kyi. Museums of V. Zabolotnyi, Sholom Aleikhem and M. Benardos also function in the town.
The Pereiaslav-Khmel'nyts'kyi Museum of Folk Architecture and Life opened in 1964 is one of Ukraine's first skansens. Its exhibitions tell about the evolution of dwelling in the mid-Naddniprianschyna since olden times till the late 19th c.

Vasyl'kiv. The town was founded in the late 10th c. under the name of Vasyliv in honour of the son of Prince Volodymyr Sviatoslavych. The city history is connected with the Decembrist movement in Ukraine. S. Muravyev-Apostol and M. Bestuzhev-Riumin were the leaders of the Vasyl'kiv Board of the Southern Society of the Decembrists. The members of the board gathered in the house where S. Muravyev-Apostol lived. Under their guidance in December 1825 the Chernihiv Regiment rose in rebellion. The monument standing in the town centre reminds of those events. The Cathedral of Sts. Anthony and Theodosius (1758) and St. Nicholas' Church of stone (1792) are the most interesting architectural monuments.

Vyshhorod. The town territory has been populated since olden times. Here the remains of a Neolithic settlement (4th - 3rd mil. BC) have been found, as well as burial mounds of the Bronze Age (7th - 6th cc. BC) and Sarmatian times. The remains of a large settlement of the 9th - 13th cc. have been well preserved. Olden Vyshgorod was one of the most important towns of Kyivan Rus. It was first mentioned in a chronicle in 946 as a residence of Princess Olha. The town was well known throughout the entire Kyivan Rus and beyond its borders as well. For three centuries it was one of the most picturesque cities of Kyivan Rus. Written sources testify that Vyshgorod was a significant cultural, trade and handicraft centre as well as a strong outpost which protected the southern approaches to Kyiv. The Mongol-Tatar invasion and subsequent wars wiped off almost all olden monuments from the face of Vyshgorod.
At present, the tourist can see the reconstructed Cathedral of Sts. Borys and Hlib (12th c.), and the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Station and Kyiv Hydroelectric Pumped Storage Power Plant, the first in Eastern Europe.

 

Oblast farmsteads