Wednesday December 8th 2021

Kiev –St. Michael’s Golden Domed Monastery : St. Andrew’s Church : St. Sophia’s Cathedral : Golden Gate : St. Vlodomyr’s Cathedral : Zoloti Vorota/Teatralna/Khreshchatyk Metro Stations   

Breakfast was served in the large chilly restaurant; unfortunately most of the choices of hot food were cold too.

Setting off, we looked first at the remarkable Independence Monument.  It was, however, very slippery around the statue. As it was also very wet, Anne decided to wear her waterproof poncho and Pete kindly offered me his, assuring me that he didn’t want to wear it.

 

 

Being a good friend I decided to wear it so that it wasn’t just Anne looking incredibly silly, but sensible I hasten to add!

We did look a sight; we were wearing masks as well which were obligatory at the time.

The pavements and roads were extremely slippery and had not been treated with gritting salt. Throughout the day, we saw many people almost falling (as we did) and then with flailing arms managing to regain their balance.

One young lady walking on the steep St. Andrew’s Descent wasn’t so lucky.  She fell hard and with quite a bang, landing on both her knees. She shook her head refusing our offers of help, nodded that she was okay and limped down the hill.

St. Michael’s Golden Domed Monastery is one of the remarkably impressive churches in Kiev.  Topped with seven golden domes it is dedicated to Archangel Michael.

The darkened interior unfortunately stopped us from seeing the magnificent mosaics which we had read about.

 

 

St. Andrew’s Church, another stunning structure reopened in late 2020 after a major restoration.

Finding a   small door open, we went inside. A nun hurried to greet us and said that there was just one small chapel open for prayer.  She kindly asked if we wished to use it.

When we explained that we would like to see the interior of the main church, she pointed us in the right direction. Dave and I tentatively walked up a steep, slippery and icy path to be met by a burly security man who waved his arms at us indicating the church was closed.  He then gazed up at the skies and shrugged his shoulders, we understood from this that the closure was due to the inclement weather.

The four of us slipped and slided down St. Andrew’s Descent, which is the cobbled steep road linking old Kiev with Podil. Noticing an interesting piece of street art, I took a photo and then hurriedly put my gloves on again.  It was cold!

Podil is an historic neighbourhood in Kiev.  It apparently boasts Kiev’s best restaurants; we thought we would browse a couple of menus and possibly return to the district that evening.  However, we didn’t manage to find more than a couple of restaurants and we weren’t overly impressed with their offerings.  “And of course we still want try to Chicken Kiev” we said (‘in Kiev’, we chorused, laughing).

A pretty café with small wooden tables and lace table cloths drew us in for warming hot drinks and cake.

It was named ‘Lviv Chocolate’ and two colourful murals of scenes from Lviv covered two of its walls, most of which we recognised.

Podil had a Ferris wheel and a couple of Christmas children’s roundabouts.  The day was wet and dismal though and there was no one about.

 

We climbed up an extremely steep hill to where we believed the funicular was, only to walk halfway back down again when we realised we had missed a turning. Taking us back up the steep hill, we came out of the funicular close to St. Michael’s where we could see St. Sophia’s Cathedral a short distance away.

This church, now a museum, was, for me, the highlight of the day. It is Kiev’s oldest standing church and is named after the famous Agia Sophia in Istanbul.

It is full of amazing frescos and mosaics and has a wonderful cast iron floor.

 

Upstairs on the two tier gallery, you can see behind the gold iconostasis.

An antechamber with more paintings and works of art led to an impressive and interesting wooden iconostasis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A most unexpected mosaic was the face of the Virgin Mary, created by hand painted Easter eggs made from beech wood. This unusual work of art was created by Oksana Mas, a Ukrainian contemporary artist.

Oksana named her creation ‘Look into Eternity’ and it was unveiled in 2010. Different people including children painted the 15,000 eggs following the artist’s diagrams, children, however, were allowed to paint freestyle.

The egg is an important symbol in many different cultures throughout the world. Oksana envisions that each egg is a work of art and a symbol of energy and spirituality.

 

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was the Zoloti Vorota, often referred to, as the Golden Gate.  This unusual shaped edifice is a reconstruction of the 11th century main gate into the city of Kiev. The statue is Yaroslav the Wise, the Grand Prince of Kiev in the 11th century.

Perhaps a more popular statue is actually a memorial to Pantyusha, a Persian cat.

Once the resident of a popular local restaurant, he unfortunately met his demise after an electrical fault caused a fire in the eatery.

 

Continuing our sightseeing, we set off to St. Vlodomyr’s (St. Vladimir) Cathedral. We had spotted a signpost earlier but of course we never saw another one!  I asked a man, who, after apologising for his lack of English, asked us to wait while he thought about it. He then told us we were going in completely the wrong direction and he walked with us until we got to a junction and then pointed the way.

Thanking him, we set off but after a couple of minutes, we agreed that we were going in the wrong direction. I stopped a woman who was hand in hand with a girl of about eight and asked if she knew the way.  “Yes, come” she instructed and we followed her and her daughter for perhaps ten minutes or so.  She confidently stepped out to cross major roads with lots of traffic, turning round and encouraging us to follow them, “Come” she said.  She pointed out the opera building and then pointed to the street where the cathedral was situated.

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of the cathedral’s domes were painted blue with gold stars. I had read that the cathedral had one of the best interiors of the city’s churches. It is indeed beautiful, its darkened interior and complete silence created a serene atmosphere. Two huge doors have relief sculptures of St. Vladimir and St. Olga.

On the way back to the hotel, we decided to have a look at some of Kiev’s famous metro stations. Just a few steps away from the Golden Gate and named after it, is the Zoloti Vorota metro station.

Considered by some to be one of the most beautiful in the world, this station with late Soviet architecture is likened to a church. It has many arches with mosaics and bronze chandeliers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From this station, we walked through the underground system to the Teatralna Station.

Teatralna translates as theatre and the previously named ‘Leninska Station’ is situated close to the city’s opera house.

It has a huge 3D painting of a theatre on one of its walls.  The painting apparently covers Lenin bas reliefs.

Khreshchatyk station is below the capital’s most central street situated in the heart of the city,

It is decorated with hand painted ceramic Ukrainian tiles.

 

 

Returning to our hotel a little before 5pm, the top of the striking Independence Monument overlooking the Maidan Nezalezhnosti was enveloped in fog and therefore not visible.

A couple of hours later, we met up with Anne and Pete at a traditional Ukrainian Restaurant which we had spotted earlier in the day.

Three of us ordered the Chicken Kiev and a rather tasty bottle of Ukrainian wine.

 

 

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