Maidan Square
From Sophia’s Cathedral we continue to the Maidan Nezalezhnosti, which translates to: “Square of Independence”. The ”Maidan” was the place where the Euromaidan revolution in the winter 2013-14 cost more than 100 Ukrainians their life and made the president Viktor Yanukovuch flee to Russia.
On the square is the Independence Monument that was raised in 2001 to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union.
The main street of Kyiv Khreshchatyk that borders the Maidan is also worth seeing with its impressive buildings in post-war Stalinist architecture.
If you cross the street, the square continues and below it there is a big underground shopping center.
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Kyiv Pechersk Lavra
This historical Orthodox Christian monastery is also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves. Together with the Saint Sophia Cathedral that we visited earlier, the monastery is UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Cave monastery dates as far back as 1051, when the monk Anthony settled in a cave here. Th
Castle of Richard the Lionheart
On the way down the descent we see the ”Castle of Richard the Lionheart”. The house was built from 1902 to 1904 by the architect R. Marfeld for the wealthy industrialist Dimity Orlov. It was named by the author Wiktor Nekrassow who thought the Neo-Gothic style made it look like a medi