To see a close-up map of central Kyiv, click here. To see some of the monuments in Kyiv, click here.
Kyiv is often called the city of golden domes because of the many orthodox
churches and monestaries that are located throughout the hillsides of the
city. The building to the left is actually a monastery that overlooks the
Dnipro River north of the central city.
The land the city is built on is comprised mostly of rolling hills and bluffs around the Dnipro. There are over 200 square kilometers of green space witihin the city limits of Kyiv.
The city is incorporated over a wide area on both sides of the Dnipro. The CBD of Kyiv, centered in the area around the Kreshchatyk is a dense urban environment. However, because of the steep hills and bluffs the the city sits upon, extremely concentrated urban building was not an option. The city sprawls over an area of several hundred square kilometers, with more than half of that area remaining either dedicated green-space or undeveloped land. Approximately three million people live in Kyiv.
The terrain of Kyiv was a problem for Soviet planners who never developed the same sort of master plan for Kyiv like they did for other large cities like Moscow or Leningrad. While the soviets did build the metro and erected many monuments in Kyiv they did not disrupt much of the old character of Kyiv or of it's streetscapes.
The picture to the left shows some of the major soviet influences on Kyiv. This is a picture of the outer-belt highway when it crosses the Dnipro river. The ring-road was built by the soviets as were the many similar looking high-rise apartment complexes seen in the distance. This picture also shows the sheer amount of green-space in the city.
One of the most distinctive aspects to the urban landscape of Kyiv is it's conflicting monumental architecture. When the Soviets came to power they imposed their symbolic landscape forms on Ukrainian cities. What resulted was a mish-mash of symbolism that gives a very unique, if not confused look to Kyiv. To learn more about the monuments in Kyiv click here.
Above is another soviet developed residential district. This area was lived in by party officials and other iportant persons in the communist government. It remains an attractive neighborhood and one of the elite residential districts in Kyiv.