Attractions of Kyiv

The Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is located on the territory of the Holosiyivsky forest, on the southern outskirts of Kyiv.

It was built in 1944-1948 on the initiative of the outstanding Ukrainian astronomer Oleksandr Orlov, who became the first director of the observatory. The construction was carried out according to the project of the famous architect Oleksiy Shchusev.

The first telescopes were Wanschaff's vertical circle and Tepfer-Steingel's double long-focus astrograph. Now the observatory also has a station for laser observation of artificial satellites of the Earth, a horizontal solar telescope АТСУ-5, a reflector AZT-2, a double wide-angle Zeiss astrograph, a meridian axial circle and other instruments.

The Museum of the History of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences is located in the tower of the double long-focus Tepfer-Steingel astrograph. Visitors are greeted by a poster announcing that minor planet No. 15675 was named Goloseevo in honor of this institution.

On the four floors of the tower, numerous photographic materials about the history of the institution, personal belongings of prominent astronomers, the first astrometric instruments and measuring devices are presented. A collection of antique clocks is presented in the time room.

Excursions with amateur astronomical observations are held by prior appointment for organized groups.

The Kyiv Literary and Memorial Museum of Maksym Rylsky was opened in 1966 in the building next to the Holosiyivsky Park in Kyiv, where the outstanding Ukrainian poet lived the last 13 years of his life, from 1951 to 1964.

It was here that he wrote his most famous poetry collections "Roses and Grapes", "Winter Notes", "Evening Conversations".

The living room, office and library of Maksym Rylsky have been preserved in the building. In three more halls, there is a biographical exposition that illuminates the life and creative path of the poet.

In total, the museum's funds include more than 10,000 items. It is possible to listen to recordings of the poet's voice.

The house is surrounded by a garden and flower beds, created by the hands of Maksym Rylsky. A monument to the poet has been installed in front of the house.

The first interactive museum of mathematics in Ukraine "Cuboid" opened in 2025 on the territory of the National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine" (VDNG) in Kyiv. This is a space for studying mathematical phenomena through experiments with interactive exhibits.

The goal of the museum is to show how mathematical laws work in nature, technology and everyday life. Here visitors can get acquainted with the laws of geometry, algorithms, probability theory and other mathematical phenomena on their own experience.

The exposition is located on two floors and consists of six thematic zones, each of which is a separate educational laboratory for schoolchildren and teachers. There are 120 exhibits that become little scientific adventures for visitors. For example, "Penalty Kick" teaches how to analyze angles and trajectories, and "Skyscraper" helps to understand the principles of engineering through building simulations.

With the help of the "Storm Warning" exhibit, you can analyze weather data, record your own weather forecast and save it for yourself. The "Cybersecurity" exhibit allows visitors to enter an online computer game where they have to defend themselves against attackers such as computer bugs and viruses.

In addition to the exhibits, the Museum of Mathematics offers educational programs for two main groups - educators and children. They are available both in person at the museum and online for everyone.

The MIA of Ukraine Museum opened in 2004 in the premises of the National Academy of Internal Affairs in Kyiv. The exposition tells about the activities of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine from the times of Kyivan Rus to the present day.

In particular, in the museum you can learn about the work of the General Secretariat of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian People's Republic during the time of the Central Council, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian State under Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi, law enforcement agencies of the Soviet period and the modern Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Photographs, documents and personal belongings of famous law enforcement officers are presented; the most important legal acts related to the creation, organization and activity of law enforcement agencies; awards of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; samples of weapons and uniforms of different historical periods.

Collections of cold and firearms seized from criminals, counterfeit money and documents, as well as the tools used to make them, materials of high-profile criminal cases, physical evidence, etc. are exhibited.

There is a separate hall dedicated to the participation of units of the MIA of Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The Miniland Railway Miniature Museum is the largest railway model in Ukraine, which opened in 2022 in the Blockbuster shopping center in Kyiv.

On an area of 87 square meters, exact moving copies of dozens of trains, hundreds of real buildings and natural objects of Ukraine, as well as about 1,500 figurines of people are presented. All objects on the model are made as realistic as possible on a scale of 1:87. In particular, you can see models of Olesko Castle, Ivano-Frankivsk Railway Station, Buky Canyon, Trypillia TPP, etc. The model has a system of automatic regulation of train movement and dynamic lighting that simulates day and night conditions.

The Miniland Museum is constantly replenished with new exhibits, which are mini-copies of real objects from all over Ukraine.

Monitor "Zheleznyakov" - a legendary warship of the Second World War, which became famous during the fighting on the Danube, the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov. It went through the entire war, receiving the nickname "elusive" among the people.

Monitors are low-sided armored artillery ships designed for combat operations in shallow water. Monitor SB-37 was built in 1934 at the Kiev shipyard. Named by the Soviet authorities in honor of the Russian anarchist and rebel Anatoliy Zheleznyakov.

Monitor "Zheleznyakov" met the Second World War as part of the Danube Flotilla and fought until victory.

In 1965, it was installed on a pedestal on Rybalsky Island, immediately behind the Havansky Bridge.

The monument to the heroes of the cartoon "There once was a dog", based on the Ukrainian folk tale "Sirko" by director Eduard Nazarov, is located in the center of Kyiv near Peyzahnna Alley.

The author of the work, Vinnytsia sculptor Volodymyr Zayets, depicted the Wolf and the Dog sitting under a festive table with a bottle of moonshine, the inscription "Many years" and a thigh. The sculpture is carved from linden, varnished and treated with special wood protection solutions that protect it from atmospheric influences.

The sculptural composition "There once was a dog" complements a number of works located on Peyzahnna Alley.

The monument to tank soldiers on Shulyavka in Kyiv is better known among Kyivans simply as the "tank monument".

The legendary T-34 tank of the Second World War was installed on a pedestal in 1968 in honor of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, which liberated Kyiv from fascist occupiers during the Second World War.

The monument is a 43-meter-long concrete strip (a symbol of front-line roads), at the end of which is a T-34-85 medium tank with serial number 111, which participated in the liberation of Kyiv. It is interesting that a combat vehicle with a full crew and a calculation of paratroopers on board reached the place of eternal parking and climbed the pedestal on its own.

In 1982, the monument to the tankers was supplemented with stelae with soil from the hero cities of the USSR.

On April 10, 2022, immediately after the de-occupation of Kyiv Region during the Russian-Ukrainian war, activists and security forces of Kyiv removed the names of Belarusian and Russian hero cities, which received this title after the Second World War, from the ceilings near the monument. Instead, the names on the steles were replaced with the names of the hero cities of Ukraine: Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Volnovakha, Okhtyrka, Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel and Mariupol.

The Taras Shevchenko Memorial Building-Museum on Priorka in Kyiv, a department of the Shevchenko National Museum, is called "House at Priorka".

The poet lived here for some time in 1859, during his last stay in Kyiv, waiting for permission to leave for St. Petersburg.

The museum exposition recreates the life of the Kyiv suburbs of the second half of the 19th century. Most of the things exhibited in the house were handed over by residents of Priorka, descendants of those people who personally met Shevchenko.

A 400-year-old oak still grows near the house, under which, according to contemporaries, the poet liked to sit.

The Museum "Mansion at Kudryavka" (the former Pushkin Museum) was opened in Kyiv in the two-story building of 1816, where the writer Mykhaylo Bulhakov lived as a child.

The interiors of the residence reproduce the atmosphere and represent the life and everyday life of the city in the first half of the 19th century. Here you can see furniture, fabrics, porcelain, glass, beaded embroideries, engravings of the 18th-19th centuries and other things characteristic of the life of the nobility of that time.

The exhibition was based on the "Pushkinian" collection of the researcher Yakiv Berdychevsky, who donated it to the city in 1987. In total, more than 1,200 exhibits are presented. The pearl of the collection is a copy of the magazine "Contemporary" (1836, volume two) with a censorship permit signed by the censor Krylov. No less valuable are the poet's lifetime publications, such as separate sections of the novel in verse "Yevheniy Onyehin", which were published as so-called "notebooks" for seven years before the publication of the full text of the work in March 1833.

Currently, the team of the museum "Mansion at Kudryavka" is working on the development of the structure and the filling of the new exposition, in part, repair and restoration works are being carried out, which the museum premises desperately need.

"Mansion at Kudryavka" is a branch of the Kyiv History Museum.

The Museum of Ukrainian Diaspora, which tells about the fate of Ukrainian immigrants, is located in an ancient Kyiv mansion of the 19th century.

Here are presented documents, photographs and some personal belongings that once belonged to Ukrainian artists, writers, and musicians who at various times were forced to leave their homeland.

Several halls of the museum are dedicated to the work of immigrant artists: Lyudmyla Morozova, Oleksa Bulavnytsky, Vadym Dobrolizh and others. The largest exposition is dedicated to the life and work of the famous ballet master and dancer Serzh Lyfar.

The "Museum of One Nation on Poshtova Square" in Kyiv is a public initiative to preserve and popularize the archaeological site of Ancient Kyiv - the remains of the medieval coastal quarter in the underground space of Poshtova Square.

According to historians, it was at this place, by order of Prince Volodymyr Svyatoslavych, that pagan idols were thrown into the Dnipro River, and it was here in 988 that the mass baptism of the people of Kyiv took place.

In the spring of 2015, during the construction of an underground shopping and entertainment center on Poshtova Square, a street from the time of Kyivan Rus (XI-XII centuries) was excavated. Found parts of wooden houses and workshops, remains of the customs house, old stockades, fragments of ceramic dishes, princely seals, weapons, jewelry, etc. Separately, a wooden fortification building of the 17th century was found - the remains of the Khreshchatyk gate tower.

The construction of the shopping center was stopped, and archaeological research and conservation of the monument began. In 2019, the archaeological site "Section of the Coastal City Quarter of Medieval Kyiv" received the status of a monument of national importance. Discussions about museification are still ongoing.

"Museum on Poshtova Square" was founded in 2019 as an open-air historical museum by members of the initiative group of the public movement, which came out in defense of the monument of archeology and history of national importance on Poshtova Square in June 2018 for the preservation and development of the monument. In February 2022, it was registered as the Public Organization "Museum of One Nation on Poshtova Square".

Activists of the public organization "Museum of One Nation on Poshtova Square" conduct regular tours of the underground space. Here you can see the remains of the medieval coastal quarter, visit the exhibition "Kyiv History of Bricks" and the photo exhibition "De-Occupied" by the famous photographer Victoria Skuratovska.

Pre-registration is required to get on the tour. The entrance to the location is opposite the funicular, to the left of the entrance to the Church of the Nativity of Christ.

The Kyiv Literary and Memorial Museum-Apartment of Mykola Bazhan was opened in 2004 to mark the centenary of the poet's birthday in the house where the Bazhan family lived for about forty years.

The original interiors of the office, living room, art library, the room of the poet's wife and father have been preserved in the apartment. Antique furniture, objects of decorative and applied art, other personal belongings of the poet convey the special atmosphere of intellectual life of the second half of the 20th century.

A collection of works of fine and decorative applied art, collected by the owner himself and his wife, is presented, including paintings by Mykola Pymonenko, Fedir Krychevskyi, Ivan Trush, Kateryna Bilokur, Mykola Hlushchenko and other artists.

The literary part of the exposition illuminates the creative path of Bazhan. Extant editions of the artist's poems, manuscripts, translations, photos from movies shot according to his scripts, etc. are exhibited. Mykola Bazhan's personal library has more than 8,000 books.

The apartment museum of Mykola Bazhan is a branch of the National Museum of Literature of Ukraine.

In the same building is the Literary Memorial Museum-Apartment of Pavlo Tychyna, who was a neighbor of Bazhan.

Since 1998, the Kyiv Circus has had the status of the National Circus of Ukraine, which gives it the right to be called the main circus arena of the country.

The first stationary Kyiv circus Hippo-Palace of the rich horse breeder and trainer Petro Krutikov was built in Pechersk in 1903 according to the project of the architect Vladyslav Horodetskyi. At that time it was the largest in Europe.

The current fundamental building of the National Circus of Ukraine was built according to the project of the architect Valentin Zhukov in 1960, becoming one of the three main arenas of the USSR.

Today, the National Circus of Ukraine has its own artists of various circus genres, a ballet troupe, and one of the best musical groups.

Excursions "Traveling through the circus building" are held, during which visitors have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the real circus atmosphere, learn interesting historical facts, architectural features of the building, details of the creation of performances.

The National Military History Museum of Ukraine is located in the Officers' House on Pechersk in Kyiv.

The museum tells about the development of military affairs over many centuries: the Cimmerian-Scythian period, Kyivan Rus, the Cossack era, the First World War, the National Liberation Struggle, the Second World War, the Cold War, the formation of the armed forces of independent Ukraine.

The exposition is based on authentic weapons that were used in different historical eras on the territory of modern Ukraine. In the halls of the museum, you can view military chronicles, documentary and artistic military-historical films.

The museum also conducts patriotic education classes, where you can independently disassemble and assemble automatic firearms.