Lviv
The blackened facade of the burial chapel (1615), belonging to Hungarian merchant Georgi Boyim and his family, is covered in magnificent if somewhat…
Must-see attractions in Ukraine
Lviv
Dominating a square to the east of pl Rynok is one of Lviv’s signature sights, the large dome of the 1764 Dominican Cathedral. Inside, the typical baroque…
Lviv
One church you should not miss is the elegant 1363 Armenian Cathedral with its ancient-feeling interior. The placid cathedral courtyard is a maze of…
Lviv
This Ukrainian Orthodox church is easily distinguished by the 65m-high, triple-tiered Kornyakt bell tower rising beside it. The tower was named after its…
Kyiv
Few churches appear more frozen in time than those of the Vydubytsky Monastery, nestled into a hill beneath the Hryshko Botanical Gardens. If you found…
Kyiv
This museum lays out individual histories of Andriyivsky uzviz buildings. The sheer jumble-sale eclecticism of the collection – showcasing the lives of,…
Lviv
Only reconsecrated in 2011, Lviv's impressive Jesuit church (full name – Garrison Church of Sts Peter and Paul) was used as a book repository during the…
Kyiv
This museum in the Upper Lavra, behind the Dormition Cathedral, has an astounding collection of precious stones and metal found or made in Ukraine. The…
Bernardine Church and Monastery
Lviv
Lviv's most stunning baroque interior belongs to the 17th-century now Greek Catholic Church of St Andrew, part of the Bernadine Monastery. Populated with…
Museum of Ethnography, Arts & Crafts
Lviv
This underfunded, chaotically curated museum has a few interesting pieces of furniture, Czech glass, art nouveau posters (Mucha, Lautrec) and various 19th…
Kyiv
Once a storage for gunpowder and harnesses, these days it is a playground for visionary curators – each exhibition becomes an event of national importance…
Lviv
The tall copper-domed church just west of the Armenian Cathedral is the late-17th-century, newly renovated Transfiguration Church, the first church in the…
Kyiv
Located at the far side of Zhulyany airfield, this open-air museum displays dozens of Soviet aircraft designed to carry people or tanks, land on ice or…
Kyiv National Museum of Russian Art
Kyiv
With 2000 paintings, only a fraction of which are on display at any one time, this museum, set in an impressive tsar-era mansion, has the largest…
Lviv
The late-16th-century Golden Rose Synagogue stood at the heart of the inner district before the Nazis blew it up in 1943. A piece of wasteland for decades…
Lviv
Darkly mysterious and wonderfully aromatic, this is possibly Lviv's finest church away from the tourist action. It dates back to at least 1292 and is now…
Lviv
An enormous statue of Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine's greatest nationalist writer, rises up in the middle of pr Svobody. It was a gift to the people of Lviv…
Monument to the Victims of Soviet Crimes
Lviv
This grim but striking monument depicts a brutalist, angular figure breaking out from iron prison bars, with cobbles radiating out to benches around where…
Kyiv
This 15th-century women's convent remained open during the communist era. Pass through the bell tower to the peaceful grounds, which contain several…
Mid-Dnipro Museum of Folk Architecture and Life
Kyiv
This brilliant outdoor museum in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky, 90km southeast of Kyiv, has around 70 heritage wooden buildings brought here from nearby villages…
Western Ukraine
The Shatsky National Nature Park lies 160km northwest of Lutsk in the corner between Belarus and Poland, and has some 200 lakes, rivers and streams…
Western Ukraine
Some 100 or so of the Cossacks who died in the skirmishes during the Khmelnytsky uprising against Poland in 1648 are buried in the remarkable Pyatnytske…
Western Ukraine
Lutsk's 14th-century castle stands surrounded by ornate 17th-century churches and homes and is in fairly decent shape for a Ukrainian fortress. Known as…
Western Ukraine
The main Orthodox church in Lutsk dates from 1752 and is a much more atmospheric affair than the Sts Peter's and Paul's Cathedral, not having been…
Western Ukraine
At the western end of vul Hetmana Sahaydachnoho, where it opens up into maydan Voli, the dirty-cream-and-grey Dominican Church and monastery complex…
Western Ukraine
Dubno castle is where Andry, the son of Cossack Taras Bulba, falls in love with a Polish princess in Gogol's famous story, Taras Bulba, and crosses over…
Western Ukraine
The town's verdant showpiece, complete with landscaping, fountains and mature trees, is a popular hang-out and a pleasant spot for an evening corso…
Western Ukraine
The remains of this hilltop fortress are easily breeched by individual hikers and day trippers. Dating from at least the 12th century, and possibly…
Western Ukraine
Ternopil's most attractive ecclesiastical interior belongs to the 17th-century Church of the Nativity. Inside this oasis of calm, the nave explodes in…
Lviv History Museum – Palazzo Bandinelli
Lviv
Palazzo Bandinelli is named after an Italian merchant who bought the palace in the early 17th century. The building now houses a branch of the Lviv…
Lviv
On the way between the city centre and the train station stands the historic and sacred centre of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, which was handed…
Lviv History Museum – Black House
Lviv
Occupying the conspicuous Black House with its seemingly sooty facade, this is possibly the least interesting of the four pl Rynok branches of Lviv's…
Kyiv
Although not one of Kyiv's most important churches, St Volodymyr's Cathedral arguably has the prettiest interior. Built in the late 19th century to mark…
Kyiv
Starting by the National Museum of Ukrainian History, the alley skirts around a large ravine offering great views of the city. It's always full of people…
Lviv
Residing in one of Lviv's grandest 19th-century palaces, this sometimes confusing museum (too many doors, ticket rippers, sections, prescribed routes) has…
Kyiv
Lying behind the Universytet metro station building, the landscaped gardens are best visited in spring when just about everything there is blooming.
Kyiv
Prince Volodymyr ordered the Desyatynna Church built in 989 and devoted 10% of his income to it, hence the name (desyatyn means 'one-tenth'). The church…
Friendship of Nations Monument
Kyiv
The Friendship of Nations Monument is a giant metal parabola celebrating the 1654 'unification' of Russia and Ukraine. It's on an elevated plaza with…
Kyiv
The fascinating history of the St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery is explained in great detail (in Ukrainian and English placards) in a museum located in…
Lviv Art Gallery (Pototsky Palace)
Lviv
Lviv's main art repository has two wings – one in the lavish Pototsky Palace (Палац Потоцьких), the other around the corner on vul Stefanyka. This one…
