Sophia Square
Historic cathedral square centred on a bronze equestrian hetman, framed by golden domes and bell towers.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Sophia Square in Kyiv centres on the bronze Cossack rider at its heart, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and the long, penny-pinching road from an eighteen sixty-nine sketch to a finished monument. You'll meet the sculptor Mikhail Mikeshin, a public subscription that never quite paid its way, and a city that had to improvise. Best heard standing just in front of the pedestal, where you can see the hooves and the raised hand.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Bohdan Khmelnytsky Monument
Bronze equestrian statue of a Cossack hetman with raised mace, on a square facing a golden-domed cathedral.
Володимирська Гірка
Terraced hillside park above the river, crowned by a nineteenth-century bronze prince on an iron pedestal.
Mykhailivs'ka Square
Historic upper-town square with a sculpted monument group, a golden-domed monastery and a funicular.
Volodymyr The Great Monument
Bronze prince with a raised cross atop a chapel-shaped pedestal, high above the Dnipro since 1853.
Arka Svobody Ukrayinsʹkoho Narodu
Giant titanium rainbow arch above the Dnipro, once a Soviet monument to friendship with Russia.
Pam'yatnyk Zasnovnykam Kyyeva - Kyyu, Sheku, Khoryvu I Sestri Lybedi
Copper-clad boat carrying four legendary sibling founders, set above a fountain on the riverbank.