Podil

By Walter Kish

From a tourist standpoint, the most interesting part of Kyiv is the area on top of the escarpment on the right bank of the Dnipro River.  This includes the core of the ancient walled city of Kyiv, north of the Golden Gates and around the St. Sofia and St. Michael’s churches, the chestnut-lined surroundings of Kyiv’s main artery Khreshchatyk, and the Pechersk area, home to many imposing government buildings and mansions from an aristocratic era now long gone.  It is also home to that historical treasure known as the Pecherska Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), for many centuries the spiritual heart of Slavic Orthodox Christianity.

Less well-known and visited are some of the peripheral neighbourhoods radiating out of this central core.  One of my personal favourites is Podil, the lower town spreading out below Volodymyr’s Hill.  Podil is almost as old as the original walled city of Kyiv that towers above it.  It is where the “butchers, bakers and candlestick makers” that serviced Kyiv proper made their homes.  While the upper classes of the nobility, the military, the government functionaries and the clergy lived up on the hill, the blue-collar working classes of that time lived at the bottom and along the neighbouring banks of the Dnipro River.  Throughout the Middle Ages and into modern times this was also where Kyiv’s sizable Jewish population used to live.

Until recently, Podil, like many districts of Kyiv, was somewhat rundown and neglected.  Over the past few years, however, it has begun to show encouraging signs of rejuvenation, with significant renovation efforts and investment taking place.  It is increasingly becoming a popular dining and entertainment district, with numerous restaurants, clubs and bars springing up that cater to all tastes and budgets.  Most of this activity revolves around Podil’s main street, Shaydachniy, and the Naberezhniy Choss, the river-front parkway, as well as the side streets emanating from these two major arteries.

From spring to fall, the river port near the start of Sahaydachniy Street is teeming with numerous tour boats catering to the local and tourist crowds interested in partaking in one of Kyiv’s more pleasant pastimes – cruising down the Dnipro River, past the city’s skyline rich in green parkland, beaches and numerous golden domes.

You can get to Podil by continuing on down the hill from European Square where Khreshchatyk ends, but my favourite gateway is via the narrow, winding, cobble-stoned road known as the Andriyivskiy Uzviz.  This historic lane starts at the foot of the spectacularly picturesque St. Andrew’s Church, designed by the famous Italian architect Rastrelli for the notorious Russian Tsarina Catherine, and ends up at Kontraktova Square in Podil at the far end of Sahaydachniy Street.

A little to the left of the square is the classically simple, but hauntingly beautiful Church of the Annunciation, recently restored after having been destroyed during the Communist era.  In the square is an impressive bronze statue of Petro Sahaydachniy, Ukraine’s second-most famous and successful Cossack Hetman after Bohdan Khmelnitskyj.  On the other side of the large white building complex and one-time trading centre after which the square is named is one of my favourite bronze statues in Ukraine, that of Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Ukraine’s most renowned philosopher.  The statue is modest, both in scale and design, perfectly reflecting the saintly humility of the man himself.

Nearby is Kyiv’s famous Mohyla Institute, one of the country’s oldest educational institutions, which with significant support from diaspora donors in the past decade, has become a dynamic, modern and Western-looking university, churning out Ukraine’s future political and economic leaders.

The side streets are rich in churches, monasteries and other architectural gems, some restored and in good shape, and many not.  In the midst of these the Zhytniy Rynok (Market) spreads out, presenting a fine example of a typical farmer’s market.  Here you can purchase everything from fresh fruits, vegetables and meat, to clothes, fur hats, souvenirs, nails, pails and kitchen supplies.

A stroll through Podil, punctuated by a stop at one of the kiosks or al fresco establishments for a tangy shwarma in a pita or cabbage-stuffed bun and a cold beer, is truly an experience that every visitor to Kyiv should undertake.