Kyiv's Maidan was a swamp? Surprising past of Ukraine's capital city center
Photo: A swamp once occupied Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv (Getty Image)
Today, on May 25, Kyiv is celebrating City Day. RBC-Ukraine together with Ukrainian guide Tetiana Lytvyn reveal fascinating historical facts about Ukraine's capital.
The princely city of Kyiv during the time of Volodymyr the Great was nothing like how we are used to imagining it. Its area did not exceed 10 hectares, and today’s central districts used to be forests and swamps.
What was in place of Kyiv’s modern center
According to Tetiana Lytvyn, the princely city of Prince Volodymyr occupied only 10 hectares. Later, Yaroslav the Wise significantly expanded its boundaries - to 74 hectares. However, even then, today's Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) were not part of the city.
"Maidan Nezalezhnosti was Kozyn Swamp. It was the outskirts of princely Kyiv. Kyiv did not exist on the Maidan. And Khreshchatyk was a forest where Kyiv princes used to hunt," she noted.
Where the true center of Kyiv was
The actual princely city was located on Starokyivska Hora (Old Kyiv Hill) - within the boundaries of today’s Verknie Misto (Upper City). It was there that the main fortifications and residences of the princes were situated. The modern center of Kyiv, although an important part of the city today, historically developed much later.
"The large modern center naturally includes both the princely city of Volodymyr and the expanded city of Yaroslav the Wise," Tetiana Lytvyn added.
We also wrote about one of Ukraine’s main shrines - the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, where monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) still reside.
