PLACES TO SEE IN KYIV: UPPER KYIV

As you leave St. Sophia's Cathedral, turn left into Volodymyrska street which opens into St. Sophia Square. The equestrian statue standing in the square's centre is in honour of the great Cossack Hetman, politician and military hero, Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1595— 1657). It was designed by well-known St. Petersburg sculptor Mikhail Mikeshin and was erected in 1888 through donations.
Follow the street running down the right-hand side of the square. This street will lead you to Saint Michael Square. The square takes its name from the Mykhailivsky Zolotoverkhy Monastery (St. Michael's Monastery of the Golden Roof) and the Cathedral with the same name, which used to stand here. Saint Michael was considered Kyiv's patron and is depicted on the coat of arms of the city. The Cathedral, as well as the Monastery, was founded on this site by Kyiv Prince
Sviatopolk in 1108. The Cathedral was destroyed in 1934—1935 to make way for the building of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party on your left. Today, this massive structure houses Ukrainian governmental offices.
On your right is the upper entrance to Kyiv's funicular (cable car) built in 1905. Funicular leaves you at Poshtova Ploshcha (Post Office Square). There you will find the Poshtova Ploshcha Metro Station, as well as the Kyiv Richkovy Vokzal (River Station).
Now let's continue our excursion of Kyiv's Upper City. On St. Michael Square notice the stone and metal statue dedicated in 1993 to the memory of more then 7 million Ukrainian peasants killed by the Stalinist regime during the Great Famine of 1932—1933. Turn right off the square to Three Saints' Street. Here is the Refectory (1713), a white stone church with a single wooden cupola. Once it was the part of St. Michael's Monastery of the Golden Roof.
On your right, as you head down Three Saints' Street, is St. Alexander's Catholic Church, named after the Russian Emperor Alexander I. It was built in 1817—1842 to commemorate the victory over Napoleon. Its style is si miliar, to Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. During the Soviet period the Church was drastically modified and used as a planetarium. Its reconstruction has recently been completed. Continue on Three Saints' Street down a steep incline, which ends at the Square of Lenin Komsomol.