Kiev culture reviews

Chernobyl Museum

The Chernobyl Museum, located in Kiev, contains a small but impressive collection of art, photos, poems and models. The first thing that caught my eyes when I visited it some years ago were photos of the collapsed Twin Towers in New York that were hanging on the wall, while a Geiger Muller Counter was exposed in the hall. The route to the first floor is flanked by plates with the names of Ukrainian villages, located in the vicinity of Chernobyl. One of the exhibitions is devoted to Pripyat, a town of nearly 50,000 residents that was built in 1970 to host the employees of the Chernobyl power plants. In 1986, 36 hours after the disaster, the entire population was evacuated. They never returned. A model of the surroundings of the power plant, innumerable photographs and other documentary material are exposed the museum, as well as a replica of the town of Slavutich, built after the disaster according to ancient Ukrainian tradition for the families of the rescuers. In a separate room there is a chronologic view of the events at Chernobyl in words and pictures, while the middle of the floor is reserved for a 1:1 scale model of nuclear fuel rods. While descending the stairs to the exit, the name signs of the villages are now provided with a red diagonal stripe.

Chernobyl Museum

I toured the Museum in 2005.I was brought to tears by the human life destroyed.How the russians sent in several waves of first responders only to have them all die. I saw the names of over 200 villages and cities were the inhabitents were killed quickly or worse died over months.The Museum is wonderful, Horrible very educational place. I highly reccommend.No I insist you see this museum.It reminds us all. We must be right 100% of the time and our governments will never tell us the truth of the danger we face.There is another Museum in Kiev for Chernobyl. It has babies and animals in jars showing the horrible mutations that resulted.Children being born today are still effected by the radiation.Many have cancer. This museum is a Must see.

St. Volodymyr's Cathedral

Sensational. And a moving experience you will never forget.

St. Michael's Monastery

All the churches and monasteries are pretty amazing for the visitor.

St. Sophia's Cathedral

An extraordinary place to visit.

St. Andrew's Church

Really enjoyed visiting this beautiful church.

St. Sophia's Cathedral

Beautiful place

Chernobyl Museum

Hard to find as mentioned below, but well worth it once you do find it. The subject is incredibly sad and fascinating, and the museum presents all sides of it in an interesting way.

Independence Square

We always met up here before heading out. The fountain and square can steal hours from you!

Chernobyl Museum

I was on a tour to Chernobly with my hostel in Kiev and after that I was at this Chernobyl Museum you get a lot of info and you don't realy need to go to the real thing as this Museum is very good.

Chernobyl Museum

I was really glad that we visited the Chernobyl museum while traveling through Kiev in 2009. It was both incredibly informative and deeply touching. As many of the others who have written reviews complained about the lack of English material, I thought that this suggestion might be helpful; You can take an audio tour in English. It just costs an extra 2 or 3 dollars and you get a walky-talky like device with headphones that thoroughly explains everything in each station. You simply key in which station you have come to, and it begins giving you the "tour" of that station, including explanation of signs, documents, and personal letters written in Russian or Ukrainian. Doing this will completely solve the language problem and makes the museum well worth visiting!

Chernobyl Museum

I agree with what previous reviewers have said about language problems and the obscurity of the museum. Fortunately, I had the good luck to go there with a bilingual guide who not only took us through the museum, but brought along a first responder to tell us about his experiences. 75% of his coworkers are dead and he has health problems. In the museum is a tapestry of an old woman and the child. If you look closely, you will see that the wrinkles on her face are words (in English) woven into the fabric. The more you understand about the disaster the better you can understand its consequences. For one, it was a very big nail in the coffin of the Soviet Communist regime. Also, if you are managing a complex system and safety is not your first priority, someone will die. This is a lesson that NASA has to relearn every 20 years or so.

Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Very interesting place to visit. Just loved a exhibition of art work, which you have to look into a microscope to see, truly wonderful.

Chernobyl Museum

An interesting museum, but it seemed to be more of a tribute to Chernobyl victims rather than a museum about the disaster itself. Almost everything is in Russian or Ukrainian (no English) so if you don't know either language it may not be worth your while to visit.

Kiev Pechersk Lavra

What an amazing place. I spent the whole day admiring this complex. A must visit when in Kiev!

Chernobyl Museum

The Chernobyl Museum can be hard to find so I will start with directions to get there through the Metro. The museum is only about two blocks from the Kontraktova Ploscha Metro stop. When you get out of the Metro take a left and walk towards the street. This is less than half a block, then a left. This is the street that has the museum. The museum is about two or three blocks down on your left. You will see some military equipment like jeeps and such in front of the museum. There aren't any big signs or anything and don't bother asking anyone on the streets. We were literally about a block away from the museum and asked someone on the street and they had no idea what we were talking about. They do have English speakings guided tours, but the information is rather limited. I would suggest watching Discovery Channel's Disaster at Chernobyl (you can watch it on YouTube) before you go if you want some better information about how the accident happened.

Independence Square

independence square is one of the worlds greatest squares. i didn't expect to see such an impressive space in kiev. you could sit here all day and see what is going down. fantastic

Kiev Pechersk Lavra

The Lavra Caves Monasteries were deeply moving. All in all it was great to find such a rich culture as Ukrainian culture here in Kiev. I'll be back!

Chernobyl Museum

interesting museum. Staff didn't speak much English, and the whole experience was typical East bloc dusty old museum, but the photos were a real insight for someone, like me, who didn't know much about the Chornobyl disaster before they visited