Andriyivskyy Descent

Start at the top, by St Sophia's Cathedral, and walk down. Andriyivskyy Descent drops about 720 metres from the end of Volodymyrska Street to Kontraktova Square, connecting Kyiv's Upper Town with Podil, and the cobbles are steep enough that doing it in reverse is a genuine slog. Guides call it the Montmartre of Kyiv, and it's a listed national landmark and part of the "Ancient Kyiv" reserve.

The cobblestones are the first thing you'll notice and the reason to wear sensible shoes. Take the stairs that run off to the left and right as you go down - they're easy to walk past, and each one gets you a viewpoint over the rooftops that's worth the few minutes.

What You'll Pass on the Way Down

St Andrew's Church sits at the top, an 18th century church and a rare piece of Elizabethan Baroque. Further down you'll pass the Castle of Richard the Lionheart from the early 20th century, and the house where the writer Mikhail Bulgakov lived. There's also a museum devoted to the Ukrainian sculptor Ivan Kavaleridze, sometimes called the Ukrainian Michelangelo. Those are the well-known ones and there are plenty of other monuments and buildings along the way. Landscape Alley is a short walk from the top as well, if you want the sculptures and the view before you start down.

A Word on the Reconstruction

Talk of rebuilding the street has been going on since 2006, when a petition with over 1,000 signatures went to the local authorities. The Kyiv City Council approved a reconstruction three years later and the former mayor Leonid Chernovetsky announced it the following year. Money went into the city budget for it and the work still hasn't happened, so what you'll walk down is the street as it is rather than as it's been promised.

That's part of the appeal. It's noticeably quieter than the rest of central Kyiv and you can spend an hour here without being hurried, which isn't true of many places in the middle of the city.

PR Bar and Za Dvumya Zaytsami are both nearby if you want to stop for something to eat.