Pechersk Lavra

It's a long walk uphill from Arsenalna metro, so take a trolleybus, a marshrutka or a taxi unless you want to start your visit tired. The name tells you what it is: pecherska meaning "of the caves" and lavra meaning senior monastery. It gave its name to the whole district around it, and to the Pechersk citadel of the Kyiv Fortress that went up on the same hill in the 19th century.

The complex splits into two. The Upper Lavra costs 25 UAH to enter, the Lower Lavra is free, and if you only do one thing here it should be the caves in the lower half.

The Caves

This is the part people miss, and it's the reason to come. St Anthony and his followers dug a network of catacombs and tunnels under the site as somewhere to pray, live and study away from the world. They're still there, still narrow, and still in use by pilgrims.

The mummified monks are down there too, naturally preserved by the cold underground, and visible. For believers they're proof of the monks' holiness. Whatever you make of that, it's an extraordinary thing to walk past by candlelight, and it isn't for everyone - the passages are tight and dark.

What Else Is Here

Founded in 1051 by the Greek St Anthony, the Lavra is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside St Sophia's Cathedral, and was made a national sanctuary in 1996. In 2007 an internet vote and a panel of experts named it one of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine. It runs today as three things at once - a Historic-Cultural Preserve, a state museum, and a working seat of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, currently the residence of Metropolitan Onufrius.

That last point matters for your visit. Over 100 monks still live here and pilgrims come to pray, so this is an active religious site rather than a museum piece. Dress and behave accordingly.

The golden domes are visible from a long way off, and the position on the green hills above the Dnipro is what makes the photographs. Give it longer than you think - the site is bigger than it looks from the gate.