St. Volodymyr's Cathedral

Two minutes from Universytet metro, or five minutes' walk from Taras Shevchenko Park, St Volodymyr's is hard to miss: seven blue domes over bright yellow walls, visible from a good distance in most directions. It's the main church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.

It went up in the late 19th century to mark 900 years of Orthodox Christianity in the city, and it's dedicated to Volodymyr, the ruler who brought Christianity to Kyiv. The style is Byzantine and the site was chosen deliberately to make the point about how much religion mattered here.

Inside

Most people photograph the outside and walk on, which is the wrong way round. The interior is covered in murals picked out with gold, and they're what makes the visit worth the detour. Look for the painting of Volodymyr the Great's Baptism, which took place at Chersonesus - the story goes that once the baptism inside the church was done, Volodymyr's body was taken into the Dnipro to complete the process.

Entry is free, and there's no English spoken, so read up before you go if you want to know what you're looking at. The Golden Gate is a ten minute walk away if you're working through this part of the city on foot.

How It Survived

The cathedral came close to being demolished under Stalin, and was only spared after the artist Mikhail Nesterov intervened. It didn't function as a church for years afterwards. It was first turned into a "museum of atheism", since the Soviet authorities wanted no working religious buildings in the city, and later used by training college staff as a book store. The wider campaign against Orthodox churches ended in 1944, and it was then given the status of the Cathedral Church of the Metropolitan of Kyiv.

The Hilton Kyiv is nearby if you're looking for somewhere to stay in this part of the city.