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Khreshchatyi Park is one of the gorgeous forested parks sit along the Dnieper River in Kyiv. It contains a handful of cultural buildings as well as monuments.
Kyiv Academic Puppet Theatre
On the southern end of Khreshchatyi Park, I walked past the Kyiv Academic Puppet Theatre. It’s a castle-like structure that was built in 1927.
People’s Friendship Arch
Moving further along through the trails past the theatre, I found lots of people seated outside, a DJ, and plenty of street food vendors in front of the People’s Friendship Arch. The arch was dedicated to the unification of Russia and the Ukraine, and built in 1982. In May 2016, the government announced it would be dismantled as part of its decommunization policy but they didn’t immediately act on the decision.
On April 25, 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that the sculptural part of the monument would be dismantled after losing its ideological meaning. The arch would remain and be painted with the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Klitschko proposed renaming it to the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People, which was officially adopted on May 14, 2022.
Underneath the arch were two sculptures. The sculpture to the left was made of bronze and depicted Russian and Ukrainian workers holding up the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples. That part of the monument was dismantled on April 26, 2022.
The sculpture on the right is made of granite and depicts the participants of the Pereyaslav Council (Pereiaslavska Rada) of 1654. That sculpture was removed on April 30, 2024.
National Philharmonic
I followed a road down the hill from the arch and came to the National Philharmonic of Ukraine (Lysenko Column Hall). It opened at the end of the 19th century and hosted composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) and Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). The Small Philharmonic Hall, built in 1934, is next door.
Ukrainian House
Across the street is the Ukrainian House. It was built between 1978 and 1982 and used as the All-Union Lenin Museum to display materials related to the life of Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924). On April 2, 1993, the building was renamed and converted to a conference center and exhibition hall.
