Maidan Nezalezhnosti

Independence Square sits at the foot of Khreshchatyk and is the symbolic heart of independent Ukraine. The tall column at its centre, topped by Berehynia, the protectress, marks the country's break with the Soviet Union in 1991. Around it the square spreads out under tall glass shopping arcades, fountains, and the conical bell tower of the lost Lach Gates.

For visitors, the Maidan is a place to start a walk and to feel the texture of contemporary Kyiv: the buskers, the political demonstrations, the candle memorials to the dead of the Euromaidan and of the war. The pedestrianised stretch of Khreshchatyk that flows out from it at weekends is where the city promenades.

things to do sight
A story
The Maidan has been at the centre of every major Ukrainian political moment since independence: the 1990 student hunger strike, the 2004 Orange Revolution, and the 2013-14 Euromaidan that ended with more than 100 protesters shot dead on Instytutska Street, just above the square. The bullet holes in the lamp posts were left untouched for years as a memorial.