The Upper Town — Verkhne Misto — is the medieval core of Kyiv, the high ground above the Dnieper inside the line of the lost city walls. Yaroslav the Wise rebuilt the Upper Town in stone in the 1030s and the principal Kyivan Rus monuments — Saint Sophia's Cathedral, the Golden Gate, Saint Michael's Monastery — all sit within a few blocks of each other on this plateau.
The neighbourhood now blends those medieval foundations with 18th- and 19th-century streetscapes: tree-lined boulevards, old apartment buildings, government ministries, and small museums. It is the obvious starting point for a first day in Kyiv.