Victory Square, Kiev

The Victory Square (Ukrainian: Площа Перемоги, translit.: Ploshcha Peremohy) in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, is a large square in the city, dedicated to victory in World War II. The square is located on the Kiev's main westward thoroughfare (prospekt Peremohy – bulvar Tarasa Shevchenka) being its one of the main transportation hubs.

The Victory Square in Soviet times (1985)

Located on the opposite side of the Old Kyiv, the square is also one of extreme points of the neighborhood along with Maidan Nezalezhnosti. It is a crossing of several historic streets such as Saksahansky street, Taras Shevchenko boulevard, Zhuliany street, Boulevard-Kudriavets street - it is a beginning of prospect Peremohy - one of the longest and broadest avenues (parkway) in the city.

History

The square has formed sometime in the mid of the 19th century, when in February 1858 the Russian Governor General of Kiev Illarion Vasilchikov allowed the Kiev Jewish community to conduct trade fairs. From 1869 — 1952 the square has been known as Halych Square (Ukrainian: Галицька площа) being located towards Halychyna (Eastern Galicia). Before the 1950s this area has also been commonly known as Yevbaz (Russian: Евбаз, literally: Jewish market), after the Jewish market that used to be there but was dismantled in the end of the 1940s.

The most notable building and one of focal features of the Victory Square is the Kyiv Circus. Previously in place of the circus, there was located the Church of John Chrysostom made out of a cast iron and was destroyed by the Soviet regime in 1934. Among other notable buildings there are a department store "Univermah Ukrayina" and a hotel "Lybid".

The 30 m (98 ft)-tall Victory monument-obelisk with the hero star (i.e. Hero of the Soviet Union) and the "1941" and "1945" markings on its top is situated on the square to commemorate the victory.

One of shops of the Kuznya na Rybalskomu separates the Victory Square from the Vokzalna Square where a train station Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi is located.

The square is served by numerous marshrutkas, trams, buses and trolley-buses.

Gallery

• 
  Darker building is the Hotel Lybid (eastward view)
• 
  Right next to the "Ukrayina" department store (eastward view)
• 
  Ukrayina department store between the Hotel Lybid and the Victory stele
• 
  A perspective onto the Kiev circus, to the left is the Hotel Lybid
• 
  Right next to the Kiev circus (westward view)
• 
  Beginning of Bulvarno—Kudryavska vulytsia (formerly Vorovskoho), to the right is the Kiev circus
• 
  Panorama (southward)
• 
  Eastward view
• 
  Westward view
• 
  The Victory obelisk (focused)
• 
  The Kiev circus (main stage)

References

• (in Ukrainian) Перемоги площа in Wiki-Encyclopedia Kiev