Khreshchatyk Square instead of Maidan Nezalezhnosti: what the center of Kyiv looked like in 1855-1875. A unique photo

Throughout its existence, Independence Square in Kyiv has changed its name several times, including Khreshchatyk Square. We can find out what this location looked like in 1855-1875 thanks to an old photo.

The archival photo was published in the community "Thirst: interesting things to do in Kyiv" on Facebook. There used to be a small market here.

"Khreshchatyk Square (Independence Square – Ed.), 1855-1875," the post reads.

The published photo shows part of the current Maidan, as well as the road leading to St. Sophia Cathedral and the church itself.

Independence Square is the central square of Kyiv. Until the end of the tenth century, this place, like the entirety of today's Khreshchatyk, was called Perevysyshche and was a swamp. Where Sofiiska Street now begins, the Lyadska Gate was leading to the Upper Town. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was a wasteland, the so-called Kozyno swamp. It was approached by defensive ramparts, at the foot of which a dam was built and a water mill stood.

Darnytsia in Kyiv was first mentioned in documents in 1509. At the end of the nineteenth century, a railway station was built here, and the area itself turned into a famous vacation spot for Kyiv residents and a summer cottage.

In 1870, the Central Railway Station was opened in Kyiv. Its first building was constructed of yellow brick in the Old English Gothic style.

As OBOZ.UA reported, in the 1960s, the embankment near Poshtova Square and the Dnipro Cliffs in Kyiv looked a little different. And the beaches on Trukhaniv Island were much larger.

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