Did you know that

in the early 20th century, pilgrims who came to Kyiv to visit the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, had the opportunity to get to the Monastery by public transport quite conveniently, using the Kyiv city railway?

There were two ways to get to the Monastery from the train station. You could take the tram going to Tsarska Square (now – European Square), there change to the railway car of the Pechersk line, get to St. Nicholas Gate (now - Arsenalna Square), and change once more to the car that went directly to the walls of the Monastery. The second route included a changing on Bibikovsky Boulevard near the monument to Count Oleksiy Bobrynsky (now the corner of Taras Shevchenko Boulevard and Simon Petliura Street), and near the Bessarabian Market. From the steamboat hithe on the Dnipro River, you could take a railway car near the Church of the Nativity (now – it is the Post Square), get to the Tsarska Square, change to the Pechersk line to St. Nicholas Gate, and get on the car that brought you to the Lavra. The cost of such trips in the 1910s was 11 kopecks.

Picture captions:

1. Car of the Kyiv city railway on Volodymyrsky Descent. 1894

2. Ticket on the Kyiv city railway. The early 20th century

3. Electric tram of the 1st route “Tsarska Square - Olexandrivska Square” (now – European Square – Kontraktova Square). The late 19th century

4. General view of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the early 20th century. You can see the cars of the Kyiv city railway in the foreground [NKPHCP, inv. Nr. KPL-N-6263]

The text was prepared by Anna Yanenko