Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ated solely to Kyiv-bound
marshrutky
located at the intersection of vuls Gagarina and
Knyazya Volodymyra. For a bottom-numbing adventure on the Ukrainian rails, a com-
muter train (9uah, 2½ hours) leaves Kyiv's train station at 7.16am heading for
Myronivka. The return service is at 2.50pm.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky
04567 / POP 28,300
The 'museum city' of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky was the hometown and stronghold of
Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and also where he signed the infamous agreement
accepting Russia's overlordship of Ukraine on 18 January 1654.
Today the whole town, with its 23 museums, has been declared a historical preserve.
The highlight is the truly brilliant outdoor
Mid-Dnipro Museum of Folk Architecture &
70 heritage wooden buildings brought here from nearby villages and clustered tightly on
32 hectares of forested land. Some of them are turned into little thematic museums, in
which case visitors have to pay another 3uah to 5uah to enter. But you get to see some
gems, such as the charmingly retro-Soviet
Bread Museum
; the childhood house of lead-
ing Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem, who was born in Pereslav; and the
Space Mu-
seum
, which occupies a wooden village church.
When you arrive at the bus station, it's wise to take a taxi (30uah), which goes via an
8km roundabout route to the park's main entrance. You can then exit through the oppos-
ite gate and find your way into town. Alternatively, walk further along vul Bohdana Kh-
melnytskoho (the city's main street), passing some high-rise blocks on your left, until
you see the Lenin statue. Turn right and follow vul Litopisna almost to the end, then turn
left before it becomes a dirt track in the fields. It should take about 40 minutes from the
station.
The churches and museums in the town centre are clustered near central pl Bohdana
Khmelnytskoho. Here you'll find the
Ascension Monastery
, with two prominent
churches, and nearby the 17th-century
St Michael's Church
, where an Orthodox church
stood even before the Kyivan Rus converted to Christianity in 988.
Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky is 90km southeast of Kyiv and makes an easy day trip - just
catch one of the buses or
marshrutky
that depart every 20 to 40 minutes from outside
Kharkivska, Borispilska or Chernihivska metro stations (all 20uah, one to 1½ hours).
