A national park inside the city

Holosiiv

Holosiiv is a historic neighbourhood in the south of Kyiv where homes sit right beside a real forest. Holosiivskyi Forest, Rylsky Park with its chain of ponds and the Holosiiv Hermitage are all close by, while Holosiivskyi Avenue links it to the centre by metro. A city address with the quiet of old woodland.

Character

Holosiiv is first recorded in 1541, when the land belonged to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. In 1631 Petro Mohyla built a church here, and the Holosiiv Hermitage became the summer residence of Kyiv's metropolitans. Monastic calm, science and forest still share the area: the Main Astronomical Observatory of Ukraine's Academy of Sciences has worked in Holosiivskyi Forest since 1944.

Parks and nature

Since 2007 Holosiivskyi Forest and Maksym Rylsky Park have been part of Holosiivskyi National Nature Park — the first national park within Kyiv's city limits. Rylsky Park is built around four ponds in the Horikhuvatka valley, with a boat station on the lowest one. Further south lie Feofaniya with St Panteleimon's Cathedral and the Kytaiv Hermitage with its eighteenth-century Trinity Church.

Getting around

Holosiivskyi Avenue, built in the 1950s as the road to Odesa, runs from Demiivka to Akademika Hlushkova Avenue. Beneath it runs the blue Obolonsko-Teremkivska metro line: Demiivska, Holosiivska and Vasylkivska stations opened in 2010, Vystavkovyi Tsentr in 2011. Maidan Nezalezhnosti is a direct ride with no changes.

The homes

Two different worlds a few blocks apart. Along the avenue stand modern residential complexes such as Park Avenue at 58A and 60 Holosiivskyi Avenue. Between Demiivka and Dobryi Shliakh lies Tsymbaliv Yar, a pocket of private houses built mostly in the 1930s–50s — the place to look for a detached house with its own plot without leaving Kyiv.

Schools and universities

Holosiiv is home to the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences, with its own botanical garden in the forest, as well as Holosiivskyi Lyceum No. 241 on Holosiivska Street and Lyceum No. 179 on Holosiivskyi Avenue. The National Expocenter of Ukraine (VDNH), opened in 1958, is next door.

Who it suits

Families who want the forest every day, not just at weekends, and buyers after a house or a spacious apartment with park views while staying on the right bank. The honest drawback: this is not a walkable centre — restaurants in Pechersk or Podil are a ride away.