Василь » 06 квітня 2011, 20:02
KYI V - THE CAPITAL OF UKRAINE
Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine. It is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Its history goes back to the 5th century.
There is a legend about its founding. Once there were three brothers. Kij, Shchek and Khoriv and they had a young sister who was called Lybed. They founded a city on one of the hills above the Dnieper and called it Kyiv after the oldest brother, and in honour of the younger brother one hill was named Shchekovitsa and another - Khorevitsa, while the river was called Libed after their sister.
Ancient Kyiv was a large commercial centre of the East Slavs. Its position on the important waterway helped its trade. It played an important role in the development of written language, literature, painting, architecture and applied arts. The East Slav tribes united in a single powerful state, Ancient Rus, a great role in the history of Kyiv was played by prince Volodymyr, who united Slav peoples. So Kyiv was made the capital of Ancient Rus and it lasted for nearly 3 centuries.
Kyiv is one of the oldest cities of Europe and therefore there are many places of historic interest in it. Among them are St. Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv-Pechersky monastery, St. Volodymyr Cathedral, Church of St. Andrew, Golden Gates, Vydubetsky monastery, Askold's Grave, the monument to Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the monument to prince Volodymyr and others. The monument to Taras Shevchenko, the great poet of Ukraine, is in front of die Kyiv University, named after him.
Kyiv monuments of the past are perfectly integrated with modem buildings -attractive hotels, cinemas, TV tower, metro stations etc.
Kyiv is a large political, industrial, scientific and cultural centre. Its population is 3 million people.
The city has a well developed industry.
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and many research institutes are located in the capital. There are many higher and hundreds of secondary schools in Kyiv.
The cultural life of our capital is rich and varied. There are a lot of fine museums in it. Kyiv is also famous for its theatres such as Ivan Franko Ukrainian Drama Theatre, the Opera House, the Lesya Ukrainka Russian Drama Theatre, the Puppet Theatre and others.
One half of Kyiv's territory is occupied by gardens and parks. And in spring and summer Kyiv looks like one huge park.
There are a lot of bridges over the Dnipro river, but the most important one is the Paton Bridge named after academician E. Paton. It is the first ail - welded bridge in the world.