Square of Ukrainian Heroes ( uk, Площа Українських Героїв, translit=Ploshcha Ukrainskykh Heroiv), is a

city square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

formed by a triangle shaped intersection of three streets: Velyka Vasylkivska, Hetmana Pavla Skoropadskoho and Yevhena Chykalenka. The square gives its name to the Square of Ukrainian Heroes station, of the

Kyiv Metro The Kyiv Metro ( uk, Ки́ївський метрополіте́н, Kyivskyi metropoliten, ) is a rapid transit system in Kyiv that is owned by the Kyiv City Council and operated by the city-owned company Kyivsky Metropoliten''.'' It was initi ...

. The square is a

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

where

Pecherskyi District Pecherskyi District ( uk, Печерський район) is an Urban districts of Ukraine, urban district of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It lies within the eponymous historical neighborhood, while also including some other historical areas. ...

, Shevchenkivskyi District and

Holosiivskyi District Holosiivskyi District ( uk, Голосіївський район, translit.: ''Holosiivs’kyi raion'') is an urban district of the city of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Holosiivskyi District was created during changing of administrative divisi ...

meet. It was laid out at some point during the second half of the 19th century, originally unofficially known as Shuliavka Square from the erstwhile name of Skoropadskoho Street which led to a village of that name outside the city. In 1891 the street was renamed Kravaievska after prominent Kyiv doctor Volodymyr Karavayev and in 1920 Tolstoho after the Russian writer

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

. The square became known as Leo Tolstoy Square () in 1930's, but was officially renamed in 1938. By the end of the 19th century the square started receiving typically urban architecture, most prominently a revenue house designed by famous architect

Władysław Horodecki Władysław Horodecki (born Leszek Dezydery Horodecki; russian: Владислав Владиславович Городецкий; uk, Владислав Владиславович Городецький; — January 3, 1930) was a Polish arch ...

, at the present day address Velyka Vasylivska, 25. The building, constructed between 1887 and 1889, at five stories high, was at the time the largest residential building in Kyiv. However, it fell into disrepair during the Soviet period, and by 1937 it underwent emergency repairs, stripping it of its neorenaissance and

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

decorations. It was further destroyed by the retreating Soviet soldiers in 1941 as part of their

scorched earth A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy. Any assets that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, which usually includes obvious weapons, transport vehicles, communi ...

policy after the start of the

German-Soviet War The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and rebuilt in 1948 in even simpler form. In 1981 a metro station was opened under the square. At the beginning of the 1990s the Kyiv-Donbas business center was opened at Yevhena Chkalenka 42/4 as one of the first office centers in the city which came to be used as Ukrainian office of the Credit-Agricole bank. The square acts as the end point for the Equality March, Ukraine's largest

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

pride parade A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...

. Following the start of the full-scale Russian invasion ongoing since February 24, 2022, on March 23, 2023 the square was officially renamed to Square of Ukrainian Heroes, commemorating the defenders of Ukraine.

References

Squares in Kyiv {{Ukraine-struct-stub