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Every city with a long history is inimitable. Especially if we talk of such a city as Kyiv, the fifteen-century-long history of which has intertwined surprising legends and outstanding historical events, majestic victories and tragic defeats. Here everything is of special sense - a landscape where the river adjoins mountains, and the vivid present goes with unique historical monuments. Here the air itself seems to be filled with the romantic aroma of the past. Becoming acquainted with such a city is not just a fascinating trip, but an exciting search of the city's soul. The history of Kiev’s foundation is shrouded in legends. Nestor the Chronicler stated in his The Chronicle of Bygone Years the forthcoming glory that would come to the city on the Dnepr hills, prognosticated by the Apostle Andrew. From the Chronicle we come to know the names of the founders of Kyiv - brothers Kyi, Schek and Khoriv and their sister Lybid. Historians have no doubt as to the fact that they are real historical figures. The oldest Kyiv place-names such as the Starokyivska (Old Kyiv), Schekavytsia, Khorivytsia hills and the river Lybid serve as indirect evidence for this fact. The memory of the Apostle has been preserved by St. Andrew's Church, one of the most beautiful churches in Kyiv. In the 6th-9th centuries the so-called Detynets, the fortified centre of the Upper Town, was formed on the Starokyivska hill. In the 10th century it was actively built up: princes' palaces, stone churches, estates for the nobility and townspeople as well as handicraft shops sprang up all over the town. In the lltn century the Upper Town included the territories of both Volodymyr's and Yaroslav's towns and the complex of monasteries on the Mykhailivska (St. Michael's) hill. This land is a real archaeological museum in the open. You should start becoming acquainted with it from the territory of the National Museum of Ukraine's history. A small open space around the museum building has preserved the foundations of the palace of the Princess Olga, the South and West palaces and the reconstructed lines of the ramparts dating back to the 10th century. The foundations of the Church of the Virgin which is known as the Tithe Church, the first stone church built in Kyivan Rus by Prince Volodymyr the Baptist, a saint coequal with the apostles, is located here as well. One of the first schools in Kyivan Rus was attached thereto. In 1240 the church was destroyed by Batu Khan; later it was restored and destroyed again. And yet the foundations of the Tithe Church speak of the grandeur of this old structure and testifies to the grand past of Kyiv.
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