The Bessarabska Square (, ''Bessarabska ploshcha'') is a square located at the southwest end of

Khreshchatyk Khreshchatyk (, ) is the main street of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. The street is long, and runs in a northeast-southwest direction from European Square (Kyiv), European Square through the Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Maidan to Bessarabska Sq ...

, the main thoroughfare of

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, the capital of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It is located in the city's Shevchenkivskyi District (

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

), at the busy intersection of Khreshchatyk,

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

Boulevard, Velyka Vasylkivska Street, and the Krutyi Descent streets. Until the late 1840s, the square was located on the outskirts of town, where immigrants from

Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...

in the southern regions of Ukraine would come to sell their products. Nowadays, the Bessarabska Square is one of three squares of the Khreshchatyk street complex, the others being the

Maidan Nezalezhnosti Maidan Nezalezhnosti (, ) or Independence Square is the central town square of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. One of the city's main squares, it is located on Khreshchatyk Street in the Shevchenko Raion. The square contains the iconic Ind ...

and the European Square, located in the street's center and northeastern end, respectively.

Attractions

The Bessarabska Square, named for the large indoor

Besarabsky Market The Bessarabskyi Market (), or Besarabskyi Market (), also referred to as the Bessarabka (), is an indoor market located in the center of Kyiv on the Bessarabska Square at the southwest end of the city's main thoroughfare, the Khreshchatyk. Con ...

(1910–1912) located at its northern end, offers a few attractions: the relatively new office and shopping Mandarin Plaza complex, which is located on the southern end of the square, and the Metrohrad Shopping Complex (built in 2001) located underground, near the

metro station. Kyiv's main monument to

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

was also located on the square on the Taras Shevchenko Boulevard until it was pulled down and destroyed by anti-Government protestors in December 2013. The square is also accessible by two other

Kyiv Metro The Kyiv Metro (, ) is a rapid transit system in Kyiv, Ukraine, owned by the Kyiv City Council and operated by the city-owned company Kyivskyi Metropoliten''.'' It was initially opened on 6 November 1960, as a single line with five stations. I ...

stations which are located in the square's vicinity, the Palats Sportu () and Ploshcha Lva Tolsoho () stations, respectively.

Former names

Before the Besarabsky Market was built in the early 1910s, the square was known by two different names: * Universytetska Square (, ''University Square'') during the mid-19th century, as it was located on the route to the

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

from the

Lypky Lypky () is an historic neighborhood of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv located in the administrative Pecherskyi District. The name is derived from a lime tree (Lypa). Lypky is the ''de facto'' government quarter of Ukraine hosting the buildings of th ...

neighborhood, *

Bohdan Khmelnytsky Zynoviy Bohdan Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky of the Abdank coat of arms (Ruthenian language, Ruthenian: Ѕѣнові Богданъ Хмелнiцкiи; modern , Polish language, Polish: ; 15956 August 1657) was a Ruthenian nobility, Ruthenian noble ...

Square () during 1869-1881. A monument dedicated to the

hetman ''Hetman'' is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders (comparable to a field marshal or imperial marshal in the Holy Roman Empire). First used by the Czechs in Bohemia in the 15th century, ...

was supposed to be built on the square (it was instead erected on the Sofiiska Square in the city's upper town in 1888).

References

{{Authority control Squares in Kyiv Khreshchatyk Shevchenkivskyi District, Kyiv