Swallow’s Nest (“Lastochkino Gnezdo” – Russian spelling) is a monument of architecture and history standing on the top of 40-meter Avrorin cliff (Ai-Todor cape, Gaspra village located near Yalta city).

The building resembles a medieval knight’s castle like the Belem Tower or Miramar Villa near Trieste. Swallow’s Nest has become a kind of emblem of the Southern coast of Crimea.

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Tags: Crimea Republic · Yalta city

In continuation of the previous post about walking the streets of Lviv this time you can see the views of the city from the sky. Photos by Oleg Grigoryev

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Tags: Lviv city

Lviv architecture reflects a lot of European styles corresponding to different historical epochs. Fortunately the city was not heavily damaged during the wars of the 20th century.

After fires of 1527 and 1556 there were almost no traces of Gothic Lviv, but the following epochs are well presented: Renaissance, baroque, classicism. The historical center of Lviv has a lot of architectural monuments of the 14th-17th centuries.

Tags: Lviv city

This church can be seen by anyone who is traveling by Yalta highway from Sevastopol to Yalta, or vice versa. Church of the Ascension is standing on the red rock at an altitude of 472 meters above sea level high above small town of Foros, which is why it is also called the Foros church.

Church of the Ascension built in the Byzantine style was constructed in 1892. In the 1930s, crosses and bells were removed from the church. It was restored and re-consecrated in 1990. Photos by Sergey Anashkevitch

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Tags: church · Crimea Republic

Andrew’s Descent in Kiev is one of the oldest ways connecting the Upper Town, its central part, with the trade area Podil.

Today Andrew’s Descent is a street-museum. This is one of the major tourist attractions in the Ukrainian capital. Many famous figures of science and culture: scholars, writers, composers, painters, sculptors lived and worked here.

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Tags: Kiev city

Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper is an open air museum, located on the outskirts of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky town (about 100 km from Kiev).

The museum presents a Ukrainian village of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, as well as buildings and monuments since the late Paleolithic period to the times of Kievan Rus. Thirteen thematic museums can be found on the territory of 30 hectares. Photos by Kirill Vyazankin

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Tags: Kiev oblast · museum

Vorontsov Palace is located in Alupka (Crimea Republic) at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri. At present the palace houses a museum. Vorontsov Palace has a beautiful park – a monument of landscape architecture.

The palace was built on the new (as compared with classicism) architectural and construction principles. An important architectural feature was the location of the palace, constructed in accordance with the relief of the mountains, so the palace is fit seamlessly into the surrounding landscape. Photos by nice-places.com

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Tags: Crimea Republic

A lot of the houses of Odessa have not only external facade charm, but also unique inner worlds. After one step inside you find yourself in completely different worlds inaccessible to most eyes – the worlds of front doors, stairs, and staircases.

They really do not look like each other. They are not always clean and pleasant smelling, they are not always easily accessible, but they are always fraught with mystery opening the hidden pages of Odessa life. Photos by Anton Polyakov.

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Tags: Odessa city

Akkerman fortress located in Belgorod-Dnestrovskiy city (Odessa oblast) is a historic and architectural monument of the 13th-15th centuries. It is one of the most preserved fortresses on the territory of Ukraine. Also Akkerman fortress is the largest fortification in the country.

All the buildings of the fortress are surrounded by fortress walls, the length of which reaches 2.5 km. The initial number of towers was 34, 12 of which were hollow, battle towers. The rest towers were bastions and half bastions. They were later turned into artillery platforms. Photos by Alexander Lipilin.

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Tags: Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi city · fortress · Odessa oblast

The house #17/2 located on Shelkovichnaya Street in Kiev is a former mansion of a famous merchant and philanthropist Semen Semenovich Mogilevtsev built in 1901 by the talented architect Vladimir Nikolaevich Nikolaev. Kievites named it “The Chocolate House” for the characteristic color and rich decoration of the facades.

The mansion is a two-storey building with a large basement and an attic over an extension. The plan of the house is typical for rich mansions of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The main facade, facing Shelkovichnaya and Pilip Orlik streets, is decorated in the style of the Italian Renaissance. The appearance of the building is preserved almost in its original form. Photos by macwrangler.

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Tags: Kiev city