The Great Descent

Head North from Kiev's dull gray foreign Ministry building, walk down a couple of blocks — and gasp. The 850 zigzagging meters are known as Andriyivsky Uzviz (Andrew's Descent) — and, going downhill, each cobblestoned step is a delight.

Now a pedestrian mall, some 16 centuries ago this street served as the only transport link between the aristocratic Upper City of castles and temples and the easygoing carefree Podil, or Lower City of artisans and merchants. (Both are still very much the same.) In the 16th century, whatever dropped from a cart on these bumpy winding streets became the property of the city treasury. These days, make sure you don't leave all your money with the artisans, artists and curiosity traders who line the street, selling such wares as folk ceramics and needlework, or at the art galleries, restaurants and cozy cafés that now occupy what were once stores and workshops on the ground floor of most Uzviz houses.

Start your descent with the 18th century Baroque St. Andrew's Church, designed by the Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli, which is literally and figuratively the street's apex. Popular legend has it that St. Andrew erected a cross on the church site, the first Christian landmark nine centuries prior to Kiev's formal conversion to Christianity. Take in the most fabulous view of Kiev and the Dnipro River from the church terrace, the city's most popular place for romantic meetings, and proceed down slowly along the yellow-painted brick sidewalks.

The sidewalks have been restored exactly as they were ordered laid in the 1860s by the Moscow-born writer and traveler Andrei Muravyev. He settled down in what is now No. 36-38 and raised funds to clean up the area and shore up St. Andrew's Church. In the first half of the 19th century, the street was the city's red-light district, but Muravyev's efforts changed it into the charming, elegant street it is now.

You can't miss No. 34, the five-story building with onion-domed towers, which belonged in the early 1900s to Andriy Slinko, one of Kiev's richest and most charitable merchants. And check out the folly at No. 15, built in the style of a medieval castle in the early 20th century, popularly known as Richard the Lion-Hearted's Castle.

It's worth visiting the modest, two-story No. 13, which is now a museum dedicated to Mikhail Bulgakov. Originally the childhood home of the author of The Master and Margarita, it's where his novel The White Guard and play The Days of the Turbins are set. Even if you haven't read his books, the authenticity of the museum is so affecting that you'll rush to buy a few. St. Andrew sure knew how to pick a great spot.