The Kiev funicular is a ride that should be on every tourist’s list of fascinating things to explore. The funicular connects the historic upper town to the lower Podil district through the steep hill and gives you the opportunity to explore the breathtakingly beautiful scenery of Kiev and also view the Dnieper River. The total gradient of the slope is 36%.

When you are ready to take this ride and have fun, it’s ideal that you first walk down the amazing Andrew’s Descent. Once you get to the bottom, check out the Podil district. You can then take the funicular to go to the amazing St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery. Since it’s very close to the St. Michael’s Cathedral, it was once named the Mikhailivs’kyi Mechanichnyi Pidyom (St. Michael's Mechanical Lift). Later, when the cathedral was demolished by the Soviets in 1935-1936, the funicular was renamed.

The funicular was built during 1902-1905 and was opened to the public on May 7, 1905. It was the project of Arthur Abrahamson and it was commissioned by a Belgian owner of the Kiev trams. Arthur acquired proper education on railroad engineering in Zürich, Switzerland and Saint Petersburg, Russia.

There are two cars only and they have the Cyrillic letters Λ and П that stand for left and right. There are two stations only as well and they are called Upper Station and Lower Station. Thus, you can’t miss the stop or get confused. The upper station has an electric motor that provides power to these cable cars. The total length of the track is 238 meters. There is only one track and it splits into two in the middle to enable the cars to pass each other.

This is a short ride and it will take you maximum 3 minutes to get to the next stop. It runs from the Mykhailivska Square in the Upper town to the Poshtova Square in the Podil and vice versa. The funicular is so famous that it serves around 10,000 to 15,000 passengers daily and around 2.8 million passengers on a yearly basis.

The ticket price is as much as any other city-owned public transportation. However, the good thing is that children get to ride for free. There are ticket booths at both sides of the railway.

The funicular offers you a quick, exciting and cost-effective ride. If you are in Kiev, then you must not miss it, because there are only two funicular railways in Ukraine and it’s one of them (the other is in Odessa). You will most certainly enjoy riding it and have a great time. We have apartments available near the foot of funicular and close to Andriivsky Descent.