Lavrska Street arose on the site of the ancient Ivanovskyi Way, which during the time of Kyivan Rus connected Podil with Pechersk and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. On maps of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was simply marked as “The Road to the Lavra”. The Soviet authorities renamed it the January Uprising Street – in honor of the armed uprising of the workers of the Arsenal factory in 1918. Only in 2007 did the street finally receive the name of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, and already in 2010 its section from Slavy Square to Navodnytska Square was allocated as a separate one – Lavrska.
The history of the names of this street reflects all the contradictions of Kyiv toponymy. In 2025, the Naming Commission agreed to return the name Mazepa, and on December 4, 2025, the Kyiv City Council finally concluded this long discussion: part of the street from Slava Square became Ivan Mazepa Street again, and the rest received its old name of Novonavodnytska. Thus, the street that for centuries led pilgrims to the Lavra regained names that correspond to its true history.