Sophia Square is one of the oldest places in Kyiv, dating back to the 11th century, when Yaroslav the Wise defeated the Pechenegs here and built the Sophia Cathedral nearby. It received its official name in 1869, was renamed several times during the Soviet era, and in 1993 its historical name was returned. In the center of the square stands a monument to Bohdan Khmelnytsky, opened in 1888 – after all, it was here in 1648 that the people of Kyiv met the Hetman’s Cossacks after their victory over the Polish army.
The square witnessed significant events: on January 23, 1919, the Act of Union of the UNR and the ZUNR was solemnly proclaimed here, and on January 21, 1990, the legendary Living Chain started from here – a unity action that included up to a million participants from Kyiv to Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. In 2014, President Poroshenko took the oath of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the square. Patriarch Volodymyr of Kyiv is buried near the gate of the bell tower of the St. Sophia Monastery, a symbol of the revival of the independent Ukrainian Church.