Hydropark is a park located on the Venetian (to the left when exiting the metro) and Dolobetsky (respectively to the right) islands between the Dnieper and the Rusanovskiy Strait in Kyiv. The hydropark is located on the site of the former Podmostnaya Slobidka, destroyed in 1943 during the occupation of Kyiv. Created in 1965-1968 as a water entertainment complex with many beaches, water attractions, boat stations. The area of the park is 365 hectares. The architects of the project are Vsevolod Suvorov and Igor Shpara.
In summer, up to 75,000 people can stay in Hydropark at a time. The islands are interconnected by the Venetian bridge 144 meters long (built in 1966), with the right bank of the Dnieper – the Metro bridge, with the left bank – the Rusanovsky metro bridge. In the park there is a metro station “Gidropark” of the Svyatoshynsko-Brovarskaya line of the Kyiv metro.
On the territory of the Hydropark there is a park “Kyiv in miniature“, and the Hydropark itself is located between such sights as Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, memorial complex Motherland and Rusanovka; from the southernmost part of the Venetian Island, which is adjacent to the Patona Bridge, you can see the sculpture on the water “Rare bird“. Currently, there are a large number of entertainment establishments in Hydropark (discotheques, restaurants, cafes, bars, and so on). Among the available entertainment: many beaches, renting gazebos in the forest on the banks of the Dnieper, renting boats and catamarans, table and regular tennis, paintball, football, volleyball, beach rugby, bungee jumping, water attractions.
One of the most notable objects of the Kyiv Hydropark is the training town. It exists on a voluntary basis, and has been maintained in working order for several decades by Yuri Kuk, an employee of the Institute of Cybernetics, hence its unofficial name “Cook Land”.