The landscape alley is a recreation area created on the site of the hidden defensive ramparts of the Upper City, which went from above in a ravine, over the Gonchary tract. In fact, this is a path (automobile-pedestrian), which repeats the route of the rampart and landscape design objects around (curbs, park sculpture, playgrounds, flower beds). It starts from the observation deck near the National Museum of the History of Ukraine and ends between buildings No. 36 and 40 along Bolshaya Zhytomyrska Street. The alley was laid in the early 1980s according to the project of the architect Abraham Miletsky (best known in Kiev for such structures as the central bus station, “Salyut” Hotel, Park of Eternal Glory, crematorium at the Baikove cemetery, Park of Memory and the Wall of Memory at Baikove Cemetery).
The purpose of the construction of the alley was to create an opportunity for tourists to view the views of Podil and the Dnieper from the height of the historical Upper Town. It was designed as part of the complex of the architectural and historical reserve “Ancient Kyiv”, which was supposed to cover the territories of the historical cities that made up Kyiv. In addition, the project included:
– organization of the archaeological museum,
– creation of a museum of urban planning of the 19th century and folk crafts,
– reconstruction of one of the ancient streets of Kyiv – Andreevsky Spusk,
– construction of buildings of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and the museum of this institute,
– ordering the Kyiv mountains: Starokievskaya, Detinki, Zamkovaya, Andreevskaya and the slopes of the ancient Kopyrev end.
But of the entire large-scale project, only “Landscape Alley” was implemented, the area of which amounted to one and a half hectares.
In 2009, a children’s square with benches and majestic cats was equipped on the Landscape Alley. It has fountains in the form of an elephant, zebra heads, a 30-meter centipede cat is lined with mosaics, benches in the form of a rabbit, a crow, a cat, and even in the form of a sign of the national currency – the hryvnia. The landscaping of the square, on the site of which there used to be a wasteland, was carried out by sculptor Konstantin Skritutsky (known for a number of sculptures in Kyiv, for example Darnitskaya landscape).
In total, more than 1,000,000 hryvnias were spent on the work, and almost a quarter was collected by residents of nearby houses, and the rest was given by patrons and sponsors.