Zoloti Vorota (Kiev Metro)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Syretsko-Pecherska Line
								Syrets
								Dorohozhychi
								Lukianivska
								Lvivska Brama
								Zoloti Vorota
								Palats Sportu
								Klovska
								Pecherska
								Druzhby Narodiv
								Vydubychi
								Telychka
								Slavutych
								Osokorky
								Poznyaky
								Kharkivska
								Vyrlytsia
								Boryspilska
								Chervony Khutir
	edit

Zoloti Vorota (Ukrainian: Золотi Ворота Russian: Золотые Ворота, Zolotye Vorota) is one of the most famous stations on the Kiev Metro. Named after the Golden Gates historical structure, the station is arguabely one of the most stunning achievements in late Soviet architecture.

The station was opened as part of the first stage of the Syretsko-Pecherska Line on December 30, 1989. The design contributed a number of architects, but the station itself is due to the masterpiece of Boris and his son Vadim Zhezherin and artistic architects S.Adamenko and M.Ralko. The station is a column trivault, with the theme of the Architecture of Kievan Rus. The central vault was enlarged to allow the interior to be similar to an ancient Russian Orthodox cathedral, with the large chandeliers holding the lighting elements as candles, and charachteristic intervault and inter-collumn mosaics (artists G.Koren, V.Fedko). White marble was used for the walls and columns, but even here a more matt polish was applied to further make the station imposing. Even the platform hall contains the chandeliers, albeit slightly smaller, and suspended from niches over the platform. Grey granite is used for the floor.

When the station was built, it was done as a single unit with its transfer station Teatralna of the Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line, which opened two years prior to specifically be the transfer point. The stations are connected with the escalator tunnel coming out of the back of Zoloti Vorota and connecting to the centre of the Tetralna station via staircases. Also when the station was opened it was the norther terminus of the line for exactly seven years.

The vestibule of the station (architects T.Tselikovskaya, A.Krushinky and F.Zaremba) was built into a building on the corner of Volodymyrska street and Zoloti Vorota driveway, next to the ancient historical memorial, because of the stations' depth, there are two separate escalators that connect to an intemediate lobby halfway.

Undoubtedly, the station is one of the most iconic masterpieces that the Kiev Metro architects ever put together, and along with Dnipro is one of the iconic stations that represent the system.

[edit] External links