October 28, 2013

One of the things that always fascinated me about Kyiv was the stairs. Climbing stairs was something that that was as commonplace as walking. Stairs to get to your flat (unless you had a lift), stairs to pass under the streets, stairs to enter and exit metros, stairs to get up ascents and down descents. Outside of your apartment, one of the reasons for so many stairs is that Kyiv is built on “seven hills” but really more like at least fifteen hills. So climbing stairs is just an expected part of walking. The thing that was interesting about stairs is that there is no code dictating the rise and the run of stairs so they are just built to get a person from one level to another without much thought to consistency. There is also no city ordinance that stairs have to be maintained. Maybe that is what makes stairs so interesting in Kyiv.

 

I loved all the differences in the stairs. I loved the old crumbling stairs, the centuries old staircases in the cathedrals, the sidewalk stairs and the stairs that made daily walks a bit more challenging.

 

Focusing on stairs I have many photographs of the Stairs of Kyiv so just take a walk through history and take a look at some very interesting stairs.

Hotel Stairs

Stairs to  Education

Stairs to the tree top

Stairs to Vladimir's Statue

Stairs to transfer station

Stairs to Dimitrivska

Stairs out of Metro to Independence Square

Well worn stairs

Historical Stairs

Stairs out of the dacha

Handmade stairs

Stairs not to be forgotten

Stairs to upper floor of St. Cyril's Cathedral

Stairs to Golden Gate

Stairs with symbolism 

icy stairs

not the stairs to the dentist office

Stairs in Botanical Garden

winter stairs

Stairs to apartment

flooded stairs that go under the highway

Stairs from the Motherland Statue

street stairs

stairs to bell tower

New stairs to St. Nicholas Cathedral

stairs to lookout on Andrevska

Stairs from Water Well

Stairs to Podil

Museum Stairs

St. Sophia's Bell Tower Stairs

Construction stairs 

Stairs at Palates Sportu

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Monument stairs

Stairs from European Square to Podil

Museum Stairs

Crumbling Stairs

Stairs in Kyiv Ukraine Temple

 To me stairs are symbolic of many things.  All of the Lord's creations are symbolic and all things are the Lord's creation.  All of these pictures of stairs have symbolic meaning for me. These temple stairs symbolize to me eternity, love and brightness of hope.  

Quote for the Week by Elder John Widstoe

We live in a world of symbols.  We know nothing, except by symbols.  We make a few marks on a sheet of paper, and we say that they form a word, which stands for love, or hate, or charity, or God or eternity.  The marks may not be very beautiful to the eye.  No one finds fault with  the symbols on the pages of a book because they are not as mighty in their own beauty as the things which they represent.   We are glad to have symbols, if only the meaning of the symbols is brought home to us.