Bessarabska Square Plaza

Address: Bessarabska Square, central Kyiv

Hours: Open year-round

Admission: Free (public square/market area)

Bessarabska Square is a central city square in Kyiv, Ukraine, noted for its covered market and for its role as a junction of major central streets. The square takes its name from the historical Bessarabia region.

The square’s dominant feature is the covered Bessarabsky Market, a low-market hall offering food stalls and vendors; the surrounding area includes shops, cafés and city thoroughfares. It functions as a busy urban node linking shopping streets and transit routes.

The square developed as a commercial hub in central Kyiv during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has retained its market function since that period, with the market building forming the square’s architectural focus.

Bessarabska Square sits in central Kyiv at the meeting point of several major streets, forming part of the commercial heart of the city.

• Bessarabsky Market: The covered Bessarabsky Market building sits on the square and is the best-known feature for food stalls, vendors and early 20th-century commercial architecture.
• Central access: The square occupies a central position in Kyiv and links major streets and pedestrian routes through the city centre, making it a convenient meeting and transit point.

Bessarabska Square (Bessarabskiy Rynok) sits in central Kyiv at the southern end of Khreshchatyk street next to the Bessarabsky Market. The nearest metro is Khreshchatyk station on the Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska (red) line - the square is about a 2-5 minute walk from the station. The area is also served by numerous surface buses, marshrutkas and trams along Khreshchatyk, so arriving by public transport into central Kyiv and walking a few minutes to the square is straightforward.

• Visit Bessarabska Square in the morning to see the busy indoor Bessarabsky Market at its liveliest - vendors and fresh stalls are best early in the day before tourist footfall rises.
• Don't just pass the square: step inside the covered market to sample local produce and traditional Kyiv foodstalls, which many visitors overlook while photographing the exterior.