This is the home stadium for Dynamo Kyiv FC – my favorite team. It was called Dynamo but now it bears the name of a famous player and coach for this team, Valerii Lobanovsky.

It’s not a big one, but the best! It was built in 1933. It is situated in the center of Kyiv on the beautiful green hills of river Dnipro between two cozy parks. During World War Two it was almost demolished and in the early 50s it was reconstructed with a big Olympic swimming pool and an increased audience capacity of 17.000. What is interesting is that this is a stadium for football games only: no running tracks around.

The most charming thing about this place is that it’s fully open and you’ll feel like you’re sitting right in the park. This is a very homy feeling when the arena is surrounded by big trees. You can also see the building for the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyiv through the trees.

Nowadays the swimming pool is somewhere under the car park and Dynamo plays its games in the bigger and newer Olympic stadium. The big games are no longer played on this stadium, it’s for the small domestic games, for budding teams, and for trainings. But the charm of an old stadium and its history is always held high in respect among the football fans and locals. 

This is a place where the revolution of 2013 started. You can still see the DIY monuments for people killed during these event.