<p>

In the late nineteenth century

excursions became an integral part of the educational process.

Students of prestigious gimnasiums used to make both short and long

trips following routes which included the biggest cities of the

Empire – St. Petersburg, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Tbilisi, Tallinn,

Riga, Poltava, Kyiv etc. The cost of these excursions was included in

the cost of education services; the students travelled in separate

transport vehicles (e.g., train carriages or steamers) accompanied by

a medical assistant, a servant or a tour guide. Students of district

schools made shorter trips, often at their own expense and under

supervision of school teachers only.</p><p>Kyiv, as the cradle of the

Orthodoxy and “the mother of Russian towns”, became one of the

first and most popular tourist destinations, tours including visiting

both sacred places and technical institutions or museums. Local

newspapers used to inform about arrival of excursions to the city and

departure of Kyiv students for a trip, often describing also their

excursion programs. On the photo we can see the students of the first

men’s gymnasium departing for a ship trip to the north of Kyiv. The

Russian Empire’s tricolour flag streams on the Maria

steamer. In the depth of the picture one can see the monuments to the

Magdeburg Rights and St. Volodymyr, the water tower and the Catholic

church (on the horizon line), the housing of Oleksandrivsky (now

Volodymyrsky) Uzviz. The photo was taken from the Trukhaniv island.</p>