<p><br />

In the late nineteenth century<br />

excursions became an integral part of the educational process.<br />

Students of prestigious gimnasiums used to make both short and long<br />

trips following routes which included the biggest cities of the<br />

Empire – St. Petersburg, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Tbilisi, Tallinn,<br />

Riga, Poltava, Kyiv etc. The cost of these excursions was included in<br />

the cost of education services; the students travelled in separate<br />

transport vehicles (e.g., train carriages or steamers) accompanied by<br />

a medical assistant, a servant or a tour guide. Students of district<br />

schools made shorter trips, often at their own expense and under<br />

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

Orthodoxy and “the mother of Russian towns”, became one of the<br />

first and most popular tourist destinations, tours including visiting<br />

both sacred places and technical institutions or museums. Local<br />

newspapers used to inform about arrival of excursions to the city and<br />

departure of Kyiv students for a trip, often describing also their<br />

excursion programs. On the photo we can see the students of the first<br />

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

Russian Empire’s tricolour flag streams on the Maria<br />

steamer. In the depth of the picture one can see the monuments to the<br />

Magdeburg Rights and St. Volodymyr, the water tower and the Catholic<br />

church (on the horizon line), the housing of Oleksandrivsky (now<br />

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