Cemetery in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv with an area of ​​more than 72 hectares. One of the oldest necropolises preserved in the capital of Ukraine.

Founded in the 1830s in connection with the need to transfer burials from the territory allocated for the construction of the New Pechersk Fortress. It got its name from Major General Sergei Babkov, who owned the land bought by the city authorities for the cemetery. The original name was Novostroenskoe, then Dimitrovskoe. It originated as a cemetery for burials of Catholics and Lutherans. Later, Orthodox and Jewish sections appeared. The cemetery became the first multi-confessional necropolis in Kyiv.

In the 1870s, the territory of the cemetery was filled up. There was a need for expansion. The authorities allocated additional territory, which was separated from the main one by Baikovaya Street. This is how the Old and New Baikove cemeteries appeared. In the 1880s, a stone wall and four entrances with gates - Old, Lutheran, Catholic and Orthodox - appeared.

Since the end of the 1880s, crypts with a small commemoration room and a dungeon in which the coffin was located began to be erected in the cemetery. In total, there are more than two dozen crypts on the territory of the Baikove cemetery. During the Nazi occupation, the crypts served as a refuge for Kyiv Jews who escaped extermination at Babiy Yar.

By 1917, the territory of the cemetery was 50 hectares. During the revolutionary years, graves and many crypts were plundered. The Bolsheviks who came to power wanted to destroy the remnants of the old "capitalist" world, and the class marginalized close to them wanted to profit from the plundering of "bourgeois" graves.

In the post-war years, the cemetery suffered from national vandalism. In 1958, unknown persons in the Jewish section of the cemetery knocked down 39 monuments. In 1962, vandals at the Jewish site had already destroyed 50 monuments. An investigation organized by the authorities has yielded no results. The perpetrators were not identified. The city authorities restored the graves at the expense of the budget.

In Soviet times, the cemetery became a burial place for prominent people. In 1975, the only crematorium in the capital was built behind the necropolis. Eight years later - a columbarium for burying the ashes of those burnt in the crematorium.

Baikove cemetery is officially closed for burials. Related subburials are allowed. In 2001, it was recognized as a monument of the history of Ukraine.