Bessarabska ploshcha (Kyiv)

Bessarabska Square (Ukrainian: Бессарабська площа, Bessarabian Square) is located at the southwest end of Khreshchatyk, the main thoroughfare of Kyiv. It is located in the Shevchenko Raion (district), at the busy intersection of Khreshchatyk, Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, Velyka Vasylkivska Street, and the Krutyi Descent.

Until the late 1840s, the square was located on the outskirts of town, where immigrants from Bessarabia in the southern regions of Ukraine would come to sell their products.
Nowadays, the Bessarabska Square is one of three squares of the Khreshchatyk street complex, the others being the Maidan Nezalezhnosti and the European Square, located in the street's center and northeastern end, respectively.

Before the Besarabsky Market was built in the early 1910s, the square was known by two previous names:
• in the mid-19th century – Universytetska Square (Ukrainian: Університетська площа, University Square), as it was located on the route to the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv from the Lypky neighborhood.
• in 1869-1881 – Bohdan Khmelnytsky Square (Ukrainian: площа Б. Хмельницького). A monument dedicated to the Ukrainian Hetman was supposed to be built on the square (it was instead erected on the Sofiivska Square in the city's upper town in 1888).