The descent, located between two hills, is the shortest passageway from the historic Old or Upper Town (; "Kniazivs’ka Hora") to the commercial Podil neighborhood. One of the hills, known as "Uzdyhal’nytsia", was the place where pre-Christian idols once stood (see: Baptism of Kyiv), and another hill, called Zamkova Hora, served as a castle hill during the Middle Ages. For many centuries, this passageway was very steep and inconvenient, that's the reason why there were not any settlements for a long time. The first buildings were erected here only in the 17th century, and the first apartment buildings began appearing towards the end of the 19th century.