City Layout
At Moscow's heart and nearly its geographical center lies the Kremlin, from which the rest of the city has expanded in roughly concentric circles: the Boulevard Ring, the Garden Ring, and the Third Ring. The last circle, the Moscow Ring Road, is the bypass around the city limits. The expansion continues apace and Moscow is now an unwieldy megalopolis of 12 million people encompassing 1,000 sq. km (386 sq. miles) - nearly 10 times bigger than Paris or Manhattan .
The Moscow and Yauza rivers curve through the city, delineating neighborhoods. Visitors are often struck by Moscow 's broad boulevards and vast squares, as well as the city's large swaths of green space (which turns to white space during the 6-month winter). Yet housing remains concentrated in cramped apartment blocks.
All major airports are well out of town. Train stations are scattered around a circle that generally corresponds to the Garden Ring Road and the metro system's Ring Line. Trains from the west arrive at Kievsky station or Belorussky station on the northwest side of town, and trains from the north arrive at Leningradsky station or Rizhky station on the northeast side.
Finding addresses in Russia can be challenging, especially for buildings tucked in a courtyard or down a footpath. Russians usually list the house number after the street name. The number may include dashes or slashes or have an addendum like "building 2" or "wing 3." Big apartment buildings rarely have one central entrance; instead, apartments are reached by separate entrances called podyezdy , making it crucial to know which entrance you need. For example, to find Kutuzovsky Prospekt 7/4, building 3, entrance 1, apartment 16 :
Locate no. 7/4 between nos. 5 and 9 (ignore the "/4"), walk through the parking lot, and search for building no. 3. Then find entrance no. 1 and check the list in the elevator to locate apartment no. 16's floor.
Beware of maps and guidebooks printed before the mid-1990s, which may include the Soviet-era names of many streets and metro stations instead of the new ones.
Whether at Manezh Square, Arbat Street, or New Arbat Street, modern Moscow shows its face in the evening. It's still shaking off the torpor of 65 years of a decidedly unfun system, but it is doing so with vigor and even a kind of frenzy. Who knows? Maybe 15 years from now, next to the statue of Zhukov trampling a swastika, there will be a statue of Mickey Mouse trampling a hammer and sickle.
The tour will take you on a visit to the Kremlin, theformer residence of Russian czars, and an architectural ensemble of unique beauty, which took shape between 15th and 20th centuries. Cathedral Square – the center of Kremlin with the 15th century Assumption Cathedral, the main church of Russia, the 15th century Annunciation Cathedral, private church of Russian czars and the 16th century Archangel’s Cathedral, the burial place of the czars. The highest structure in the Kremlin is the 80-meter high Bell Tower of Ivan the Great. You will also be amazed by the sizes of the world’s largest Tzar Bell (18th century) and Tzar Cannon (16thcentury).
In this walk, we will mainly concentrate on the Kremlin, Red Square, located at the heart of Moscow, just outside the Kremlin.
The first mentioning of Moscow as a settlement in the annals of history dates back to 1147. This very year is, thus, considered to be the year of its foundation. Moscow’s founder is Yuri Vladimirovitch Dolgorukiy, Prince of Suzdal. His followers in forming Muscovy were the famed Princes and Czars Andrey Bogolubskiy, Ivan Kalita, Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan the 3d, Boris Godunov, Mikhail Romanov and many others. After Peter the Great came to the throne cities and towns of the Russian state were assigned to provinces headed by governors. Till 1917 governors of Moscow faithfully served the city and the Russian state. Muscovites still remember names of many: Boyar Streshnev, Count Tchernishov, Prince Volkonskiy, Count Rostopchin, Prince Golitsin. All in all, there were more than 50 of them.
Since 1917 the functions of the local administration’s head were carried out by chairmen of executive committees of the Moscow Soviet of People’s Deputies. Lately these functions have been performed by mayors of Moscow. Almost nine centuries have already passed. Our city was repeatedly conquered and destroyed but again and again it was successfully rebuilt. At present Moscow is one of the largest cities of the world. The exceptionally favorable location of Moscow gave it advantages over other cities of the emerging Russia.
From the very beginning the territorial development of Moscow was determined by the need to have a reliable defense. There were constant threats of invasion by nomadic hordes from the South and East and by Lithuanian and Polish conquerors from the West. During that time such famous convent-fortresses as the Simonov, Spaso-Andronikov and Novo-Devichiy ones were built on approaches to Moscow.
After the victory in the Kulikovskaya battle (1380) and the ’Ugra standing’ (1480) that put an end to the Tartar-Mongolian yoke the might of Muscovy started to quickly grow. In the 15th century by the size of its territory and population Moscow surpassed London, Prague and other largest cities of Europe. After the abolition of serfdom (1861) and in the course of developing capitalism in Russia rates of Moscow’ s growth increased and the city became the largest commercial and industrial center.
By the end of the 19th century there were over 20 thousand commercial and industrial enterprises. Moscow’s industrial structure was dominated by textile, building, woodworking and food sectors. The period of the industrial upsurge was marked by vigorous advances of the foreign capital penetrating the Russian industry. All chemical and electrotechnical enterprises in Moscow were in the hands of foreign companies. Moscow’s machine-building industry gathered momentum in its deelopment after the October coup.
The Moscow of calico gave way to the Moscow of machine-building and electrical engineering. Retaining its very important role in producing consumer goods for the country as a whole Moscow became the powerful industrial center. No new industrial enterprises have been opened in the city during the period of democratic changes and this has had positive effect on the local ecology. What is more, many old enterprises now either curtail their production or move beyond city limits.
At the same time new buildings (mainly, administrative, office and trade ones) keep cropping up. They are constructed by special design and architecturally are in harmony with the existing city structure. For hundreds of years Moscow has been the center of the Russian national culture.
The city possesses the most valuable historical and architectural monuments of world importance: the Kremlin, Novo-Devichiy Convent, Church of Pokrov in Fili, Moscow State University, Triumphal Arch, Memorial complex of Victory on the Poklonnaya Gora. The Temple of Christ, the Savior, on Kropotkinskaya embankment (it became Moscow’s Cathedral), the Kremlin’s Voskresenskiye Gates together with the Iverskaya Chapel and Temple of Icon of Kazan Mother of God on Red square were built anew.
A great number of historic monuments are being reconstructed and restored. The process to preserve the historic heritage goes on and the Moscow government bodies act as its sponsors and active participants. A lot is done to make Muscovites and visitors feel nice and comfortable in the streets of the capital city. Pedestrian zones are set up, new hotels, cafes and restaurants are opened. Moscow regularly hosts major festivals, Olympiads, sports competitions and various international contests.
Moscow is famous for its museums and such exhibition halls as the Tretyakov Art Gallery, Pushkin Museum, Manege. Those, who already visited Moscow, are sure to wish to come back to our hometown again. Moscow is considered one of the most beautiful cities of the world, is it not so?
If you have your own ideas you would incorporate those into a tailor-made tour of how best to visit the beautiful sites of Moscow. We are ready to help you! The prices of these tailor-made tours are calculated regarded the time-period of the tour(s). Please contact us for further details.
Moskau
Moskau (russisch Ìîñêâà) ist die Hauptstadt der Russischen Föderation und mit 10.406.578 Einwohnern in der eigentlichen Stadt und 14.435.176 in der Agglomeration (Stand jeweils 1. Januar 2005) die größte Stadt Europas. Sie ist das politische, wirtschaftliche und kulturelle Zentrum des Landes mit Lomonossow-Universität, Hochschulen und Fachschulen sowie zahlreichen Kirchen, Theatern, Museen, Galerien und dem 540 Meter hohen Ostankino-Turm. Moskau ist Sitz der Russisch-Orthodoxen Kirche: Der Patriarch residiert im Danilow-Kloster, das größte russisch-orthodoxe Kirchengebäude ist die Moskauer Christ-Erlöser-Kathedrale. Seit dem 16. Jahrhundert wird Moskau auch als Drittes Rom bezeichnet. Nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs erhielt Moskau die Auszeichnung einer Heldenstadt.
Der Kreml und der Rote Platz im Zentrum Moskaus stehen seit 1990 auf der UNESCO-Liste des Weltkulturerbes. Mit neun Kopfbahnhöfen, drei internationalen Flughäfen und drei Binnenhäfen ist die Stadt wichtigster Verkehrsknoten und größte Industriestadt Russlands.
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The tour will take you on a visit to the Kremlin, the former residence of Russian czars, and an architectural ensemble of unique beauty, which took shape between 15th and 20th centuries. Cathedral Square – the center of Kremlin with the 15th century Assumption Cathedral, the main church of Russia, the 15th century Annunciation Cathedral, private church of Russian czars and the 16th century Archangel’s Cathedral, the burial place of the czars. The highest structure in the Kremlin is the 80-meter high Bell Tower of Ivan the Great. You will also be amazed by the sizes of the world’s largest Tzar Bell (18th century) and Tzar Cannon (16thcentury).
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A great number of historic monuments are being reconstructed and restored. The process to preserve the historic heritage goes on and the Moscow government bodies act as its sponsors and active participants. A lot is done to make Muscovites and visitors feel nice and comfortable in the streets of the capital city. Pedestrian zones are set up, new hotels, cafes and restaurants are opened. Moscow regularly hosts major festivals, Olympiads, sports competitions and various international contests.