Moscow
is a major economic centre and is home to one of the largest numbers of billionaires in the world; in 2008 Moscow was named the world's most expensive city for foreign employees for the third year in a row.However, in 2009, Moscow moved to third after Tokyo and Osaka came in first and second, respectively.
It is home to many scientific and educational institutions, as well as numerous sport facilities. It possesses a complex transport system, that includes 3 international airports, 9 railroad terminals, and the world's second busiest (after Tokyo) metro system which is famous for its architecture and artwork. Its metro is the busiest single-operator subway in the world.
Red Square is the most famous city square in Moscow, and arguably one of the most famous in the world. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod. As major streets of Moscow radiate from here in all directions, being promoted to major highways outside the city, Red Square is often considered the central square of Moscow and of all Russia.
OFFICIAL HOLIDAYS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION:
January 1-5 New Year's Vacation
January 7th Christmas
February 23rd Defender of the Motherland Day
March 8th International Women’s Day
May 1st Spring and Labor Celebration
May 9th Victory Day
June 12th Russia Day
November 4th Civil Unity Day
Moscow's architecture is world-renowned. Moscow is also well known as the site of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, with its elegant onion domes, as well as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Seven Sisters. The first Kremlin was built in the middle of the 12th century.
Medieval Moscow's design was of concentric walls and intersecting radial thoroughfares. This layout, as well as Moscow's rivers, helped shape Moscow's design in subsequent centuries.
The Kremlin was rebuilt in the 15th century. Its towers and some of its churches were built by
Italian architects, lending the city some of the aura of the renaissance. From the end of the 15th century, the city was embellished by increasing numbers of masonry structures such as monasteries, palaces, walls, towers, and churches.
Parks and landmarks
There are 96 parks and 18 gardens in Moscow, including 4 botanical gardens. There are also 450 square kilometres (170 sq mi) of green zones besides 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi) of forests.[61] Moscow is a very green city, if compared to other cities of comparable size in Western Europe and North America; this is partly due to a history of having green "yards" with trees and grass, between residential buildings.
Tsaritsyno museum and reserve in Moscow (near Tsaritsyno metro station and commuter suburb train station) was founded in 1984 in the park of the same name.
The estate is known from the late 16th century, when it belonged to Tsarina Irina, sister of Tsar Boris Godunov. At that time it was called Bogorodskoye. In the 17th century it belonged to the Streshnevs and then to the Galitzines.
In 1775, the estate was bought by empress Catherine the Great, who happened to be passing through the area and fell in love with the picturesque beauty of the land. It received its present name, which means “Tsarina’s”.
In 1776-85 architect Vasili Bazhenov built a palace for the Empress there. When the palace was almost complete, the Empress visited Tsaritsyno to inspect it. She declared the rooms to be too cramped and dark, and the palace unlivable. As a result, Catherine ordered the palace to be torn down, and the architect was fired. The remnants of the foundation of Bazhenov's original palace are still visible in the park.
In 1786, Matvey Kazakov presented new architectural plans, which were approved by Catherine. Kazakov supervised the construction project until 1796 when the construction was interrupted by Catherine's death. Her successor, Emperor Paul I of Russia showed no interest in the palace and it remained unfinished. The massive structure remained abandoned for more than 200 years, until it was completed and extensively reworked in 2005-07.
Novodevichy Convent
Novodevichy Convent, also known as Bogoroditse-Smolensky Monastery (Russian: Новоде́вичий монасты́рь, Богоро́дице-Смоле́нский монасты́рь), is probably the best-known cloister of Moscow. Its name, sometimes translated as the New Maidens' Monastery, was devised to differfrom an ancient maidens' convent within the Moscow Kremlin. Unlike other Moscow cloisters, it has remained virtually intact since the 17th century. In 2004, it was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site
In the mid-17th century, nuns from other monasteries in the Ukrainian and Belarusian were transferred to Novodevichy Convent. In 1721, some of the aged nuns, who renounced the Old Believers movement, were given shelter. In 1724, the convent also housed a military hospital for the soldiers and officers of the Imperial Russian Army and an orphanage for female foundlings. By 1763, the convent housed 84 nuns, 35 lay sisters, and 78 sick patients and servants. Each year, the state provided the Novodevichy Convent with 1,500 rubles, 1,300 quarters of bread, and 680 rubles and 480 quarters of bread for more than 250 abandoned children.
In 1812, Napoleon's army made an attempt to blow up the convent, but the nuns managed to save the cloister from destruction. In Tolstoy's War and Peace, Pierre was to be executed under the convent walls. In another novel of his, Anna Karenina, Konstantin Lyovin (the main character) meets his future wife Kitty ice-skating near monastery walls. Indeed, the Maiden's Field (as a meadow in front of the convent came to be known) was the most popular skating-rink in 19th-century Moscow. Tolstoy himself enjoyed skating here, when he lived nearby, in the district of Khamovniki.
In 1871, the Filatyev brothers donated money for a shelter-school for the orphans of "ignoble origins". Also, the convent housed two almshouses for nuns and lay sisters. In early 1900s, the Cathedral was surveyed and restored by architect and preservationist Ivan Mashkov. By 1917, there were 51 nuns and 53 lay sisters residing in the Novodevichy Convent
Kolomenskoye
Kolomenskoye (Russian: Коло́менское) is a former royal estate situated several kilometers to the southeast of the city center of Moscow, Russia, on the ancient road leading to the town of Kolomna (hence the name). The 390 hectare scenic area overlooks the steep banks of the Moskva River. It became a part of Moscow in the 1960s.The Moscow Kremlin
complex serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.
The name Kremlin means "fortress", and is often used as a synecdoche to refer to the government of the Russian Federation in a similar sense to how the White House is used to refer to the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Indeed, even the Russian President's official website is Kremlin.ru. It had previously been used to refer to the government of the Soviet Union (1922–1991) and its highest members (such as general secretaries, premiers, presidents, ministers, and commissars). "Kremlinology" refers to the study of Soviet and Russian politics.
Cathedral of the Dormition
"Cathedral of the Dormition" redirects here. For other uses, see Cathedral of the Dormition (disambiguation).The Cathedral of the Dormition (Russian: Успенский Собор, or Uspensky sobor) is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos. It is located on the north side of Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia, where a narrow alley separates the north from
the Patriarch's Palace with the Twelve Apostles Church. Southwest is Ivan the Great Bell Tower. Separately in the southwest, also separated by a narrow passage from the church, is the Palace of Facets. The Cathedral is regarded as the mother church of Muscovite Russia. In its present form it was constructed between 1475–79 at the behest of the Moscow Grand Duke Ivan III by the Italian architect Aristotele Fioravanti. From 1547 to 1896 it is where the Coronationof the Russian monarch was held. In addition, it is the burial place for most of the Moscow Metropolitans and Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Cathedral of the Annunciation
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The Cathedral of the Annunciation (Russian: Благовещенский собор, or Blagoveschensky sobor) is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Annunciation of the Theotokos. It is located on the southwest side of Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia, where it connects directly to the main building of the complex of the Grand Kremlin Palace, adjacent to the Palace of Facets. It was originally the personal chapel for the Muscovite tsars, and its abbot remained a personal confessor of the Russian royal family until the early 20th century.The Cathedral of the Archangel
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The Cathedral of the Archangel (Russian: Архангельский собор, or Arkhangelsky sobor) is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. It is located in Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia between the Great Kremlin Palace and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. It was the main necropolis of the Tsars of Russia until the relocation of the capital to St.
Petersburg. It was constructed between 1505 and 1508 under the supervision of an Italian architect Aloisio the New on the spot of an older cathedral, built in 1333.[1]
The Ivan the Great Bell Tower
The Ivan the Great Bell Tower (Russian: Колокольня Ивана Великого) is the tallest of the towers in the Moscow Kremlin complex, with a total height of 81 metres (266 ft). It was built in 1508 for the Russian Orthodox cathedrals in Cathedral Square, namely the Assumption, Archangel and Annunciation cathedrals, which do not have their own belfries.The Tsar Cannon
an external diameter of 1,200 mm (47.2 in).The barrel has eight cast rectangular brackets for use in transporting the gun, which is mounted on a stylized cast iron gun carriage with two wheels. The barrel is decorated with relief images, including an equestrian image of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich. The cannon-style gun carriage, added in 1835, is purely decorative. This weapon was never intended to be transported on or fired from this gun carriage.
The spherical cast-iron projectiles located in front of the cannon - each of which weighs approximately 1 ton, were produced in 1834 as a decoration. They are too large to have been used in the Tsar Cannon, which would have fired 800 kg stone grapeshot rather than cannonballs. According to legend, the cannonballs were manufactured in St. Petersburg, and were intended to be a humorous addition and a symbol of the friendly rivalry between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Red Square
Red Square remains, as it has been for centuries, the heart and soul of Russia. Few places in the world bear the weight of history to the extent that Moscow's central square does. From the 16th Century St. Basil's Cathedral - one of the most famous pieces of architecture in the world - to the constructivist pyramid of Lenin's Mausoleum, Red Square is rich in symbols of Russia's turbulent and intriguing past..jpg)
The square's name has nothing to do with communism or with the color of many of its buildings. In fact it derives from the word 'krasnyi', which once meant 'beautiful', and has only come to mean 'red' in contemporary Russian. The name became official in the middle of the 17th century - previously it had been Trinity Square, due to the Trinity Cathedral, the predecessor of St. Basil's. Popularly, it was also known as 'Fire Square', reflecting the number of times medieval Moscow burned. During the Mongol and Tartar invasions, it was the site of fierce fighting, and right up until the end of the 17th century cannon stood ready to defend the square.Red Square came into its own in the 20th Century, when it was most famous as the site of official military parades demonstrating to the world the might of the Soviet armed forces. Two of these will
be remembered forever. The first was the parade of 7 November 1941, when columns of young cadets marched through the square and straight on to the frontline, which by that point was less than 50km from Moscow. The second was the victory parade on 24 June 1945, when two hundred Nazi standards were thrown in front of the mausoleum and trampled by mounted Soviet commanders in celebration. The year 2000 saw the return of troops to Red Square, with a parade to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War Two.
Since Perestroika, however, the emphasis has moved away from official pomp, and Red Square has been used increasingly for rock concerts, big classical music performances and a whole range of large-scale events from fashion shows to festivals of circus art. Moscow met the millennium here with a huge firework display and street party.
Today it's hard to think of a place that is more beloved of Muscovites and visitors to the city. The varied beauty of the architecture and the magical atmosphere belie the square's often brutal and bloody history, but the combination makes Red Square a truly fascinating place that you'll want to come back to again and again.
The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed
The Spasskaya Tower
The Spasskaya Tower (Russian: Спасская башня, translated as "Saviour Tower") is the main tower with a through-passage on the eastern wall of the Moscow Kremlin, which overlooks the Red Square.
The tower gate was once the main entrance into the Kremlin. In czarist times, anyone passing through the gates had to remove their headgear and dismount their horses. This tradition was broken in the soviet era. Cars approached the gate head on from the place of skulls and the road beside GUM. In order to pass through the gate, you had to be a head of state, top politburo member, or top government member. All other traffic was routed through the borovistky gate. The spassky gate posed an issue following the collapse of communism. In the new capitalist and market based economy, the passage of vehicles disrupted the flow of pedestrians to GUM and other shopping centers,
even though few vehicles actually passed through the gate each day. In 1999, the decision was mad to finally close the gate to all traffic. The signal lights and guard platforms still remain. The gate is
used occasionally when repairs must be made to the borovissky gate. However, in that case, all traffic is routed from vasilievsky spusk. Nowadays, the gate opens to receive the presidential motorcades on inauguration day, for the victory parades, and to receive the new years tree.
GUM (department store)
The building’s planning represents three lengthway three-floor passages with deep basements. The glass roof designed by the engineer V. Shukhov imparts uniqueness to the building’s architecture. Glass, semi-circular formed, 14 meters diameter, easy and open-work looking like — the roof represents a solid construction, that took over fifty thousand poods of metal (approx. 200 thousand pounds).Stretching on a quarter of a kilometer along the Kremlin’s wall, the GUM’s building encloses the Red Square from the East with its facades’ architecture (decorated with facet rustics), and calls up with Kremlin and the Historical museum.
Moscow Metro station
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Komsomolskaya (Russian: Комсомо́льская) is a Moscow Metro station in the Krasnoselsky District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Koltsevaya Line, between Prospekt Mira and Kurskaya stations.The station is noted for its being located under the busiest Moscow transport hub, Komsomolskaya
Square, which serves Leningradsky, Yaroslavsky and Kazansky railway terminals. Because of that the station is one of the busiest in the whole system and is the most loaded one on the line. It opened on 30 January 1952 as a part of the second stage of the line.
Arbat Street
Arbat Street (Russian About this sound Арба́т (help·info)), mainly referred to as the Arbat, is a pedestrian street about one kilometer long in the historical centre of Moscow. The Arbat has existed since at least the 15th century, thus laying claim to being one of the oldest surviving streets of the Russian capital. It forms the heart of the Arbat District of Moscow. Originally the street formed part of an important trade route and was home to a large number of craftsmen.In the 18th century, the Arbat came to be regarded by the Russian nobility as the most prestigious
living area in Moscow. The street was almost completely destroyed by the great fire during Napoleon's occupation of Moscow in 1812 and had to be rebuilt. In the 19th and early 20th centuries it became known as the a place where petty nobility, artists, and academics lived. In the Soviet period, it was the home of many high-ranking government officials.
Today the street and its surroundings are undergoing gentrification, and it is considered a desirable place to live. Because of the many historic buildings, and the numerous artists who have lived and worked in the street, the Arbat is also an important tourist attraction.
Soviet paraphernalia. Badges, flasks and watches are the most popular, and prices range from a 100 ruble bill ($4) to several 5,000 ruble bills ($200+). The greatest concentration of such goods occur on Arbat street.
Russian souvenirs
A matryoshka doll
A matryoshka doll (Russian: матрёшка, IPA: [mɐˈtrʲɵʂkə] ( listen), matrëška), also known as Russian nesting doll, refers to a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk crafts painter at Abramtsevo. Traditionally the outer layer is a woman, dressed in a sarafan, a long and shapeless traditional Russian peasant jumper dress. The figures inside may be of either gender; the smallest, innermost doll is typically a baby turned from a single piece of wood. Much of the artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be very elaborate. The dolls often follow a theme; the themes vary, from fairy tale characters to Soviet leaders.
Caviar
Caviar. This is one of the top three things a tourist wants to take home - and one of the first three
you shouldn't. First, caviar harvesting in Russia has been banned since 2007, so you're very likely to buy a spurious substitute, which might be the eggs of some other fish, or even frogs. If you do get the real stuff, you're breaking the law, especially by crossing the border. Just forget about it.
Ushanka
Ushanka
Ushanka. That's a Russian cap made of fur with flaps for the ears. For a long time they used to be as ridiculous as they are popular, bought by tourists to laugh at, or by misguided expats new in town, but these days, they're "in." Some of them have made it onto the runways in Paris and MilanChocolates
Chocolates. Russia isn't Belgium or Switzerland, but Russians love their chocolates no less. The
historic Krasny Oktyabr ("Red October") factory still make popular classics such as the Alyonka, while there are a number of new manufacturers making elaborate chocolates that rival those made in Europe. the famous one is Komilfo.
Vodka
Vodka
Vodka is traditionally drunk neat in the vodka belt countries of Eastern Europe and around the Baltic Sea. It is also commonly used in cocktails and mixed drinks, such as the vodka martini, vodka tonic, Screwdriver, Greyhound, Black or White Russian, Bloody Mary, and Sex on the Beach.
