Moscow is ranked
15th in the world’s top 20 largest cities. With its population officially
exceeding 11.5 million people (2010 Census, and unofficially judging by the
food consumption and the traffic related figures, the real figure totals around
20 million), its metropolitan area reaching 870 km2, and history extending over
nine centuries, Moscow may be a real challenge for tourists who want to see a
bit more than the usual attractions. And it’s not that Red Square and the
Kremlin are not interesting to visit, it’s just that to feel the city you have
to walk around. And to know where to go in Moscow you have to understand the
city layout.
Well, it’s not
really complicated. As in many other old cities, take Paris or Athens or Rome
for instance, the historical centre of Moscow lies in the centre. Simple,
right? J
It’s important to
understand the main city-forming principle: Moscow started as a small patch of land on the Brorvitsky Hill, and it
grew in size throughout its whole history in all directions. And since nomad
raids were a constant danger in the Middle Ages, there was also a constant need
for fortification works around the city. Each new district meant construction
of a new protection wall. At the same time, there were roads that led out of
the city centre to the major cities of the time, again in all directions. They
were named after these cities, and the places where the roads met the walls
were fortified by gates.
As time went by, some
inner walls were more of an obstacle for transport, and they were pulled down
and replaced by boulevards, and squares replaced the gates. This is how the
city concentric and radial layout took its shape and was
supported, already in the modern history, by construction of the largest
highways Third Ring Road and Moscow Ring Road (MKAD).
Going a little more
in detail and all the more in pictures, let’s look into the most ancient city
district, the Kremlin. It lies on the Brorvitsky Hill at the confluence of the
Moskva and the Neglinnaya River (the latter runs currently beneath the ground).
Although most history books give 1147 as the year Moscow was first mentioned in
the ancient history records, it is evident that Moscow is much older.
Archaeological digs revealed that people lived here as early as in the Bronze
Age (II century BC). The place was convenient to settle in: water ways provided
food and transport, the hill rising above the surrounding valleys gave a nice
overview and made it difficult for the enemy to come unnoticed.
The fortification
wall Moscovites built around the Kremlin was first of wood, subsequently of
white stone and then of bricks (more or less the way we know the Kremlin now).
Let’s look at the
engraved map of the 1630th and compare it to the current map of
Moscow. Here the Kremlin territory is marked in red.
The thick mighty
walls gave shelter and confidence and attracted more and more new settlers. In
XIV Moscow (= Kremlin) could not house all those willing to come, and a new
district appeared. It’s called Kitay-gorod in Russian (see in yellow on the
maps), and it was occupied first by nobility and then by merchants as shopping
arcades and the city exchange opened in the area.
Moscow Exchange, currently Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Bely Gorod used to
be a district where nobility in the Tsar’s service lived. If translated
literally, Bely Gorod is White Town, and the name presumably reflects the fact
that the noble residents were exempt of the land tax and occupied “white” land
in terms of the XVI century Russia. The district was also surrounded by a brick
wall painted white. According to the 1775 city development plan, only stone
houses could be built in Kitay-Gorod and Bely Gorod. This largely contributed
to the safety of the many houses erected then till our time.
Zemlyanoy Gorod,
literally translated as Earthworks Town, was regarded as suburbs till the end
of XVI. Initially it was a scarcely populated rural area of monasteries and villages,
later an area of where the town craftsmen settled. It was separated from Bely
Gorod by a stone wall with gates (exactly as was the case with Kitay-gorod), and
from the rest of the world by an earth wall. However, very soon this area was
added to Moscow territories and built up with stone houses, the wall was
demolished and replaced by a the Garden Ring. Later on, the district witnessed a real building boom after 1860 as entrepreneur activity thrived, and 4-
or 5-storeyd tenement buildings
and houses of well-to-do businessmen sprouted like mushrooms after the summer
rains.
Now, as we can see,
these city parts are the oldest, and despite all the changes that Moscow has
undergone so far, there is still a lot of the very old times to discover. Explore!
