Zaryadye Park, the first park in the last 200 years, built inside the Boulevard Ring, was opened in Moscow on City Day. Prior to that, a huge square in the very center of the Russian capital was empty for over ten years after the demolition of the legendary Rossiya Hotel. Few even remember what the building looked like, which got into the Guinness Book of Records.

© TASS, Egorov Vasily

Which could simultaneously accommodate 5.3 thousand guests, was built from 1964 to 1967. Initially, instead of it, on the site of the demolished Zaryadye district, it was planned to build another "Stalinist" skyscraper, but after the death of the Soviet leader, this idea was abandoned.

At the time of its construction in the 1970s, "Russia" was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest hotel in the world. Now it would only be on the 19th line. There were 3 thousand 182 rooms in four 12-storey buildings. In addition, the building housed a central concert hall with 2.5 thousand seats and a two-hall cinema with 1.5 thousand seats, as well as restaurants and huge two-story halls.

The press center of the hotel broadcasts from the American television studio ABC. One of the rooms on the ground floor was occupied by another television company, CNN.

The hotel was closed on January 1, 2006, and on March 25, the demolition of the building had already begun, to which no one objected. At the same time, the hotel was not just demolished, but dismantled like a designer. This was preceded by a large-scale sale of hotel furniture. The dismantling of the building continued until 2010.

© TASS, Valentin Sobolev; Chumichev Alexander

In 2012, during a meeting between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, it was decided to build a park on the vacated 13 hectare site.

The current Chistye Prudy is located on the top of a gentle hill. Such places were characterized by swamps and small rivers flowing from them. On the "clean" it was like that - the streams formed the Rachka River, which was a tributary of the Yauza. With the growth of Moscow, the reservoir drained, and the wall of the White City, built in the 16th century, cut Rachka. Since it was forbidden to build houses in the lowland in front of the wall, a famous pond appeared at this place at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries.

The reservoir was named Pogany Pond, and there are several versions about the appearance of such a dissonant name. According to one of them, pagans worshiped their gods in this area, and the word "filthy", derived from the Latin "paganus" (pagan), did not characterize something dirty, but a pagan. According to another version, on the site of the future Moscow, the possessions of the boyar Stepan Kuchka were previously located, who inappropriately received the prince. For this, the prince ordered to kill the boyar and drown his body in a pond, after which the reservoir was named "Rotten".

However, according to the most famous version,

the pond began to be called Pogany, as traders from butchers on Myasnitskaya Street dumped production waste into it. In the summer, when an incredible heat hung over the capital, fetid odors hovered over the reservoir, and people tried to bypass it.

Lefortovo ponds

In the vicinity of the Lefortovo settlement. 1812 Hood. H.V. Faber du Fort

Lefortovo ponds are the main water area of ​​the park of the same name, located in Izmailovo. It appeared in the 18th century as a garden at the palace of Admiral Fyodor Golovin, a close associate of Peter I. The park was built by Dutch architects, whom the emperor personally invited to Russia. They installed many dams, red brick terraces and dug ponds, which were later called "Lefortovo".

Each reservoir has its own name: Boot, Severny, Banny, Kvadratny, Guitar and Ostrovnoy. The Boot pond is named for its unusual shape, and the Guitar pond used to resemble a church cross, but after the banks “swell” it looked like an expanded part of the guitar.

Interestingly, the Lefortovo ponds and reservoirs in Izmailovo acted as Chistye Prudy in the 1965 film of the same name, directed by the works of Yuri Nagibin.

Unfortunately, swimming in the ponds is prohibited (why disturb the peace of the ducks?), But no one will interfere with sunbathing. On warm days, all the shores are filled with sunbathing Muscovites. In summer, in the park, you can see elderly townspeople throwing fishing rods: they hunt carp and carp hybrids. However, experts say that even a domestic cat should not be fed with fish caught in a pond.

We continue our historical walks in Moscow and the next central street of Moscow, the history of which we will consider in pre-revolutionary photographs, will be Bolshaya Ordynka.

Due to the large number of "old" photos for this series of posts (14), I decided to divide my story into two parts. The second will be next week.

The origin of the name "Ordynka" is explained by the fact that earlier this road led to the Golden Horde. There are, of course, other opinions on this matter, but most of the historians agree that they adhere to the stated theory.

1. I have already written more than once about what happened in Moscow in the spring of 1908. This is exactly what Bolshaya Ordynka looked like at that time in the area of ​​Bolotnaya Square.

2. The history of this temple began in 1685, when a stone temple of the Transfiguration was built on the site of the old wooden one. Three years later, the glorification of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow" kept in it is held in the church.

Approximately 100 years later, according to the project of Vasily Bazhenov, the temple was rebuilt, but during the Napoleonic invasion it was badly damaged. As a result, the temple had to actually be rebuilt from scratch, with which O.I. Beauvais. During the Soviet era, the temple was closed.

3. The estate of Dolgov-Zhemochkin also suffered from Napoleonic troops. The "double surname" of this building is due to the fact that the merchant A.I. Dolgov, and then I.P. Zhemochkin.

"The house was built in the 1770s in the early classicism style and has three floors. The manor complex includes outbuildings. The north (left) one was originally one-story, in the 1960s it was connected to the main house, the other two buildings are located on the south side , part of the volume of the right wing belongs to the first half of the 18th century. The buildings form a trapezoidal front yard, which is surrounded by a stone fence built in 1882 along the red line of the street (the fence was restored in 1960). "

After 1875, the 3rd women's gymnasium was located here, and since the 60s, the Institute of Latin America of the Academy of Sciences has been located here.

4. In the place where the minatom is now located, there used to be a shelter for children and the elderly named after I.A. Lyamina. He was a well-known public figure, entrepreneur, and even served as the mayor from 1871 to 1874.

However, this shelter received the name Lyamin only after the death of Ivan Artemievich. Lyamina's widow Elizaveta Semyonovna in 1909 transfers her house, built in 1854, to an orphanage. During the Second World War, a bomb was dropped on it, and a little later a ministry building appeared here.

5. The appearance of the building of the Alexandro-Mariinsky School is connected with one story. In 1862, Alexander II, during his visit to Moscow, held a meeting in the Grand Kremlin Palace with representatives of all classes. Among those invited was the merchant of the first guild, Mikhail Korolev, who wanted to meet personally with the emperor.

The latter kept his promise, and the Moscow merchants perceived this visit as a turn of relations with business people. In honor of this event, a school was erected on Ordynka, where children of all classes could study. The school became very popular, because after graduation one could easily go to study further at any, as they would say now, university.

After the revolution, education continued in this building, courses of political education and school affairs worked. Shortly before the Great Patriotic War, the Moscow Pedagogical School No. 1 was opened here, and now the Pedagogical College No. 1 named after K.D. Dushinsky

6. A wooden church has stood on this site since 1593, and 80 years later, the present stone church was built here, named after St. Nicholas. Due to the fact that the area was called Pyzhami (in honor of the local commander of the rifle regiment Bogdan Pyzhov), the temple was named "Nikola in Pyzhah".

In 1934, the temple was closed, and in 1990 it was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Red Square is the main square of the country, the territory of military parades and solemn reception of guests, one of the most beautiful places in Moscow. The history of Red Square has about five centuries, during which it changed its function more than once.

Scorched but not empty

Initially, a spontaneous marketplace arose in the place where Red Square is now located. In 1493, the wooden benches were completely burnt out, after which a space of 240 m wide was freed up in front of the Kremlin. Because of this event, the site was named "Fire".

From the west it was bounded by the Kremlin ditch, from the south - by a hill, popularly called "Vzlobie". The Resurrection Gates towered on the north side. For a good hundred years, the Fire was considered a natural continuation of the Bargaining, which occupied the entire eastern part.

Three streets were paved with stone on the scorched site: Varvarka, Nikolskaya, Ilyinka. In the space between them, there are several small churches and shops. Due to the constant threat of fire, at the end of the 16th century, it was decided to demolish the wooden buildings. Their place was taken by stone merchant chambers.

Shopping beauty-square

The Merchant Chambers formed three quarters: Lower, Middle and Upper Trading Rows. In this form, the future Red Square existed for about 200 years. During this time, rich merchant estates and Gostiny Dvors (buildings for wholesale trade) grew on it. Since the bulk of the buildings were still erected from wood, fires happened in this area of ​​the city on a regular basis.

Moscow was built and grew. In 1625, the Kremlin acquired the Spasskaya Tower. The swell was already adorned by the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. Gradually, the square began to acquire a decent look and even be called "red", that is, beautiful. This definition was assigned to the former Fire and was now used as a proper name.

It appeared in official documents in 1661, during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Red was also called "Bolshoi". Visitors from abroad used to describe this area of ​​the city as a market square. Their testimonies once again confirm the fact that the trade in front of the Kremlin gates did not stop for a minute.

Animal skins and food

In Gostinyi Doms, merchants not only sold food, animal skins and other belongings, but also lived (mainly on the upper floors). Numerous barbershops and retail shops were built to serve the wealthy people, and fairs were regularly held. Until 1924, part of the territory south of the Spassky Gate was called Vasilievskaya Square. It was built up the most densely.

In the XX century, the central metropolitan square was reconstructed. Some of the buildings on Maslyaniy Lane were demolished, due to which the open space became even larger. In the 70s, the necropolis was rebuilt, supplemented with granite stands. Red Square was poured with concrete, and new paving stones were laid on top of it. Shopping arcades, barber shops and fairs are a thing of the past.