The historical center of Moscow is becoming more and more a continuous museum. Pedestrian zones appear where cars are almost forbidden to enter. The buildings of past centuries are being restored. The capital is transforming. Slow walks along the narrow curved streets of the old city allow you to learn a lot about the history of our country. Architecture keeps a memory of the past. Those who can read the pages of this book can learn a lot.
History of Earthshaft
Like a huge wall, the old city is surrounded by the Garden Ring. Eternally hurrying drivers in cars often don’t even suspect that they are actually driving along the old defensive lines of the capital. At the end of the Rurik dynasty, one of the former guardsmen, brother-in-law of Tsar Fyodor I Ivanovich, ruled the country. Coming from noble boyars, he practically ruled the country from 1587 to 1598. The talented ruler was crowned king on February 27, 1598. Times were troubled, not everyone accepted the new dynasty.
To protect his capital from raids, Boris Godunov from 1592 began to erect an earthen rampart with a wooden fortress. The walls did not serve long. By a fire of 1611 they were destroyed by the Polish invaders. Already the Romanovs were again restored, significantly strengthened. But the country has already greatly strengthened its borders, has ceased to be afraid of the nomad raid. Strengthening became unnecessary to protect the city. In the XVIII century, the need for fortress walls disappeared; in the place of the rampart, manors with numerous gardens began to grow. So the earthen rampart of Moscow became the Garden Ring. Centuries passed, but the memory remained in the names. On the map of the capital, the address was fixed - Moscow, st. Earthworks.
Zemlyanoy Val Square
Starting from Zemlyanoy Val Square to Taganskaya Square, part of the Garden Ring has its own history. For almost 2 kilometers stretched a section of a large road - Moscow, ul. Earthworks. Pokrovsky Gate opens the way to the old Kitay-Gorod, then through Ilyinka to the Kremlin. Today, the square has no attributed houses, but the numbering of the buildings of the Earthshaft starts from here. Moscow rushes to one of its railway stations.
Today
Already on the former square of the Kursk railway station, the modern Atrium shopping complex was erected. Right and left are buildings of the era of Stalinist architecture. The shopping and entertainment center, built in 2002, surprisingly harmoniously blended into the historic city center. Located near the Kursk station, the facility has a good network of parking lots. The center is well-deserved. First of all, its 9-screen Karo Film cinema attracts a large number of eateries and cafes. It boasts its own fitness club, children's theater.
An 18th-century building, the Botkin’s estate, has been preserved near the Atrium. It was here, in a merchant family, that the future great doctor Sergei Petrovich Botkin was born. The estate is almost adjoined by a corner of the green zone, once blooming with street gardens, - Upper Syromyatnichesky Square. On the inner side of the Val, on Vorontsa Pol Street, there is the storage fund of the State Museum of Oriental Art, the Church of Elijah the Prophet. The temple in the annals was first mentioned in 1476. Since then, he has been rebuilt several times. The building that we see today was built at the end of the 19th century with the money of the merchant G. I. Khludov.
Further, the street crosses the Yauza River, in the area of the modern Sakharov Center. In the Taganskaya area goes into the tunnel.
Taganskaya square
Zemlyanoy Val Street in Moscow begins on the eponymous square and ends on Taganskaya. The area formed by the merger of the two areas around the Tagansky market of the XIX century, and today has retained the signs of a shopping center. Stone market ranks existed here for more than one and a half centuries. Apartment buildings were built around, mostly two-story ones. This was the only place in the Garden Ring where there were no green spaces and boulevards. Everything obeyed the laws of the market.
Stalinist transformations greatly changed the area. The general plan for the restructuring of the capital from 1935, the area was transformed.
In 1946, the new Moscow Drama and Comedy Theater appeared. For many years it was headed by an outstanding director Yuri Lyubimov. It was under him that a wonderful team formed here, which Moscow gave the wonderful names of Valery Zolotukhin, Inna Ulyanova and many others. And of course, the wonderful Vladimir Vysotsky. Moscow, Zemlyanoy Val, 76 - theater address.
So you can end the story that began under Boris Godunov. The theater today successfully continues it. A new theater has grown up next to the old building. Another creative team appeared - the Theater of the Commonwealth of Actors on Taganka. The square and the city continue to be transformed.