Capital cities differ from others in the presence of two branches of power in them: federal and city. Every resident and guest of Moscow knows that the president and his team work in the Kremlin, on Red Square. For several centuries, city government has been located on Tverskaya Square, which over the years has repeatedly changed its appearance and name, but has always remained the central square of Moscow.
The appearance of the square
The history of the square began after the construction of a house for the mayor - the governor general. This event took place in 1782, the famous architect M. Kazakov, who built a new building in the style of classicism, worked on the project. A somewhat modified building is today the dominant feature of Tverskaya Square in Moscow. Purchased by the treasury from the heirs of the owner, it forever became the residence of the Moscow administration.
The Moscow governor-general, reporting directly to the emperor, combined the duties of the head of the city and provincial authorities, the chief of police and the commander-in-chief. Therefore, his duties included the daily return of honors to the guard. For the convenience of this procedure, a parade ground was built under the windows of the governor's house, which later became a city square.
Tverskaya - Skobelevskaya Square
She got her first name by the name of the street crossing her. In the XIX century, the area was actively built up. In 1823, directly opposite the governor's palace, the building of the police unit was built. In many photos of Tverskaya Square you can see the empire-style building with columns and a fire tower. The police unit shared the premises with a fire station. Forming the contour of the square, rich residential buildings and city hotels began to be built.
It was decided to perpetuate the memory of a general of the tsarist army, a hero of the Russian-Turkish war, a participant in many campaigns on the 30th anniversary of his death, by erecting a monument. By decree of the emperor, Tverskaya Square in Moscow, which became Skobelevskaya in 1912, was chosen as the construction site.
Soviet square
The Bolsheviks dismantled the monument to the “white general” Skobelev in 1918, and the area was renamed Sovetskaya, as the Moscow City Council was now located in the former governor’s house. In place of the rider, a monument to Liberty and the Constitution, 26 meters high, was erected on a horse. On the edges of the obelisk, one could read excerpts from the Main Law of the country. For many years, the monument was a symbol of the city, present on its coat of arms.
During the reconstruction of Tverskaya Square in 1923, the building of the police unit was dismantled, but the columns, forming propylaea, adorned the space for some time. Behind them was a square with a fountain.
In 1927, a new building of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism appeared in the north of the square, designed by S. Chernyshev. In front of him in 1940 a monument to V.I. Lenin was erected.
In 1937, a large reconstruction of Gorky (Tverskaya) street began. The houses that stood along it began to actively rebuild and rebuild. The street itself has also expanded. And it turned out that the governor’s house goes beyond the “red line”. For four months, work was underway to prepare for moving the building; the actual displacement of the house along with the basement for 40 minutes was not noticed by employees who did not stop their work for a minute.
The crumbling Freedom Monument and the Constitution were dismantled in 1940. Until the end of the war, the square retained this appearance. With Victory, the reconstruction of the square was continued.
Return historical name
A six-story building of the Ministry of Education is being built not far from the Moscow City Council building, and the former governor’s house, trying to catch up with it, is growing up two floors. It’s not easy to notice the add-in, the work was done so professionally. Both facades are made in the same classicism style. The building of the Moscow City Council, painted in red, still prevails in composition.
In 1947, it was decided to enhance the visual perception of the symbols of city power on Tverskaya Square in Moscow. By the 800th anniversary of the city, a stone was laid here at the foot of the future monument to the founder of Moscow and "its first governor," Yuri Dolgoruky. It took seven years to prepare, coordinate, and complete the work. In June 1954, the square was decorated with a rider in chain mail with a shield in his hands. On the shield - the coat of arms of Moscow.
Since 1994, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the square was returned to its historical name, and the team of the mayor of the city moved to the building of the former Moscow City Council. Tverskaya Square is located near the metro Tverskaya and Pushkinskaya.