Kitay-gorod

Kitai -Gorod (Russian Китай - город; ? Pronunciation / i) is a historic district in the center of the Russian capital Moscow. It is one of the oldest areas of the city and is home to numerous listed buildings, some of which date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Kitai -Gorod, which administratively belongs to the district of the Central Tverskoy District Moscow, begins just east of Red Square, and extends to the Lubyanka and adjacent places as well as in the south to the Moskva river.

Kitai -Gorod is also the name of a 1971 -built subway station (see below in the section Metro Station ), located at the eastern edge of the district.

History

The name Kitai -Gorod will of town visitors often wrongly translated as Chinatown, because in the modern Russian language Kitai Gorod China and means city. In fact, the name of the district has nothing to do with China. Regarding its origin, there are several versions, for example, that Kitai should stem from the word Katay, which means something like fortress in some Turkic languages ​​. Some historians believe again that Kitai derived from the word kit, with the one called bound together wooden beams that were used in the construction of embankments.

The first settlements existed on the site of today Kitai -Gorod before the foundation of the city of Moscow in 1147. The location of the area near the Moscow Kremlin led city foundation quite quickly for colonization and development of the district. Already in the 14th century Kitai -Gorod today was mainly populated by craftsmen and merchants; it originated there numerous wooden houses and churches, and today's Red Square was used as a marketplace. In the 14th century the suburb burned in Lithuanian and Tatar raids from several times and each time was then completely rebuilt. To better protect the settlement from attacks, was built in the 16th century around them a protective wall, which was completed a few years later to up to nine meters high stone wall. A small portion of this wall has been preserved to this day at the eastern end of the district, but none of the original 14 towers wall is no longer present.

Backed up behind the protective wall, flourished Kitai -Gorod in the 16th century as a business district. In addition to numerous houses of traders and craftsmen created here Inns, numerous churches and monasteries, as well as four foreign embassies. The business activities played for the quarter an increasingly large role that hardly housing estates in the district were left in the 19th century yet, since they were displaced by countless shops, counting-houses and banks.

After the October Revolution and the subsequent nationalization of all shops and banks Kitai -Gorod lost its importance as a business district within a few years. In the 1930s they began to demolish parts of the district as part of the redevelopment of Moscow. First, the old city walls were towers including degraded to three small sections in order to widen roads can present. A large number of churches were destroyed, nationalized the rest and misused. In the 1960s, was almost the entire residential district Sarjadje demolished in the course of construction of the hotel Rossiya between Varvarka Street and the Moskva River. Despite the demolitions Kitai -Gorod is still of great historical importance for Moscow, since a large number of architectural monuments have been preserved and restored. Since the 90 - years gained Kitai -Gorod increasingly again a meaning as an administrative and business district.

Attractions

GUM

→ Main article: GUM

The GUM department store emerged from the Upper Trading Rows, which was immediately east of Red Square in the 18th century and even then, underlined the importance of the area as an important market place. Today's GUM - building between the Red Square, the Nikolskaja Street, the Wetoschny Alley and the Iljinka Street was built in the years 1890-1893 according to the design Alexander Pomeranzews and represents one of the most important monuments of Russian architecture of the late 19th century dar. After the seizure of power by the Communists nationalized and long time closed, the GUM is now again the most important and also the finest shopping malls in Moscow.

Nikolausstraße

The Nicholas Street ( Никольская улица ) runs from the Nicholas Tower of the Kremlin on Red Square north of the GUM to the Lubyanka Square and is today mainly a shopping street. Historically, it forms the northern border Kitai - Gorods and was for a long time head of the way from Moscow to Rostov, Suzdal and Vladimir. The name derives from the Nicholas Monastery in 1330 from which stood here until its destruction in 1935. From 1935 to 1994 she was called, after the date of the October Revolution, Street of October 25 ( Улица 25 Октября ).

At today's Points of Nicholas Street and the adjoining streets include: The Theophaniekirche ( Храм Богоявления ) from the late 17th century, which formerly represented the center of the 1929 demolished Theophanieklosters; the former Synod printing (1810-1814), replaced in 1564 the very first Russian printing house had stood, the first dated book printed in exactly the Ivan Fyodorov in the Russian language; the baroque Spassky Cathedral ( Спасский собор ) from the early 18th century; the house number 7-9 (1821-1826) of the famous architect Joseph Bové, in its place of 1687 to its burning in 1812 was the first university in Russia - the Slavic - Greek - Latin Academy, forerunner of today's seminary in the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius.

Iljinka Street

The Iljinka Street ( Улица Ильинка ) is considered a central street of the neighborhood and was first mentioned in the late 14th century writing. Then as now, it is a commercial street; prevailed especially in the 19th century here lively trading, because both sides of the road stretched the so-called Upper and Lower trade rows. Some side streets still carry the names of the previous trading rows, so the fish alley ( Рыбный переулок ) at the site of fishmongers rows. During the Soviet period, 1935-1994, was the Iljinka Kuibyshev Street ( Улица Куйбышева ).

The most famous buildings here are still preserved today: The Lower trading numbers (1830, Joseph Bove ), today as Gostiny Dvor ( Гостиный двор, not to be confused with the department store Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg) known and used as an exhibition hall; the building of the Moscow Stock Exchange from the years 1836-1839; also a number of administrative buildings such as the Russian Constitutional Court, the Ministry of Finance and the High Court of the Russian Federation.

Sarjadje and Varvarka

Although the area had immediately north bank of the Moskva most suffer the breaks during the Soviet era, is one of the Varvarka ( Улица Варварка ) still one of the most remarkable architectural streets in central Moscow. The road begins south of St. Basil's Cathedral and runs until Slawjanskaja Square, where the Kitai -Gorod metro station is located. From 1933 to 1994, the road was called Razin Street ( Улица Разина ), since 1671 the insurgents Stenka Razin was performed exactly along the Varvarka his execution on Red Square. The road once formed the northern boundary of the district Sarjadje ( Зарядье ), which has largely disappeared in the 1960s during the construction of the hotel Rossiya and in the near future, after you have already demolition of the hotel, a business district to be rebuilt.

At Varvarka you find one of the oldest surviving buildings of Moscow outside the Kremlin, the so-called English court ( Английский двор ) from the 16th century, who served as British Embassy to the mid 17th century and now houses a museum, opened in 1994 in the presence Queen Elizabeth II was opened and the history of russian- British relations illuminated. From the 17th century the Snamenski Church date ( Храм Знамения Божией Матери ) of the former Snamenski Monastery, which was demolished in the 1960s, as well as the former home of the boyars family of the Romanovs, the 1613-1917 's ruling Russia tsar dynasty presented. Since 1859 and until today is located in this building is a museum of the Romanov family. The name derives from the street is Saint Barbara, in whose honor the early 19th century a church was built, which still stands today as well.

Kitai -Gorod Metro Station

The metro station Kitai -Gorod of Moscow Metro is located directly under the Slawjanskaja place between the mouths of the Varvarka and Iljinka. He was put into operation on 3 January 1971, was called up to the November 5, 1990 Ploshchad Nogina ( Площадь Ногина, literally Nogin Square). Although here two metro lines intersect, namely the Kaluschsko - Rischskaja line, line 6 and the Tagansko - Krasnopresnenskaja line, line 7, the station is by design to be regarded as a single subway station. It consists of two parallel and equally deep lying central platform halls which are connected by transitions on the tracks. The two tracks of the western platform of trains are the Kaluschsko - Rischskaja - line (line 6) to the south or the Tagansko - Krasnopresnenskaja - line (line 7) to the southeast operated while on the eastern platform Broad Kaluschsko - Rischskaja - line (line 6) to the north and Broad Tagansko - Krasnopresnenskaja - line (line 7) hold northwest. This constellation is obtained for passengers at the Kitai -Gorod station is a possibility of Platform same switchover between the two lines, if you keep the same direction (otherwise the platform via the connecting corridor needs to be changed, leading to the stairs in the middle region of the two halls ).

The two platform halls are located 29 meters below the surface, and each has two equipped with escalators additions about which one and in widely branched pedestrian underpasses at both ends of Slawjanskaja Square and from there directly to the historic streets Varvarka, solyanka, Iljinka Marosseika arrives. Despite their symmetrical arrangement to each other and the simultaneous start-up, the two platform halls architecturally distinguished in some way. The western hall has three parts with two rows of ten -edged ( " accordion -like" ) pylons, like the outer walls are just covered with light marble. The hues of the eastern hall are also marked by white marble, but the pylons are doing here in form to a more asymmetric, " crystal-like " impression also include the pylon ranks top with a cornice of a copper-colored, and by the characteristic facets also as crystal stylized friezes from aluminum. Both halls is an arc-shaped vault between the pylon rows together, with the lights of the West Hall are located directly on the vault rows, while they hide in the east hall behind the cornices.