Moscow can be called a real city of rings - today the capital has five ring streets and one ring line in the metro. But the architects are not going to stop there either - construction of the second subway ring has already begun. And even earlier there were plans to build a fourth transport ring. MOSLENTA remembered who and when first ringed the capital, whether there were gardens on the Garden Ring, and why the architects wanted to close the boulevards.
Ring around the Kremlin
The very first Moscow ring appeared simultaneously with the construction of the first fortification on the site of the modern Kremlin. Archaeologists claim that this happened in the 11th century. At that time, the fortress was made of wood, so it often suffered from enemy raids and fires. The Kremlin was protected by a fortification in the form of a ring, which consisted of a rampart, a ditch with water up to nine meters deep and a palisade.
At that time, near Borovitsky Hill on the banks of the Moscow River, two trade roads connected - one went to Novgorod, and the second from Kyiv went to the northeast. Nearby was an important water trade artery - the Moscow River. Thanks to this favorable location, Moscow became of great importance for trade between east and west.
Settlements grew and were often rebuilt. Along with them, defensive structures were also rebuilt. Chronicles say that the first single and fairly large fortification arose here in 1156. The walls of the fortress had a length of about 850 meters, were surrounded by a moat and a seven-meter earthen rampart, which was reinforced with oak beams.
In 1238, the Kremlin was destroyed during the Mongol invasion, then rebuilt from wood. However, in the middle of the 14th century, Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy considered that the wooden fortification was unreliable and ordered the wooden walls to be replaced with buildings made of white stone. It was from that moment that the capital began to be called “white stone”.
Reproduction of the engraving "General View of Moscow", made from a drawing by Olearius (1636), from the collection of the Museum of History and Reconstruction of Moscow.
Image: RIA Novosti
The stone walls twice withstood the siege of the troops of Prince Olgerd, who encroached on Moscow lands several times. However, gradually the Kremlin’s fortifications fell into disrepair. Chronicles of the 15th century mention that the walls began to collapse and “floated.”
Therefore, under Ivan III in the second half of the 15th century, a complete reconstruction of the fortress began. The cathedrals inside the Kremlin and the fortress walls were also rebuilt.
Architects from Italy were invited to Moscow to carry out the work. In place of the white stone walls, they began to build new defensive structures from red burnt bricks.
In 1508, a deep ditch was dug around the walls of the renovated Kremlin, into which water flowed from the Neglinnaya River. Then the fortress acquired its modern appearance.
China Town and its wall
Moscow was growing and was already going far beyond the Kremlin walls. Around the fortress a so-called posad was formed - a place next to the fortress walls where traders and artisans settled. In case of danger, they left their homes and hid in the Kremlin.
The roads of the young city began to receive names. Initially, they were all nameless. The first street stretches along the Moscow River from the Kremlin to Zaryadye. It was called Great or Big. A little later, a street appeared that led from the Kremlin towards Rostov, Suzdal and Vladimir - it began to be called Nikolskaya.
Ilyinka was named in honor of the Church of Elijah the Prophet, and Varvarka - in honor of the Church of St. Barbara the Great Martyr. There were numerous trading shops, offices of bankers and merchants, as well as the famous Gostiny Dvor, where travelers and ambassadors arriving in Moscow stayed.
However, the threat of raids Crimean Tatars led to the fact that in 1534, during the reign of Elena Glinskaya (mother of Ivan the Terrible), another fortress wall began to be built around the Moscow settlement. It was adjacent to the Moscow Kremlin, included 12 towers and had a total length of more than two and a half kilometers.
The Kitay-Gorod wall was lower and thicker than the Kremlin’s; special platforms were made on it to repel enemy cannon fire. The Kitai-Gorod wall became the second real ring of Moscow.
However, the area and the fortress wall had nothing to do with China. There are several versions of the origin of the name. According to one of them, it comes from the word “kita”, meaning “tying of poles”, which were used in the construction of fortifications. According to another, the source of the name was the Italian word “citadelle”, which translates as “fortification”. There are also versions of the origin of Kitai-gorod from the Turkic word “katai” - fortress or the English “city” - city.
White City
Merchants and artisans continued to flock to the capital, the city expanded, there was again not enough space inside the fortress walls, so houses began to appear around the fortifications. The new area began to be called the White City, because it was mainly nobles and boyars who lived here. Their land was exempt from taxes and was considered “white”, in contrast to the “black” lands on which lived merchants, peasants and artisans who regularly paid all taxes.
Reproduction of the painting “The Seven-Top Tower of the White City” by the artist Apollinary Mikhailovich Vasnetsov from the collections of the Museum of History and Reconstruction of Moscow.
Image: Valentin Cheredintsev / RIA Novosti
In 1593, the White City was surrounded by another fortress wall, which became the third ring of Moscow. The wall had 27 towers and 11 gates. After its appearance, many houses in the White City began to be rebuilt in stone, and the streets were paved with cobblestones. Inside the fortress were located Okhotny Ryad, Pushechny and Kolymazhny courtyards, many monasteries, as well as gardens, as evidenced by the name of Starosadsky Lane.
On the outside, the wall was surrounded by a moat; water also flowed into it from the Neglinnaya River. And under the wall the river passed in a pipe - hence the name Trubnaya Square and Trubnaya Street.
At the end of the 18th century, the wall of the White City lost its fortification significance and was dismantled. Trees began to be planted on the site of the demolished fortifications, and soon wide streets were created here, which later became the Boulevard Ring.
Zemlyanoy Rampart and Wooden City
At the end of the 16th century, the borders of Moscow again went beyond the fortress walls, and in 1593 the territory located outside the White City became part of it. Previously, villages, monastery lands, houses of artisans and merchants were located here. Due to the predominant wooden buildings, the territory began to be called the Wooden City. The people called the area Skorodom because the houses being built here were built very quickly.
To protect the new urban area, wooden fortifications were built during the same period, the total length of which reached 15 kilometers. However, the building was destroyed by fire, so in the 1630s Muscovites erected an earthen rampart surrounded by a moat on this site.
Peasants, artisans and small traders lived within the boundaries of Zemlyanoy Val, which became the fourth ring of Moscow. Streltsy lived in Zamoskvorechye, so they began to call it Streletskaya Sloboda.
However, after the capital moved to St. Petersburg, the outlying territories of the Wooden City began to deteriorate. Taverns and shelters appeared on Zemlyanoy Val. By the end of the 18th century, the rampart subsided and the ditch became shallow; in some places the earthworks were torn down, resulting in the formation of wide open areas.
In 1812, during a fire, many buildings on both sides of the rampart burned down, so the area needed reconstruction. They decided to demolish the remains of the Zemlyanoy Rampart and build a ring road paved with stones in its place.
Owners of plots that stood close to the new street were required to set up front gardens on their lands. So gardens appeared on almost the entire ring, and the ring itself began to be called Garden.
At the end of the 19th century, a horse-drawn tram line appeared on the Garden Ring, and in 1912 it was replaced by electric cars. The ring route was named "B".
The streets existed in this form until the 1930s. After that, in accordance with the General Plan for the Development of Moscow, the street was widened, and the green front gardens were rolled into asphalt.
Kamer-Kollezhsky Val
Another ring structure of the capital was the Kamer-Kollezhsky Val, built in 1742, which marked the customs border of Moscow. The predecessor of the customs wall was a wooden wall built by merchants in 1731, which was a barrier to the import of smuggled vodka into Moscow. However, enterprising Muscovites quickly dismantled the barrier structure for firewood.
"Plan for the Capital City of Moscow" 1830 from the "Complete Collection of Laws" Russian Empire. Book of drawings and drawings. City plans."
Image: Personal Office of the EIV / wikimedia.org
The new border was established by the Chamber Collegium, which served as a tax authority in the city, to control goods imported into Moscow. The rampart was a high earthen embankment, surrounded on the outside by a ditch. 18 outposts were built on it, where merchants paid duties on their goods. All outposts were connected by a ring road along which patrols regularly passed.
In the middle of the 18th century, customs inside the empire were eliminated, only police posts remained on the rampart, and the fortification itself soon became the police border of the city.
During the plague epidemic of 1771, the ring also designated the areas designated for burial. All city cemeteries were moved outside the rampart, and burials in Moscow were strictly prohibited so that the disease would not spread.
Kamer-Kollezhsky Val was destroyed in the 19th century. Now there are practically no traces of this fortification left in the city - unlike the Zemlyanoy Val and the walls of the White City, no transport arteries were laid along its perimeter.
Railway ring
By the end of the 19th century, growing Moscow faced serious transport problems: the cab drivers and horse-drawn horses operating in the city could not cope with the flow of passengers and cargo.
Soon the Moscow authorities realized that only the construction of a ring railway could save the city. The construction of the transport complex was entrusted to engineer Pyotr Rashevsky.
Initially, they planned to build a four-track railway: two tracks for passenger traffic, and the other two for freight. However, such work turned out to be too expensive, so in the end only two tracks were built.
Train traffic on the Circular Railway opened in 1908. Initially, it transported not only cargo, but also passengers. Freight stops were located on the outside of the ring, and passenger stops on the inside. All stations are considered unique examples of Moscow modernism.
The line turned out to be not perfectly round - in the north it is 12 kilometers away from the Kremlin, and in the south, on the contrary, it approaches it at a distance of five kilometers. To lay the railway, four large bridges were built across the Moscow River.
In the 1930s, the Moscow Ring Railway ceased to serve as a transport line for passengers. For a long time Only cargo was transported here, but preparations are currently underway for the launch of passenger service, which should begin this year.
Circle metro lines
The next Moscow ring turned out to be buried deep underground. The ring line of the capital's subway appeared on the plans for the development of the metro even before its opening - in 1931. However, construction began much later.
1971 General plan of the city of Moscow. Reproduction.
Image: N. Ladygin / RIA Novosti
The first section of the ring from Park Kultury to Kurskaya was completed in 1950. The line passed directly under the Garden Ring and connected two Moscow stations. Subsequently, the metro builders decided to move the underground ring away from the surface one, so the western and northern sections of the line are approximately one and a half kilometers away from Sadovoy.
The Circle Line closed in 1954. All of its stations are recognized as examples of the Stalinist Empire style, each of them reflecting a specific theme. For example, “Prospekt Mira” talks about the successes of Soviet agriculture, “Komsomolskaya” is dedicated to episodes military glory from the history of Russia, and “Park of Culture” symbolizes the recreation of Soviet citizens.
Soon, architects and city planners started talking about the fact that the Moscow subway would certainly face a transport collapse, so it was necessary to solve the problem of an overloaded city center and poor transport provision for the outskirts.
One of the options for resolving the issue was the construction project of a second underground ring. The first plans for the construction of a semi-circular line in the south and south-east of Moscow arose back in 1947. According to the plan, it was supposed to pass at a distance of two or three stations from the first ring that was then under construction and in the future close into a ring.
However, the project was not started for a long time; more specific plans for the construction of the Big Ring appeared only in the General Plan of 1971. At that time, they even began to build the foundations of the new line, and at the stations they prepared places for the construction of crossings. But things didn’t go further than that - the second metro ring was never dug.
But the need for its construction remained, so the builders decided to return to the ring plan for the development of the capital’s subway in the new century. In 2011, construction of tunnels for the Third Interchange Circuit began, the first section of which is planned to be completed in 2016.
Close the boulevards
The master plan for the development of Moscow in 1935 brought many changes to the capital. To widen and straighten the streets, several dozen residential and administrative buildings were moved, shopping arcades were removed from Manezhnaya Square and the Moscow Hotel was built here, and Stalinist high-rise buildings began to be built in various places in the city.
1978 The boulevard ring encircles the central part of the city.
Vladimir Vyatkin / RIA Novosti
Among other things, city planners planned to expand and close the Boulevard Ring. To achieve this, it was planned to demolish several houses in Zamoskvorechye. Traces of these works are clearly visible on Sadovnichesky Proezd, where the tram line now runs - the width of the road in this place is greater than on other streets in Zamoskvorechye.
The new section of the Boulevard Ring was supposed to run from the end of Yauzsky Boulevard along the bridge past the Novokuznetskaya metro station through all of Zamoskvorechye to the beginning of Gogolevsky Boulevard.
In the 1930s, the Bolshoi Ustinsky Bridge was built and demolition of houses along the route of the future avenue began. However, soon after construction began, war broke out and work had to be postponed.
After its completion, the builders again set about demolishing the old buildings, but the construction of a new route did not go further than Pyatnitskaya Street - the Boulevard Ring was never connected and today has the shape of a horseshoe, laid along the perimeter of the White City wall that once stood in this place.
MKAD
The first projects for the construction of a large ring road for cars around Moscow appeared in 1937, two years later the project was tied to the area. But the Great Patriotic War violated the plans of the builders, and in June 1941 State Committee Defense decided to build the ring road according to a simplified scheme in the shortest possible time - in just one month.
The construction of the ring road was necessary for military purposes - for the transfer of troops, the defense of Moscow and the preparation of a counter-offensive. At first, the road did not have an asphalt surface - it was hastily filled with concrete.
In 1956, the Moscow Ring Road began to be rebuilt, slightly changing the route, which remained until today. Construction began near the Yaroslavl highway, and the first section, 48 kilometers long, ending at the intersection with the Simferopol highway, was commissioned in November 1960.
In addition, due to the lack of fences, many Muscovites often crossed the road in places where there were no crossings. According to statistics, about two hundred people died every year under the wheels of cars on the Moscow Ring Road, and about a thousand more were injured, so the ring was called the “road of death.”
To bring the route into line with international standards of high-class highways, the roadway was widened to 50 meters, now five lanes were laid in each direction. Work was also carried out to replace pipelines and communications, repair bridges and construct interchanges and pedestrian crossings.
In 2011, the second global reconstruction of the automobile ring began. Within its framework, by the end of 2016, most of the interchanges should be rebuilt, backups should be built next to large retail and office facilities, and additional lanes should be laid to optimize traffic.
Third transport ring
The construction of the current Third Transport Ring was first discussed in 1935, when its project appeared in the Master Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow. At that time, the highway was conceived as a “new boulevard ring” and was supposed to run along the line of the former Kamer-Kollezhsky shaft.
Construction of the Third Transport Ring began almost thirty years later in the 1960s: then the highway from Begovaya to Rizhskaya, a tunnel under Leningradsky Prospekt, the Avtozavodsky Bridge and the Savelovskaya overpass were built. However, most of the highway was built in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Initially, in the northern part of the city it was planned to create two arcs of the Third Transport Ring - large and small. They were supposed to connect in two places: at the Testovskaya platform, where the Moscow City complex is now located, and not far from Volgogradsky Prospekt. In this case, the small arc of the ring was supposed to become auxiliary.
There are no traffic lights on the ring, which allows vehicles to move continuously. In different parts of the Third Transport Ring there are interchanges for exiting onto radial streets. The ring crosses the Moscow River four times and dives underground the same number of times, passing under the city in long tunnels.
The auxiliary nature, as well as frequent narrowings of the route and complex interchange schemes lead to the formation of many kilometers of traffic jams on the Third Ring Road.
The Kremlin ring was unlucky twice: first it was created by destroying buildings and pushing a huge road into the city center, and then, by the will of people who only know about transport “the more lanes the better” (which, by the way, is completely the opposite), the ring was made one-sided. As a result, there is now a lifeless 10-lane road near the Kremlin walls, which cuts through the center.
Proposals to return two-way traffic to the Kremlin ring have been heard frequently in recent years. What can I say, I myself wrote about this twice: about the harm of one-way traffic and as part of changes in transport. We lived with this for a long time, because a number of officials were sure that this was how it should be (after all, this has always been the case!), but, judging by the renderings of street reconstruction projects, the Kremlin ring will not be so one-way - public transport will be allowed on it in both directions !
First, a little history: for most of my life, the Kremlin ring was double-sided. And this is understandable, the idea of making a huge one-way highway with 10 lanes in the city center could only have come to the mind of a madman: it is unsafe and encourages accidents, causes wild overruns and kills ground public transport: 
Another thing is two-way traffic with surface pedestrian crossings and public transport - this is more like a city street than a highway: 
This is the same place now: 
Judging by the renderings, a two-way dedicated lane will appear on the Kremlin ring from the outside, so, apparently, stopping islands will be built there:
Although only one oncoming lane is visible on Mokhovaya, the second maybe it will go on the other hand something like: 
And Red October again has two directions: 
In addition to the ring, markings were drawn on Vozdvizhenka in both directions: 
Plus, the visualization shows mini-highlights, which are usually made at traffic lights. M. Dmitrovka: 
This is actually very cool, finally from simple words about priority public transport, the city began to get down to business. Especially in the center where, dare I say it, ground transport is a complete mess. Of course, it’s a pity that there won’t be dedicated lanes on the rings (they’ll only make the groundwork, although in winter there’s already a dedicated lane there), but at least there public transport doesn’t have to make wild runs due to one-way streets, and passengers have to look for the necessary stops (on a two-way street you need to cross the road to go back, and on such highways you still have to run around the city looking for it). In general, if you dream, then to create a stable transport frame in the center you need to do at least the following: 
If you look at a map of the city until 2012, you can see that Moscow looks like a sun slightly elongated from north to south. Historically, a radial-ring layout developed here. But with each new urban plan, the city's boundaries changed.
History of the construction of Moscow: Moscow rings from to the Moscow Ring Road.
The bizarre pattern of alleys is a characteristic feature of Moscow. This is a feature of ancient cities, such as Tallinn and Tbilisi. In recently built cities we will not find this labyrinth (let us recall, for example, St. Petersburg or Odessa). This layout arose due to the chaotic development and the abundance of small areas, to which narrow paths - “alleys” - were trampled and laid. Over time, they turned into alleys. But such an intricate system and curvature of the streets was also necessary for protection from enemies and fires.
The same plan formed the basis of the post-fire plan for Moscow in 1817, which radically changed the city. Neglinnaya was hidden in a pipe in the area from Trubnaya Square to the confluence with the Moscow River, and a city-forming ensemble of buildings appeared in the city center - and. At the same time, Bove proposed to complete the buildings inside the Kamer-Collezhsky Val to 6 floors and straighten the streets. And although his proposal was accepted, the project remained “on the shelf.”
At the same time, Alexander I ordered the reconstruction of Tsarskoye Selo V.I. to draw up a plan for post-fire Moscow. Geste. He didn’t know Moscow, but he prepared a plan. According to his proposal, the city was transformed into a French park with a central square-flowerbed - and radiant streets extending from it. The plan involved the demolition of many buildings and walls of Kitay-Gorod. But he was not accepted.
General plans for the development of Moscow in the 20th century.
Moscow received its next master plan only in Soviet times. In the 1920s, a special commission led by Ivan Zholtovsky and Alexei Shchusev developed the “New Moscow” project. It is based on the traditional radial-ring layout for the city and the principle of preserving the majority of ancient buildings. The Kremlin was supposed to be used as a museum, and the public center of the capital would be moved to Petrovsky Park, the silhouette of the city would be given a cone-shaped appearance, and the central part of Moscow would be built up with skyscrapers.
The project was considered unsatisfactory, and in 1931 a competition began to develop a new project. Its participants even offered fantastic ideas. For example, the French architect Le Corbusier expressed the idea of leaving only the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod. Ernst May, the chief architect of Frankfurt am Main, proposed to resettle the entire city. According to his plan, the old capital retained only the functions of an administrative and business center, and it was surrounded by satellite cities with low-rise buildings. An adherent of rationalism, Nikolai Ladovsky, decided that the rings would not be able to cope with the growing load in the future, and proposed to open them. After this, the capital was supposed to take the shape of a parabola and in the future merge with Leningrad. His plan was called “Ladovsky’s Parabola”.
As a result, they chose the project of Vladimir Semenov and Sergei Chernyshev. The approved General Plan of 1935 recorded an increase in the number of inhabitants to 5 million people, and the territory doubled to 600 square kilometers. The designers fixed the main directions of expansion - to the southwest, east, west and northwest. The General Plan also included the idea of watering Moscow - a plan to create shipping routes. Moscow was supposed to be made similar to Venice.
The plan was only partially implemented, but many areas of the city were greatly rebuilt. All this time, Muscovites sent curses to the destroyers of historical Moscow, led by Lazar Kaganovich. He himself mercilessly criticized old Moscow: they say that the streets were laid not even by a drunken builder, but by a drunken shoemaker.
In the 1950s, Moscow had already “absorbed” former villages and estates and went beyond the boundaries of the Circular Railway. Required new plan. It was approved in 1971. The city was divided into 8 zones, and the old radial-ring street layout was supplemented with expressways. In addition, the construction of plants and factories was banned in Moscow and plans were made to extend the metro.
The 1935 concept of the "many-rayed sun" was replaced by the "seven-pointed star" (historic core and seven new centers). Also, the General Plan of 1971 recognized the further territorial growth of the city and its population as inappropriate. The forest park belt surrounding the capital was supposed to become the natural border of Moscow, but the growth of the city turned out to be more intense than planned. Already in the first half of the 1970s, the development of residential areas began in Chertanovo, Biryulyovo, Orekhovo-Borisovo, Teply Stan, Troparevo, Konkovo-Derevlevo, Tushino, Golyanov, Veshnyaki-Vladychin, Ivanovsky, and by the beginning of the 1980s, Moscow areas “stepped forward” outside the Moscow Ring Road: Mitino and Kurkino - in the north-west of the capital, Solntsevo - in the south-west, Butovo - in the south, Novokosino - in the east. Therefore, the 1971 plan was also only partially implemented.
The first post-Soviet master plan for Moscow was developed in the early 1990s and was adopted in 1999, and enshrined in law in 2005. Over the past 15 years, the center of Moscow and many districts have changed greatly due to the reconstruction and often demolition of historical buildings and other objects. Moscow authorities called this plan the “Master Plan of Opportunities.”
In 2007, the city's chief architect, Alexander Kuzmin, told reporters that Moscow was going to move away from "opportunities" and towards "necessities." The general plan of the city until 2025 was developed for more than three years and was adopted on May 5, 2010.
New Moscow.
In 2011 (after almost 10 years of disputes), the Moscow expansion project - New Moscow - was also adopted. This ambitious plan made it possible to increase the size of the city by 2.4 times by annexing the southern and southwestern territories of the Moscow region. The choice of this direction was not accidental: less than 250,000 people lived in this huge area.
New borders were established on July 1, 2011, and Moscow began to border the Kaluga region. And in society the innovations were criticized: the project was called “beneficial only for business”, and Moscow was called “Shanghai of a developing country”.
They say that......when Khrushchev reported to Stalin about the protests against the demolition of ancient buildings, he suggested: “You blow them up at night.” ...Luzhkov stole 20 centimeters of the Moscow Ring Road: when the road was widened, its asphalt shoulders were made 10 cm narrower on each side than planned. This made it possible to save a significant amount allegedly embezzled by Luzhkov. This conclusion was made on the basis of selective measurements. But after checking along the entire route, we found out that there were places of narrowing and widening. And the arithmetic mean according to control measurements was +4 cm. ...in the early 1990s, the Moscow Ring Road was called the “road of death” because large quantity serious accidents. ...in connection with the expansion of Moscow, a joke appeared: “Hey, residents of South Butovo! Confess who is on New Year made a wish to live in the center of Moscow?”
Improvement of dozens of central streets of the city will begin in May
This summer, the center of Moscow is undergoing a major renovation. After May holidays Improvement of 59 capital streets will begin, including Tverskaya, Novy Arbat, Mokhovaya, Garden and Boulevard Rings and others. As Pyotr Biryukov, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Housing and Public Utilities and Landscaping, explained, work will begin simultaneously in all areas. The renovation is planned to be completed by City Day.
Last week a competition was announced for construction and installation work on the comprehensive improvement of Tverskaya Street from Mokhovaya to Pushkin Square. The initial cost of the government contract is more than 951 million rubles, the results will be announced on April 8. The total budget of the “My Street” program for 2016 is 22.4 billion rubles.
As Pyotr Biryukov said at a press conference dedicated to the implementation of the program, a total of 59 streets, squares and alleys, 49 residential parks and 14 recreational areas will be improved within its framework this year alone. The address list was approved after voting on the “Active Citizen” project. " Special attention dedicated to the city center. Such iconic Moscow streets as Tverskaya, Taganskaya, Bolshaya Yakimanka, Mokhovaya and Novy Arbat will be transformed.
The development will affect part of the Boulevard and Garden Rings,” the official emphasized. The deputy mayor noted that all projects were developed by the best architects of Russia and Europe. The goal of the transformation is to make the city safe, environmentally friendly and comfortable.
Ussuri pear
In the city center there are 2 square meters per person. meters of greenery, while on the periphery - 40 square meters. meters. Therefore, as part of the “My Street” program, the center will undergo total landscaping. Linden, Ussuri pear, elm, rowan, alder, ash, hazel, maple and apple trees will appear on the Garden Ring. Linden alleys will grow again on Tverskaya. More than 180 new trees of different species will appear on Novy Arbat. They will be planted directly in the ground, and the roots will be protected by a concrete edge. The Kremlin embankment along the roadway will also be landscaped. In total, in 2016, it is planned to plant more than 13 thousand trees in Moscow, which will be able to retain more than 100 tons of dust. In addition, shrubs will be planted - barberry, currant, hawthorn, etc. On some streets, instead of asphalt, lawns and benches will appear.
“We will repair more than 70 house facades, restore paving, and install benches. On the streets where 50% or more of historical buildings have been preserved, we will return historical lanterns created according to the drawings of the Lights of Moscow museum,” the official said. According to him, overhead power lines will be removed underground.
Parking between trees
Deputy Mayor, Head of the Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development Maxim Liksutov told how the transport scheme in the city center will change. Thus, Moscow will still lose trolleybus routes No. 1, 2, 9, 12, 15, 31, 33 and 44; the “horned” transport will be replaced with buses of an environmental class no lower than Euro-5. “Together with the Moscow government and the traffic police, we have developed a new route – the Kremlin Ring. A two-way dedicated lane will be created from Bolshaya Polyanka Street to Lubyanka Square, which will increase the capacity of ground transport in the center by 30–50%. To implement this project, the city is forced to replace 89 trolleybuses with buses,” the official said. He emphasized that “optimized” trolleybuses will be supplied to other routes. Trolleybuses “B” and “Bk”, the so-called “Bukashki”, will remain on the Garden Ring.
Traffic lanes on a number of streets included in the improvement zone will be narrowed, and their number may decrease. This will expand the sidewalks and create new parking spaces. Thus, as part of the reconstruction, about 80 taxi parking lots will appear, with more than 200 spaces. At the same time, according to Maxim Liksutov, the number of legal parking spaces for personal vehicles will not change.
True, the issue of closed flat parking lots (with barriers) on the odd side of New Arbat remains. Now there are six parking lots, judging by the visualization of the New Arbat improvement project prepared by the German studio Topotek1 and the Russian architectural bureau Tsimailo, Lyashenko and Partners, there will be only one, and the cars will be parked right between the trees. “All these parking lots will remain,” promised Maxim Liksutov. “But they will be reconstructed.” He also said that during city events they are planned to be closed to cars, turning them into public spaces.
Repairs will be hidden behind a banner
“We plan to start improving the streets in May, most likely right after the holidays. Work will be carried out simultaneously on all projects. Our task is to complete them by City Day,” said Pyotr Biryukov. Answering the question of how people will move there, he said that the experience of past years has been taken into account. Last year, Muscovites often complained that it was impossible to walk along the streets where reconstruction was going on - everything was torn up, there was dirt, and stacks of tiles blocked the road. “Special fencing will be installed, work areas will be covered with banners, and special walkways will be laid out on the walkways,” he explained.
Maxim Liksutov, in turn, said that, for example, new signs for motorists and ground transport will be installed on the Garden Ring, and appropriate adjustments will be made to the markings. In addition, according to the official, after the completion of the improvement, the issue of organizing new pedestrian crossings on Tverskaya will be discussed.
DIRECT SPEECH
Jan Gehl, architect and urban planner:
– I was introduced to plans for the further improvement of the city, I see that this is promising work. Many cities have such programs and improve several streets each year. It is necessary for citizens to spend more time in public places and use bicycles.
In my opinion, the main trend now is the restoration of ground public transport in the city center. This will relieve congestion on the metro; people will not have to go underground to travel a couple of stops. The city also needs wide sidewalks with benches. It is necessary that a person can calmly walk, sit down to rest, and drink coffee. And, of course, we need more trees and greenery on the streets. During my trip around Moscow, I saw a miracle - bicycle paths appeared in the city. Of course, it's cold here in winter, but that just means you can go faster. For example, in Copenhagen, 45% of citizens commute to work by bicycle.
I have a separate wish: that all underground passages be closed. There are a lot of them in Moscow - every 300 meters. This is inhumane. We start families, children, grow old, and it is not easy for small children and the elderly to go underground. But in any case, I am amazed at how quickly and qualitatively Moscow is changing. I wish the capital's government success in its next steps.
In the history of urban planning, there are several basic principles of city planning: solar, grid, square-cluster and others. It's not easy to say which is better. But the layout of Moscow in the process of growth and development of the city was chosen by Muscovites themselves. This is the principle of a “sun city” with circular and diametrically diverging streets.
From the Kremlin to the Boulevard Ring
It is from the Kremlin that all the main streets diverge, forming a Kremlin ring, the streets of which make their way like rays through other rings: Boulevard, Sadovoe, and other modern transport rings, then rushing in all directions to distant cities of Russia.
Manezhnaya Square
Manezhnaya Square - formerly Manezhnaya Street and was laid in 1820, it received its name from the Manezh, a large building built according to the design of A. A. Betancourt in 1817.
China town
Kitay-Gorod - in 1534, Veliky Posad (a settlement of traders and craftsmen) near the Kremlin was surrounded by a moat and fortifications made of wood and earth. According to one source, from Mongolian “medium fortress” (“China” in Mongolian means middle, “city” in Mongolian). Old Russian - fortress)
Varvarka
Varvarka Street - on this street in the 16th century the Church of Varvara and the Church of Maxim were built, in the 17th century - the Church of St. George and the Znamensky Monastery.
Nikolskaya
Nikolskaya Street - arose in the 13th century, connecting the Moscow Kremlin with Rostov the Great, Suzdal and Vladimir.
Znamenka
Znamenka Street takes its name from the Church of Our Lady of the Sign, known since 1600. In 1929 this temple was closed, and two years later it was destroyed.
Mokhovaya
Mokhovaya Street has been known since the 15th century, and it received its name in the 18th century from Mokhovaya Square (modern Manezhnaya), because here at that time peasants sold moss for caulking log houses.
Vozdvizhenka
Vozdvizhenka Street - in those centuries the street was called Orbat, which translated from Arabic means a suburb in front of the city, and was built up slowly.
Bolshaya Nikitskaya
Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street - this street was called in ancient times Polotsk and Novgorod - along the road leading from Novgorod through Volokolamsk to Moscow.
Tverskaya
Tverskaya Street - in the 15th century, a wooden bridge was built opposite Istoricheskiy Proezd, connecting the road from Tver to Moscow in a straight line. In the same century, the road to Tver merged with the road to Veliky Novgorod, and this street became the main street of Moscow.
Neglinnaya
Neglinnaya Street - until 1922 it was Neglinnaya Proezd, connecting Teatralny Proezd and Trubnaya Square on the boulevard ring; the street (at that time a passage) appeared in the 1820s after the Neglinnaya River was enclosed in an underground pipe.
Rozhdestvenka
Rozhdestvenka Street - appeared in the 14th century and connected the Nativity nunnery founded at that time with the city center.
Myasnitskaya
Myasnitskaya Street - once started from the Ilyinsky Gate of Kitay-Gorod, made a sharp turn to the left, walked along Luchnikov Lane... Only in the 18th century Myasnitskaya Street acquired its modern geometry.
Maroseyka
Maroseyka Street is a continuation of Ilyinka and is located between Lubyansky Proezd and Pokrovsky Gate. In the 15th - 16th centuries, gardens bloomed here and the country courtyards of Ivan III and Vasily III stood here.
Solyanka
Solyanka Street - in the XVII - 19th centuries on the corner of Solyanka there was a Solyanaya Dvor, hence the name of the street.
Streets around the Kremlin. How the first streets of Moscow appeared
The year 1147 is considered to be the year of the founding of Moscow. It is this date that appears in the chronicle in connection with the first mention of Moscow and Prince Yuri Dolgoruky. Although trade and craft settlements near the Moscow River existed long before that.
Yuri Dolgoruky is called the founder of the city, because under his rule the appearance of Moscow as a city was laid - with the Kremlin, Red Square, which in those distant times was called Fire, and Kitay-Gorod. The place of foundation of Moscow is the former estate of the boyar Kuchka, which was located near the current Sretensky Gate. In 1156, the first Kremlin was built - still made of wood, often suffering from fires and lasting for almost three centuries. The streets on the territory of the ancient Kremlin were nameless, and there were many more of them. Steep, winding alleys skirted the courtyards of the nobility, led to monasteries and churches, and descended from Borovitsky Hill to Podol.
At the beginning of the 16th century, after a new fortress was built under Ivan III, the basic principle of the formation of the city was laid down - sun-shaped, with ray-shaped streets diverging from the Kremlin.
The oldest streets were built from wooden flooring, but a little later, at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, the streets began to be paved with cobblestones. The very first street of Moscow was called Velikaya, or Bolshoi. Great - not because there was anything majestic about her, but simply because she was big, simply huge for that time. The Great Stretched from the Kremlin along the Moscow River all the way to the Church of the Conception of St. Anna, in the very place where the Rossiya Hotel is now located.
The next street was formed on the site of the road that led from the Kremlin towards Rostov, Vladimir and Suzdal. This is Nikolskaya Street, named after the St. Nicholas the Old Monastery located on it. Although in the description of the Kremlin in 1626 this street was nameless and was simply called the road leading to the Nikolsky Gate.
Chudov Lane was also famous in those days. It ran behind the Chudov and Ascension monasteries.
The intersection of Nikolskaya and Chudov Lane was called Nikolsky “sacrum”. Another ancient street leading from the Trinity Gate led to the same intersection. Its name has not been preserved.
Two more streets are known from ancient chronicles and descriptions of the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod: Ilyinka and Varvarka. They also led from the Kremlin and stretched across the entire Kitay-Gorod. Ilyinka was named after the Church of Elijah the Prophet. It was a street of merchants and bankers. It ended at the Ilyinsky Gate, where in 1887 a chapel-monument was erected in honor of the heroes of Plevna.
And on Varvarka there was the most famous Gostiny Dvor of those days, where merchants, diplomats and travelers stayed.
A little later, streets leading to the main cities of the principality appeared: Serpukhovskaya, Tverskaya, Smolenskaya.
The chaotic interweaving of streets and alleys in the old part of Moscow is explained by the fact that settlements grew around the Kremlin, as the main defensive structure. Slobodas were formed along professional lines. They were often inhabited by people of only one profession. It was the settlements that served as the basis for the creation of city districts. And their names can still be guessed in the names of the streets: Myasnitskaya, Serebryanicheskaya, Kotelnaya.
These are the first streets of Moscow, information about which has survived to this day.