KITAY-GOROD

Description

Essentials about Kitay-gorod in brief

A walk through the historic district of Kitay-gorod right in the center of Moscow should definitely be on the to-do list during a trip to the Russian capital. The reason being, Kitay-gorod is one of the oldest areas of the city and is home to numerous listed buildings, some of which date back to the 16th and 17th centuries. The neighborhood begins just east of Red Square and extends to the Lubyanka in the north and the banks of the Moskva River in the south.

The name “Kitay-gorod”

The name “Kitay-gorod” is often mistakenly translated by visitors as Chinese city, because “Kitay” in Russian means “China” and “Gorod” means “city”. In fact, the name of the district has nothing to do with China. There was no Chinese settlement here at any time. There are several versions of its origin, for example, that “Kitay” should come from the word “Katay”, which in some Turkic languages means fortress. Some historians suggest that “Kitay” comes from the word “Kit”, which was used to refer to wooden beams tied together to form ramparts.

The history of Kitay-gorod

The first settlements existed on the site of today’s Kitay-gorod even before the city of Moscow was founded in 1147. Its location only a short distance from the Moscow Kremlin led to the settlement and development of the district quite quickly after the city was founded. Already in the 14th century, today’s Kitay-Gorod was populated mainly by craftsmen and merchants. Numerous wooden houses and churches were built there, and today’s Red Square was used as a market place. In the 14th century the suburb burned down several times after foreign raids and was completely rebuilt each time afterwards. In order to better protect the settlement from raids, a protective wall was built around it in the 16th century, which was supplemented a few years later by a stone wall up to nine meters high. A small part of this wall has been preserved to this day at the eastern end of the quarter, although none of the original 14 wall towers remain.

Secured behind the protective wall, Kitay-gorod flourished as a business district from the 16th century. In addition to numerous houses of merchants and master craftsmen, inns, numerous churches and four monasteries as well as foreign embassies were built here. Business activity increasingly played such an important role for the district that already in the 19th century hardly any residential settlements remained in the district, as they were displaced by countless stores, counting houses and banks.

After the October Revolution and the subsequent nationalization of all stores and banks, Kitay-gorod lost its importance as a business district within a few years. In the 1930s, parts of the district began to be demolished as part of Moscow’s redevelopment. First, the old city wall, including the towers, was dismantled, except for three small sections, in order to be able to widen adjacent streets. A large number of churches were also destroyed, and the rest were nationalized and misappropriated. In the 1960s, almost the entire residential district of Sarjadje was demolished in the course of the construction of the huge Hotel Rossija. Despite the extensive demolition activity during the Soviet era, Kitay-gorod remains of great historical importance to Moscow today, as fortunately a large number of architectural monuments have been preserved and restored. Since the 1990s, Kitay-gorod has also regained importance as a business district.

The sights of Kitay-gorod

The main sight of Kitay-gorod is certainly the world-famous luxury department store GUM, located in the street block between Red Square, Nikolskaya Street, Vetoshny Lane and Ilyinka Street. Everyone should take some time for a visit to Moscow’s most famous temple of consumption. If you are still in a shopping mood after a visit to GUM, you can stroll down Nikolskaya Street, which is directly adjacent to it. It is also one of Moscow’s most important shopping streets.

Also worth a look is Varvarka Street. Although it suffered greatly from the demolition activity during the Soviet era, it is still one of the most architecturally interesting streets in the center of Moscow. The street starts south of St. Basil’s Cathedral and runs to Slavyanskaya Square. On Varvarka one can find one of the oldest preserved buildings in Moscow outside the Kremlin, the so-called English Court from the 16th century, which served as the English Embassy until the mid-17th century and today houses a museum highlighting the history of Russian-English relations.

Dating from the 17th century are the Snamensky Church and the former home of the boyar family of the Romanovs, who were the ruling tsar dynasty in Russia from 1613 to 1917. Since 1859 and until today this building houses a museum of the Romanov family. The street was named after Saint Barbara, in whose honor a church was built here at the beginning of the 19th century, which also stands to this day.