TVERSKAYA STREET

Description

Essentials about Tverskaya Street in brief

Tverskaya Street is one of the most famous, busy and representative streets of Moscow. It begins immediately at Manezhnaya Square in the heart of the city and continues in a north-western direction to the Garden Ring. Tverskaya Street is lined with a large number of noble stores, state institutions and distinguished residential buildings. On weekends and holidays, the street is occasionally the scene of popular festivals or open-air concerts. A walk on Tverskaya should be part of every visit to Moscow.

The history of Tverskaya Street

Tverskaya Street originated from an ancient trade route that connected the tsar’s seat of Moscow with the city of Tver, then an important princely capital. In the 14th century the first houses were built along the way, followed by stores and craft workshops. With the expansion of Moscow, the role of the street grew; it increasingly moved to the center of the city and was also inhabited by nobles and other rich people. In the 17th century the street was fortified and widened. Since then it was considered as a gateway of the city, which was also used by many guests coming from out of town. Since the tsars also often passed Tverskaya during their travels, the street got the nickname Tsar’s Street.

After the construction of St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 18th century and the relocation of the Russian capital there, the road that originally led to Tver was also extended further to Petersburg. Thus, Tverskaya Street became the starting point of the most important Russian traffic route, which again increased its role in the life of the city. More and more mansions and luxurious palaces were built along Tverskaya. In 1784, the Governor General’s Palace was also built here, which since then has served as the seat of the Moscow City Fathers and is still the seat of the Moscow City Administration today. At the beginning of the 20th century Tverskaya was not only the most distinguished address of the city, but also its busiest shopping and business street.

A few years after the October Revolution Tverskaya Street became a victim of the radical reconstruction measures of the communists. In order to widen the street, most of the pre-1917 buildings were demolished or moved several meters. Especially hard hit were the formerly numerous church buildings along the street, all of which were destroyed. Instead, on the sides of the widened Tverskaya, multi-story, representative buildings in the style of Socialist Classicism were built, most of which served as residences for the political, scientific and cultural elite. This cityscape is still present on the street today.

The sights on Tverskaya Street

Among the most famous buildings on Tverskaya are, above all, the few buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries that have been preserved in the course of the transformation of the street. These include the aforementioned House of the City Administration, opposite which on the right side of the street is the monument to the Grand Duke and founder of the city, Yuri Dolgoruky. At the very beginning of Tverskaya and a few hundred meters from Red Square, on the left side of the street, stands the five-star Hotel National, one of the oldest and most luxurious hotels in the city.

One of the finest examples of Art Nouveau in Moscow is the Sytin House at number 18, named after the famous former newspaper publisher Ivan Sytin. And finally, the house at number 21 is absolutely worth seeing, as it is the only historical building on the street whose appearance has remained unchanged to this day. The residence with its magnificent forecourt and a stone fence decorated with lions was built at the end of the 18th century and in the 19th century housed the famous English Club. Today the building houses the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia.