Miracles begin with the name of the square, then there are three copies of Mayakovsky, “Russian and Chinese brothers forever” and hanging gardens
Districts in the center of Moscow differ from each other in the same way as different cities. The noisy Arbat is reminiscent of the old shopping streets of Istanbul, in the laconic Zamoskvorechye you can find the charm of Berlin. And the vicinity of Tverskaya Street is the prestigious London district of Mayfair, which is often called the “soul of the British capital”.
The soul of the Russian capital is undoubtedly Pushkin Square. This is the most popular point on the city map, it is it that is most often chosen both for dates and for friendly meetings. But today we will talk about the square, which is located at the other end of Tverskaya Street – Triumfalnaya. Among Muscovites, she is almost not inferior to Pushkinskaya either in prestige or in popularity. It is also the most magical square in Moscow. In the modern capital, time combines with space, giving rise to magic and miracles, it is here, on Triumphal Square.
Magic is the first – Arc de Triomphe
Miracles are already hidden in the name of the square. Tell me, isn't it magic that the Arc de Triomphe, after which the square is named, is located on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, six kilometers from the square itself?
The first Triumphal Gate (pictured below) was built by the famous architect Osip Bove in 1829 on the square of Tverskaya Zastava. It turns out that Triumfalnaya Square inherited its name from the structure built on the neighboring square. Not entirely logical, but still, the arch and the square were once close to each other.
However, in 1935 Triumfalnaya Square was renamed and named after the Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. And just a year later, the Triumphal Gates were also dismantled. At first they wanted to restore and store them on the territory of the Danilov Monastery, but during the Great Patriotic War the columns of the structure were melted down for the needs of the front, and the rest of the details were lost.
As a result, they returned to the topic only 30 years after the dismantling of the Triumphal Gate … In 1968, under the leadership of the architect-restorer Vladimir Libson, an exact copy of the building was built, but … in the area of Victory Park. The Soviet authorities decided that Kutuzovsky Prospekt was more suitable for the Arc de Triomphe (pictured below): Napoleon's troops came to Moscow along this road, and left along it.
title. But the Arc de Triomphe now stands in another district of the capital. However, this is already another arch.
The second magic – three copies of Mayakovsky
The monument to Vladimir Mayakovsky also has an interesting history. A bronze sculpture of the Soviet poet appeared on the square in 1958. Before its installation, three wooden sculptures by Mayakovsky (pictured below) of exactly the same size were brought in to find the ideal location for the monument. We put all three in the square, looked, chose the one in the center.
It blended best with the environment, and a marble monument with a bronze sculpture was erected in its place. Why three, because it was possible to bring one wooden sculpture and move it from place to place … Maybe it was done so as not to waste the time of the decision-making authorities, or maybe it's all about the magic of numbers.
The magic of the third is Russian and Chinese.
Another magical object near the Mayakovskaya metro station is the Beijing Hotel (pictured below). Initially, the facility was built as a building for the Main Directorate of the NKVD camps (GULAG). By the beginning of the war, the walls of the structure were almost completely erected, and then the construction had to be frozen for 8 years.
Work was resumed only in 1949, however, the concept of the building changed dramatically, now a hotel was already being erected. In the same year, the leader of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, came to power in China. The main Chinese man came to the USSR almost immediately to pay his respects to Joseph Stalin. It was then that the song “Russian and Chinese brothers for a century” appeared, and the hotel was named “Beijing”.
No one doubted that the hotel would be completed quickly, so the construction year was immortalized on the wall of the high-rise dominant – 1949. But they decided to revise the project, everything dragged on, and the hotel opened only in 1956. And on the facade, the year of the beginning of the Russian-Chinese friendship, which, incidentally, did not last long, remained. After Stalin's death, the Chinese quickly became an ideological enemy. It is also interesting that the building, which was erected under the auspices of friendship with China, was made in the neoclassical style typical of medieval Italy.
The magic of the fourth is the hanging gardens on Mayakovskaya
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Several years ago, the story with “Beijing” was continued. The Moscow developer Hals-Development has built the Peking Gardens apartment complex (pictured above and below) on the territory adjacent to the hotel, consisting of two monolithic buildings with a height of 13 floors and a six-story office building. In this project, almost for the first time in Moscow, the idea of vertical gardens was realized: they were made on the roof of an apartment complex. This space is suitable both for yoga classes and just for relaxation – there are armchairs and sun loungers for relaxation among trees and shrubs, and all this with a stunning view of the center of Moscow! And a small bar counter will help if you feel like having a home party on the roof.
“It so happened historically that this area has always been prestigious, regardless of time, due to its central location, proximity to the Kremlin, convenient infrastructure. On the one hand, there is real Moscow and the famous Patriarch's Ponds with a bustling pace of life, on the other, a quiet center that protects privacy, “says Irina Mogilatova, General Director of Tweed Real Estate Agency.
Very little housing is sold here. According to Alexander Shibaev, Development Director of Kalinka Group, only about 30 lots are put up for sale in the secondary market at the Mayakovskaya metro station, and prices start at 30 million rubles.
As for new buildings, there are only three of them in this area. But they are built, and there are very few lots left for sale. In one of the new buildings, only a penthouse is for sale, and in the “Peking Gardens” there are only five apartments with an area of 60-70 sq. meters.
