Streets and cultural objects of china city. China town

25.09.2019

Historic District Moscow - China town, is located inside the Kitaigorodskaya fortress wall, which was attached in 1538 to the towers of the Moscow Kremlin - Arsenalnaya and Beklemishevskaya. V Soviet time only small sections of this fortress wall survived after the destruction.

Kitay-town on the plan (1638) by Matthäus Merian highlighted in yellow

Begins China town from Red Square, in the north it reaches Okhotnichiy Ryad, Theater Square and Theater Passage, and in the east it borders on Lubyanskaya and Staraya Squares. In the south of Kitay-Gorod, the Moskva River flows.

Now Kitay-Gorod is the cultural, administrative and business center of Moscow, and is part of the Tverskoy district.

About the origin of the name

To date, the exact origin of the name of the district has not been established.

According to one version, the name "Kitai-Gorod" comes from the word "kita" which meant "binding of poles" used in the construction of fortifications, and according to another version, the name is composed of the words "cue" - stick and "tai" - peak, height. There is another version according to which this name could come from the Italian word citta (cittadelle - citadel, fortifications) or Turkic China - city, fortress.

Kitaigorod fortifications

Back in 1394, before the invasion of Tamerlane around Kitay-gorod, they began to dig a large ditch on the line of the current lanes - Bolshoi Cherkassky, Vladimirsky, Pskovsky, which was the only defense of the area for almost a hundred years. In the spring of 1534, Muscovites began to dig a new ditch, which could already protect most of the settlement. And in 1535, Metropolitan Daniel laid the first stone in the foundation stone wall, the construction of which was led by Petrok Maly Fryazin from Italy and who built it according to last word fortification science of that time.

Kitaigorod gates

The wall, 2567m long, was completed in 1538 and had 12 towers, it had four gates - Nikolsky (first called Sretensky), Trinity, All Saints (later called Varvarsky) and Kosmodemyansky.

Vladimir (Nikolsky) Gates of Kitay-Gorod and the Vladimirskaya Church Mother of God, I. Weiss, 1852

Nikolsky gates were laid next to the church in honor of the icon Our Lady of Vladimir being built nearby. Nearby, another gate was pierced and they were named Vladimir. In the 18-19 centuries, several more gates were broken in the wall for the convenience of Muscovites, the most famous of them being the Tretyakov gates.

Panorama of Kitai-Gorod from several photographs presented in N. A. Naydenov's album "Moscow. Views of some urban areas, temples, remarkable buildings and other structures." 1888

The pride of Moscow - the Kitaigorod wall was demolished in 1934, and now there remains a fragment of the foundation of the Varvarskaya tower near the underground passage of the station. Kitai-Gorod metro station and part of the wall on Revolution Square still remains. At the end of the nineties of the 20th century, separate parts of the wall and the Resurrection Gate were approximately recreated on Teatralnaya Square and at Tretyakovskiy Proyezd.

Kitai-gorod is one of the most ancient districts of Moscow, known as Veliky Posad, part of which was at one time on the site of the modern Kremlin, but then it was ousted from there and expanded in the east throughout the entire territory of present-day Kitai-gorod. Starting from the 16th century, when the nobility from the Kremlin began to move to Kitai-Gorod, it became a more aristocratic area. At the same time, merchants began to move to Zamoskvorechie, and artisans to Zaryadye, which was flooded with water and therefore completely unattractive to the nobility. According to the 1701 census, it can be seen that there were 272 courtyards in Kitai-Gorod, of which 152 were owned by the clergy, 54 belonged to nobles and boyars, 24 to clerks, 6 to employees of the palace, and 1 to a serf.

But due to the location of the Gostiny Dvor and the Trading Rows in Kitai-Gorod, the settlement again becomes a merchant district, the city exchange is already located here, offices and banks began to appear.

Kitai-gorod in pre-revolutionary and Soviet times

Even during the time of Peter the Great, there was the Printing Yard (later called the Synodal Printing House on Nikolskaya), which is the center of Russian printing and the school of the Zaikonospassky Monastery (later called the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy).

Under Elizabeth, the university was located in Kitai-Gorod, and in the pre-revolutionary decade, the Slavyansky Bazaar restaurant, located on Nikolskaya, was very popular.

During the Soviet era, Kitai-Gorod became a district where party and state bureaucratic institutions were concentrated, including the buildings of the Central Committee of the CPSU (now the Presidential Administration). And already in the autumn of 2011, the installation of fences began here to temporarily restrict access to historical monuments.

About the sights of Kitay-Gorod

Quite famous monuments of architecture and history are located on the territory of Kitay-gorod, such as the Resurrection Gate, GUM, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Trinity Church in Nikitniki, Kazan Cathedral, etc. There are also monasteries - Nikolo-Greek, Znamensky, Zaikonospassky, Bogoyavlensky.

Kitay-gorod is very rich in its churches, temples and cathedrals. Here were located:
- Church of Our Lady of Vladimir (it was demolished in 1934),
- Church of George the Victorious,
- Church of Elijah the Prophet,
- the bell tower of the Znamensky Monastery,
- Cathedral of the Znamensky Monastery,
- Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker,
- Kazan Cathedral,
- Church of Barbara the Great Martyr,
- Cathedral of the Epiphany Monastery, many others.

There are also many chapels on the territory:
- Chapel of Our Lady of Vladimir,
- Athos chapel of the Epiphany Monastery,
- Iverskaya chapel at the Iversky gates,
- Mothers of the Barbarian Gates,
- Chapel St. Sergius Radonezh at the Ilyinsky Gate,
- Chapel of Panteleimon the Healer at the Vladimir Gates,
- Chapel of Christ the Savior near the Moskvoretsky Gates, etc.

There are many well-known streets in Kitay-Gorod - Torgovaya, Tretyakovsky Proezd, Varvarka, many shops - Gostiny Dvor, the stock exchange building, the Novotroitsky tavern, etc.

The streets of Kitay-Gorod and the sights on them:

Nikolskaya
market Street;
road to Yaroslavl and Rostov;
from the 17th century - aristocratic;
name after the Nikolo-Greek Monastery;
previously there was the Sovereign Printing House, later - the Synodal Printing House.

Ilyinka
had embassy significance;
there was the main Embassy yard 1.5 thousand people;
traded in fur, silver, silk;
named after the church of Elijah the Prophet;
in 1803 - construction of the Gostiny Dvor building;
from the 19th century - "Moscow City"
the richest street (banks, offices);
large stores;
1879 - the Exchange building;
Novotroitsky tavern.

Varvarka
has existed since the 14th century;
located in Zaryadye;
named after the church of St. Barbara;
Chambers of the Romanov boyars.

Velikaya, later - Mokrinsky Lane (not preserved)
was located on the site of Moskvoretskaya embankment;
street-port;
Mytny yard;
Church of St. Nicholas Wet.

(article in preparation)

This area of Moscow is one of the most ancient. It is located near the very walls of the Kremlin and is full of many monuments of history and architecture. There are churches, and cathedrals, and estates, and former tenement houses built in past centuries.

the Red Square
The main symbol of the capital is known not only to every inhabitant of Russia, but also to most foreigners.

Moscow, Red Square, 1

around the clock

Kitai-Gorod wall
It was erected in the sixteenth century around Kitay-gorod, when Elena Glinskaya ruled. At present, little remains of this fortification monument.

Moscow, Kitaigorodskiy proezd, 2, building 1

around the clock

Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious on the Pskov Hill
This shrine is located close to the Kremlin, on Varvarka Street.

Moscow, st. Varvarka, 12