Legendary towers and bridges. What Moscow looked like centuries ago

At the end of 2022, the Snow and Ice at the Museum of Moscow: Never-Leaving Moscow festival opened in the courtyard of the Museum of Moscow. In addition to the skating rink opened to everyone, ice sculptures of legendary Moscow buildings and structures, which cannot be seen on the streets of the today’s city, were erected here. Ice-made Sukharev Tower, Krasnye Vorota (Gate), Krestovsky water towers, Vsekhsvyatsky (All Saints) Bridge, better known as the Old Great Stone Bridge. The world of the bygone Moscow has been opened for a short time. As soon as the ice melts, the sculptures will also disappear. Photos of the sculptures, archival photographs of their historical originals, and related stories can be found on mos.ru.

The Old Great Stone Bridge

The ice city of the past begins with the Vsekhsvyatsky (All Saints) stone bridge. This is the first bridge across the Moscow River. It was built under Peter the Great in 1692. One of its supports was not far from the House on the Embankment, and the second one was on the wall of the White City. There was a bridge gate leading to the location of the present-day Pashkov House and Mokhovaya Street.

The bridge was 170 meters long and 22 meters wide. A lot of money has been invested in the construction project. As the old saying goes, “Worth more than the Old Great Stone Bridge”. A brisk trade began on the Vsekhsvyatsky (All Saints) stone bridge and on other bridges in Moscow of that time very quickly. People were selling clothes, fabrics, wine, tobacco and much more there.

The bridge survived until the middle of the 19 th century. Its supports were destroyed, among other things, due to the work of the dam and water mills. The bridge had been repeatedly repaired, but in the end they decided to demolish it. The unofficial name (the Old Great Stone Bridge) was inherited by the new bridge built on the site, despite the fact that it was already made of metal. The second bridge was also demolished due to the construction of the Moscow Canal. Only in 1938, a little downstream of the Moskva River, the Great Stone Bridge, which we know, was built.

Bely Gorod Tower (White City Tower)

Alekseevskaya Tower, built in 1585–1591, was located on the territory of the modern Cathedral of Christ the Savior. It was one (the highest tower with five tiers) of the 28 towers of the fortress wall of the Bely Gorod, the third ring of Moscow’s fortifications. The tower was crowned with seven tents giving it the second name Semiverkhaya.

The tower had a huge strategic importance and a rich history: it held back the raids of the Tatar cavalry, held the defense during the Battle of Moscow in 1611 and Siege of Moscow in 1618. By the end of the 1660 s, the tower became dilapidated. By that time, it was no longer used for its intended purpose. When restructuring the city in the late 18 th to early 19 th century, the tower was demolished. At the same time, the once important walls of the Bely Gorod were also dismantled. After the fire of 1812, boulevards were laid out on the site.

Krasnye means ‘beautiful’

A triumphal arch was erected in 1709 in honor of the return of Russian troops after the Battle of Poltava near the Krasnye Vorota metro station. Peter the Great entered Moscow through it. Muscovites liked the baroque building so much that they called it Krasnye Vorota (Beautiful Gate). Gradually, the popular name became official.

The second version of the Krasnye Vorota was recreated in the courtyard of the Museum of Moscow: the first one burned down in a fire in 1748, new ones were built on the site in 1757. The white-stone building had the architectural appearance of the old gate, it was decorated with plaster mouldings and painting. The new Krasnye Vorota was crowned with a bronze figure of a trumpeting angel.

In the late 1920 s, Krasnye Vorota was included in the master plan for the reconstruction of Moscow. It was decided to demolish the gate: firstly, it prevented the construction of the Palace of Soviets, and secondly, it interfered with the passage of public transport: in the 20 th century, the roads were much busier than in the 18 th century. Today only the trumpeting angel of the famous baroque building has survived. It settled on the stairs of the State Historical Museum.

Krestovsky water towers

In 1892, 40-meter Krestovsky water towers were built during the reconstruction of the Mytishchi water pipeline at the beginning of the Yaroslavl Highway of the Krestovskaya Zastava. Huge reservoirs were located in the upper tier, into which water was collected from the Mytishchi hydroelectric complex.

The towers had not only a practical function: the buildings, made in the neo-Russian style and connected by an openwork bridge, were the decoration of the city.

In 1896, the Museum of the Moscow City Economy was established in one of them, later renamed the Moscow Municipal Museum (the forerunner of the modern Museum of Moscow). In 1939, the towers had to be sacrificed for the sake of the Yaroslavl Highway: they were demolished so that they would not interfere with the expansion of the road.

Sorcerer’s Abode

Sukharev Tower is considered the most mysterious building of the past. It was built in 1695 at the intersection of the present-day Garden Ring, Sretenka Street and Prospekt Mira. Rumor had it that the famous library of Ivan the Terrible was hiding there, and Field Marshal Yakov Bruce, a close friend of Peter the Great, who lived in one of its chambers, was a real sorcerer. Superstitious Muscovites assured that Bruce could command demons and the elements, and kept an iron bird with a human head as a pet. However, Jacob Bruce was not a sorcerer, but an outstanding scientist. He set up one of the first observatories in Russia and two Moscow Schools of Mathematics and Navigation.

In 1715, the Moscow office of the Admiralty Board started using the tower as a warehouse for products and materials for the Baltic Fleet. In the 1800 s, the tower became a water tower: tanks were built here, which received water from the Mytishchi water pipeline. After the Krestovsky water towers were built, water was no longer supplied to the Sukharev Tower, so the tanks were dismantled. In 1926, the tower housed the Moscow Communal Museum but for only for a few years.

In 1931, they decided to demolish the tower as it interfered with traffic. But the history of the city still holds legends about it.

Kitay-Gorod derived from the Russian word kita

In 1535–1538, during the reign of Elena Glinskaya, another powerful brick wall with four-tiered towers, a gate and a moat was added to the Kremlin wall from the east. The new wall served as a defense against the raids of the Crimean Tatars.

Kitay means China in Russian, but it has nothing to do with China. The part that is now occupied by the Kitay-Gorod area was once protected by an earthen rampart. Many of the fortifications on it consisted of bands of poles assembled into giant squares, smeared with clay, clogged with white stone. This type of fortification was called kita, hence its name-Kitay-Gorod.

The Kitay-Gorod wall survived until the 1930 s, but was gradually dismantled as early as the 1920 s in order to build new passages. The final decision to demolish the building was explained by the need to build a metro.

However, now we can see two surviving fragments of the Kitay-Gorod Wall: one is on Theater Square behind the Metropol Hotel, the second one is in Zaryadye Park.