The city in detail: winners of Show Me Moscow! competition speak on their tours

It is four years to date that, the capital has run a guided tour competition called Show Me Moscow! Everyone — both professionals and just active residents of any age — are welcome to join, applicants just need to create exciting tours around one or more city districts as a prerequisite.

“The competition has several objectives, including promoting the tour guide profession and raising awareness of the history and attractions of Moscow districts. Since 2020, the number of routes prepared by participants has exceeded 1.1 thous.,” says Natalya Sergunina, Deputy Moscow Mayor.

This year, the organizers proposed five topics, such as history, science, sports, environment, and river travel. Muscovites have filed about 300 applications, with seven winners selected by voting on the Active Citizen app and another ten announced by the peer review board. All of the projects including walking, bus and tram tours, are available on the Russpass online magazine to date.

Getting to know about the Big Circle Line (BCL)

The new metro circle line has inspired history teacher Andrey Gorbachev to create a route he called Near Moscow along the Big Circle Line. BCL Mysteries. In fact, he has been living in the capital not so long ago — since 2017 — and has always been fond of local history, while after moving he began to study Moscow history extensively. It is for the second time that he participated in the tour contest. His route through Lianozovo district reached its final three years ago.

“I did not win then, so I decided to try my luck again. I am a regular metro rider. My first BCL trip amazed me a lot as I saw stunning stations with unique architectural solutions. However, it seemed to me that passengers hurrying on their way almost did not pay attention to the surrounding beauty. That is why I decided I would definitely tell about the BCL,” Andrey Gorbachev shared.

His BCL tour lasts two hours, highlighting 10 stations, each having own design and decor — mirror balls at Maryina Roshcha, aircraft parts at Aviamotornaya, fish images at Nagatinsky Zaton, etc.

Tourists are offered not only learning about the stations, but also playing a mini quest game. “My route is for people of all ages. For example, at CSKA, they will be asked to name the prototypes of four bronze sculptures located at the platform. And here you cannot do without gadgets, since the assignment is quite difficult, and it is younger participants who will help the older ones with this. At Sokolniki station, I suggest paying attention to the decorative panels that adorn the walls — they depict the first generations of the metro builders and these are people from a completely different world. Participants have to answer questions about the metro history,” said the project’s creator.

Unknown Shabolovka

Marina Chusova is a local historian, who did a research on the history of the Simonov Monastery and Simonovskaya Sloboda (“Simonov Quarter”). Her tour tells one a story of Shabolovka, one of the oldest streets in the capital. The tram and walking combo tour lasts three hours, starting at Oktyabrskaya metro station and ending near the Shabolovskiye Ponds.

“Following my route “Along the Shabolovskaya Road to the Village of Shabolovo”, you can learn a lot of new things, such as why the Golubytnya (“Dovecote”) holiday cottage is not a dovecote at all, how it relates to composer and pianist Alexander Alyabyev, who created the famous “Solovey” (The Nightingale), why the area known as the Kanatchikova Dacha is not Kanatchikov’s at all, where Ivan Lazhechnikov, one of the founders of the Russian historical novel genre, lived, and much more,” says Marina Chusova.

She is sure that tours presented for the competition not just promote the tour guide profession, but raise patriotism and love for the capital, as they help millions of the city residents and visitors get to know Moscow better and fall in love with it again and again.

TiNAO crown jewels

Guide Vera Ushakova invites tourists to visit an old estate, see a 17 th century temple and enjoy views of the Desna River — her project is about sightseeing in the Troitsky and Novomoskovsky Administrative Districts.

Born on Taganka, Vera Ushakova used to live near the Botanical Garden and in Yasenevo, and five years ago she moved to the settlement of Kommunarka. From her first days there, she began to explore the new area, and then decided to tell us about it in the guided tour format. This is how the route “Temples and People. Crown Jewels of TiNAO” was brought into existence. It spans four hours with the starting point near Filatov Lug metro station.

“Tourists will see our main antiquity — the ancient Temple of the Archangel Michael, which was built back in 1696, and the unique 19 th century French Eclectic style Trinity Church,” says Vera Ushakova.

During her tour, she tells us about the Valuevo Mansion, which was built at the turn of the 18 th-19 th centuries and has survived almost as it originally looked. Nikolay Karamzin and Vasily Zhukovsky used to stay there, and it is there that they filmed “The Hussar Ballad”, “War and Peace” and “My Sweet and Tender Beast” in the last century.

The guide believes that residents and tourists can combine a pleasant vacation and a journey into the history, the route, in particular, going through picturesque locations, such as the Desna River or Tsyganka River banks.