【4K】Walking Moscow - Varvarka street (Sounds of the city)

Опубликовано: 17 Март 2020
на канале: Walking Bird

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In this walk we will visit one of the oldest streets in the center of Moscow - Varvarka street. The walk starts from the square of the Barbaric Gate to Vasilevsky descent.

The history of the street:

Varvarka is one of the oldest streets in Moscow. It was first mentioned in written sources in 1434 as "Varskaya" in connection with the burial here of Saint Maxim the blessed, a Moscow miracle worker. Archaeologists and historians do not rule out a more ancient origin of the street itself. There is a legend about the movement of the troops of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich to the battle with Mamai in 1380, when the street was called vsekhsvyatskaya and was part of the road from Moscow to Vladimir and Ryazan.

Varvarka stretches along the brow of a hill above the Moscow river. In the XV century. on the top of the hill settled Pskov, and since then the entire hill was called Pskov hill. The route of the street is winding and follows the natural contours of the natural landscape. In ancient times, parallel to the upper street along the Bank of the Moscow river was the lower Great street, connected to the Varvarka network of lanes, and the area between them was called "Zaryadye". The historical layout here has not been preserved: it was destroyed in the XX century in connection with plans to create grandiose structures. In the years 1967-2007 here was the hotel "Russia", listed in the Guinness book of records as the largest in the world at the time of construction. Now the ground part of the hotel is dismantled.

Modern Varvarka has become shorter, it begins behind Vasilievsky descent at the Church of St. Barbara and ends at the exit from the metro. The street used to end at the Barbarian gate. A fragment of the Kitaygorodskaya wall, which is visible on the left at the exit from the metro – the result of reconstruction of the XX century. and the white stone base of the Barbarian tower, located in the underground passage – the original Foundation of the XVI century fortification.

Most local historians are inclined to believe that the Church of St. Barbara, built in stone by merchants-sourozhans in 1514, gave the name to the entire street. Beside her in the XVI century were the dungeons and prisons, where he conducted interrogations of detainees. From there came the Moscow expression "to the barbarian to be slaughtered". Nearby, on the Barbarian rump, medicinal herbs and roots were sold, and one could turn to the help of healers and fortune-tellers.

In the Middle ages, the street had an aristocratic character, it housed the courts of boyars, the richest merchants and foreigners. In the XVI century. here appeared the first foreign Embassy in Moscow, and next-the largest estate of the Romanov boyars, later turned into the Znamensky monastery. Today on Varvarka in the oldest residential buildings in Moscow – in the chambers of the Romanov boyars and the English court – museums are open.

In the XVII – XVIII centuries. the street became more and more commercial in nature, and in the XIX century.Varvarka lost its former reputation. Now it was famous for its drinking establishments and scams. In Soviet times, residential buildings on Varvarka turned into communal apartments with a minimum of amenities, since the end of the 1940s. their gradual demolition and settlement began. The street itself was named after Stepan Razin during this period.

Today, the appearance of Varvarka is unusual: its even-numbered side consists of separate monuments of Moscow antiquity: churches and chambers, and the opposite side is occupied by a number of facades of shopping houses and Gostiny Dvor. This contrast is the result of artificial cleaning of the even side of the street, where multi-storey residential buildings were located in addition to churches and chambers before the demolition at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. In connection with the creation of the Park in Zaryadye, it is planned to restore the monuments of Varvarka and update the street itself in the coming years.

Sign:

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Information about the day:

March 17, Tuesday, the air Temperature is +8

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