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Zaryadye Park
Zaryadye Park in 2018 was among the best places in the world built in recent years, according to Time magazine. For the sake of this fact alone, it is worth visiting here to assess the scope of the project. Located in the historical center of Moscow city, steps from St. Basil’s Cathedral, Red Square and the Kremlin, the new urban par is one of the best attractions of the capital of Russia with beautiful views of the famous sites that you can't miss.
Constructed in 2012-2017 by the project of International design consortium led by the American architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) with Hargreaves Associates and Citymakers, Zaryadye became the first large scale park that appeared in Moscow in the last fifty years.
Park Location
The park is located between Varvarka street, Kitaygorodsky passage, Moskvoretskaya embankment and Moskvoretskaya street on the territory of the old district Zaryadye.
The nearest metro station is "Kitai-Gorod", in 10 minutes you can get here from the stations “Ploshchad Revolyutsii” (Revolution Square), “Okhotny Ryad” (Hunters' Row), “Teatralnaya” (Theater). It can be entered from anyway, but the main entrance is located on the side of the Kremlin at Vasilievsky Spusk (Basil's Slope). The park has its own round-the-clock underground pay parking, so it is possible to drop our car here before sightseeing.
Landscape Diversity
The area of Zaryadye is about 13 hectares. Its hilly area is divided into climatic zones-steppe, water meadow, tundra, coniferous, birch, mixed and floodplain forest, planted plants that convey the natural features of each zone and the landscape diversity of Russia.
There are about one million plants in the Park. Birch, spruce and other trees are already adults, look great. Shrubs and perennial grasses have yet to take root, grow.
These natural zones provide places of gathering, repose, and observation, in concert with performance spaces and enclosed cultural pavilions.
Architectural Features
Zaryadye is at once park, urban plaza, social space, cultural amenity, and recreational armature. To achieve this simultaneity, natural landscapes are overlaid on top of constructed environments, creating a series of elemental face-offs between the natural and the artificial, urban and rural, interior and exterior. The intertwining of landscape and hardscape creates a ‘Wild Urbanism,” introducing a new offering to compliment Moscow’s historically formal, symmetrical park spaces.
Visitors can enjoy a river overlook cantilevering 70 meters over Moscow River, media center, nature center, restaurant, market, two amphitheaters and a philharmonic concert hall (completed in Spring 2018).
The Grand Amphitheater with an open-air concert venue is the highest point in the Zaryadye park. It repeats the natural landscape relief and covers an area of 1 hectare. The amphitheater is located on the roof of the concert hall. Spectators can feel comfortable here in any season. For this, the function of an adjustable microclimate is provided. A metal frame with glass triangles specially developed for the amphitheater. Preserving the specified climatic parameters, it was called the "glass bark".
Under a glass bark with solar panels, there are 1,600 seats; another 400 seats are organized in the nearby Small Amphitheater with a huge media screen. Comfortable in the landscape amphitheater will be not only the audience of the concert programs but also just having a rest - the stairs, seats and a dendroplaza next to them are decorated in an eco-style, a lot of greenery and free space.
The Moscow Zaryadye Concert Hall, which opened on September 8, 2018, is an original technological solution to the cultural space. The acoustics of the room were the Japanese engineer Yasuhisa Toyota. According to the conductor Valery Gergiev, who gave a classical music concert at the opening of the concert hall, the sound here surpasses the quality of the Mussorgsky hall at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. A hall feature is its ability to transform. It can be used for events of various scales and directions. Only the high level of technical equipment and premises equipment remains unchanged. Two underground and four ground floors have been built. Two halls, Bolshoi and Maly, can accommodate almost two thousand spectators, and the same number of seats are provided in the open air - the Amphitheater, carefully covered with the "glass bark" (glass climate roof).
The large pavilion of the Media Center combines two media complexes, a tourist information center, studios, exhibition halls and a specially designated space for temporary exhibitions. Due to computer technology here you can travel back to the distant past of Moscow, to revive the plots of historical events. The project "time Machine" will take in the history of the construction of the Kremlin, and help to see the history of the development of the Moscow region Zaryadye.
The large pavilion of the Media Center unites two media complexes, a tourist information center, studios, exhibition halls and a specially designated space for temporary exhibitions. Due to computer technology, here you can travel back to the distant past of Moscow, revive the plots of historical events. The “Time Machine” project will take you to the history of the construction of the Kremlin, and will help you to see the history of the development of the Moscow district Zaryadye.
Media hall "Flight" with a cylindrical screen is the only such project in the country. Here you are invited to a virtual journey through vast Russia. Special technical capabilities create a maximum feeling of the state of flight over the expanses of the country. The first film, created for the opening of "Zaryadye", is dedicated to Moscow, the exposition will expand and present protected areas in different geographical locations of the Russian Federation.
Underground Museum
Journey in the amazing “Zaryadye” is possible not only in the form of an interactive flight but also a real “immersion”. Directly underground on the site of an ancient street in Moscow, the Underground Museum was built with access to the river Moskva (Moscow). During its construction, interactive technologies were also used, children can participate in exciting quests on historical themes. The highlight of the Museum is archaeological finds discovered on the territory of ancient Zaryadye. The main artifact of the XVI century is a fragment of the wall surrounding Kitay-Gorod. Fragments of the pavement of the first Moscow street can be seen right under your feet, the glass floor creates the illusion of a walk along Velikaya (Great) Street, that was the name of this Moscow street, according to the chronicles of 1493. On the walls are weapons, horse harness, household items and other artifacts of the historical past of Moscow.
Floating Bridge
The only in Russia "floating" bridge in the Park "Zaryadye" figuratively hangs over the Moscow River. A feature of the observation deck is the protruding part without the support of a 70-meter concrete console, it creates the illusion of an overhanging ledge.
The total length of the V-shaped footbridge is almost 250 meters and the height above the river is 15 meters. Amazing panoramic views of Moscow architectural masterpieces open from its observation deck. The design can withstand up to 240 tons or the simultaneous presence of up to four thousand people on it. The chief engineer of the project is Bulat Aliyev. Its design does not fully meet the concept of a bridge, the V-shaped footbridge does not connect the two banks of the river. It is rather a pedestrian overpass with a beautiful poetic name "Floating bridge".
Pier at Moskvoretskaya Embankment
The Moskvoretskaya embankment is one of the oldest stone embankments of the capital. From here you can go on a riverboat tour or just relax in solitude, enjoying the magnificent view of the Kremlin, the famous Stalin’s high-rise and the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge.
The embankment integrates the park into the walking zone around the historical center and creates a cozy environment for seasonal events.
The pier of Moskvoretskaya Embankment is located right under the observation deck of the Floating Bridge and near the Underground Museum.
The Church of the Conception of Anna in the Corner
The Church of the Conception of St. Anna is one of the oldest surviving churches in Zaryadye. It sounds like a magnificent chord against the background of the Floating Bridge and the futuristic Concert Hall.
According to the chronicles, the wooden church towered on Velikaya (Great) street in 1493. The name of the church “in the Corner” corresponding to its historical location – the temple was built on the outskirts of the densely populated Zaryadye in the corner of the Kitay-gorod wall. In the sixteenth century, St. Anna Church was rebuilt in stone, and the first Russian Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible granted to it a miraculous icon of the Mother of God (Our Lady). The church’s cellar and walls were made from limestone sourced near Moscow, and the vaults and dome drum are lined with small bricks.
Over a long five-hundred-year history, the temple has been reconstructed several times. In 1957, the church was restored and acquired the appearance as it was in the XVI century under the leadership of the Soviet architect Leo David. The Church of the Conception of Anna was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1994. The latest restoration works in the church were in 2014-2017 during the construction of the new landscape park Zaryadye in the historical center of Moscow city.
Background Information
- Cost of admission: free of charge
- Opening hours: around the clock
- Opening hours of the pavilions: Tue-Sun 10.00-20.00, Mon 14.00-20.00
- Zaryadye Park Official website in Eng
- Zaryadye Park mobile application: for Android / for iOS
About Me in Short
My name's Arthur Lookyanov, I'm a private tour guide, personal driver and photographer in Moscow, Russia. I work in my business and run my website Moscow-Driver.com from 2002. Read more about me and my services, check out testimonials of my former business and travel clients from all over the World, hit me up on Twitter or other social websites. I hope that you will like my photos as well.
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