Muscovites and guests of the capital like to stroll through old Moscow. Now the former names of squares and streets have been restored, which makes it easy to transfer to the ancient Belokamennaya capital.
Let’s start our walk from China-city, which for many centuries was the center of culture and trade of the Moscow state. In China-city, we will walk along Nikolskaya Street, which starts from the Historical Museum and is one of the oldest streets in Moscow. In the twelfth century along this street was a road from Rostov the Great, Suzdal and Vladimir to the Kremlin. In those days, Nikolskaya began on Ivanovskaya Square at the bell tower of Ivan the Great in the Kremlin. There once stood in a row of shops, in which traders sold icons, lubok, church utensils. And the present
From the side of Nikolskaya street, the shopping arcades are still attractive in terms of architecture. In the old days, the center of Moscow’s commercial life was the Old Gostiny Dvor. Trade rows occupy a large space along the Red Square between the streets of Nikolskaya and Varvarka.
Continuing our walk, we draw attention to the preserved church to the Chizhevsky Compound, an ancient church of the Assumption, which is very beautiful and attractive by its architectural design. But another very old building, which was almost five hundred years old, was the church of Elijah the Prophet in the Novgorod metochion, it was built in 1520.
You can not help but be surprised by a beautiful blue building with white carvings, pointed windows and a picture of a unicorn and a lion with the emblem of the sovereign of the printing yard on the facade. This building was built according to the project of the architect IO Mironovsky in 1814 on the site of the ancient chambers. Once King Ivan IV ordered to build a mansion for the printing
Historical fame is also the street Ilyinka. Its ancient ornate houses recall the medieval way of Moscow society. Once it was the center of influential financial institutions. The Exchange building and the Old Gostiny Dvor remind of the past greatness of the merchant class. This slender white building with a graceful colonnade is under a glass roof. The institutions opened here in 1894 were widely known in Europe.