MIL OSI Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Moscow parks have long been a place of attraction for residents. Lectures, excursions, master classes and even open-air film screenings are held here. This year, 14 Moscow parks will celebrate their anniversaries – many of them will be over 50 years old. We tell you which recreation area was improved by Sergei Tretyakov, where football player Alexei Khomich began his career and which park was founded by Peter I.
Center of cultural life
This year is special for Tagansky Park, located on Taganskaya Street (40–42 buildings) — it is turning 90 years old. It was founded in 1934 at the N. I. Bukharin Workers’ Club and immediately became the center of cultural life in the Tagansky District. In 1957, the Zenit Cinema was built on the site of the old club, housing a concert hall. At the same time, amateur art and applied arts clubs for children and adults opened here.
The history of Tagansky Park is connected with the names of outstanding residents of the capital. For example, football players Konstantin Beskov and Alexey Khomich, USSR tennis champion Nikolay Ozerov and Olympic figure skating champion Irina Rodnina began their sports careers here.
After the Great Patriotic War, the park hosted meetings with heroes of the Soviet Union, military-patriotic gatherings, competitions and holiday concerts. In addition, jazz and brass bands, as well as dance evenings, were organized here. The park hosted major festivals such as the Musical Bazaar on Taganka, Beauty Will Save the World, Moscow Yard, Spring in Tagansky Park, Taganka Running Festival and many others. And sports clubs from the districts and the city competed at the stadium.
In the early 2000s, the park began to actively work with children and teenagers. For example, a creativity center with a chamber auditorium was opened, where musical performances and festivals were held. Today, the park still hosts concerts, master classes and sports competitions. In the summer, guests practice yoga, bachata and zumba, and in the winter, ice discos are organized for them at the stadium, which turns into a skating rink.
Tagansky Park pleases visitors with a variety of plants, for example, poplars, chestnuts, lindens, maples, ash trees, apple trees and a three-hundred-year-old pedunculate oak grow here, tulips and lilacs bloom in the spring. While walking through the park, you can meet starlings, thrushes, tits, wagtails and squirrels.
On the territory of Tagansky Park there is a large fountain, an open stage, a rope park, children’s and sports grounds, a stadium with a football field, stands and running tracks, a creativity center, a physical education and health complex, a martial arts center, as well as a Museum of Tricks and Illusions.
In 2012–2013, a large-scale reconstruction of the park’s territory took place, during which the stadium was transformed and new sports grounds and leisure facilities appeared.
Tagansky Park includes the N.N. Pryamikov Children’s Park (Taganskaya Street, Building 15a, Building 1) — one of the first recreation areas in the city, the history of which began in 1775. The park is named after the hero of the October Revolution. In 2017, the landscape was updated, small architectural forms and new modern equipment were installed.
Today, Tagansky Park is a cultural, leisure and sports center, a place for active recreation and leisurely walks. It plans to continue its traditions and open even more clubs for the younger generation.
The first pleasure garden
The Hermitage Garden was founded 130 years ago. It was the first pleasure garden in Moscow with gazebos, flowerbeds, a theater, a stage, coffee houses and pavilions. From 1830 until the end of the 19th century, it was located on Staraya Bozhedomka (now Durova Street). The garden reached its greatest prosperity when it belonged to the entrepreneur and former actor of the Maly Theater Mikhail Lentovsky. However, after his destruction, the garden fell into disrepair and its entire territory was built up. In 1894, a new life for the garden began – but in a different place. In just a year, the plot of land on Karetny Ryad, which was owned by the Moscow merchant Yakov Shchukin, turned from a wasteland into a blooming garden. Flowerbeds and paths were laid out there, trees and bushes were planted, and the theater building was reconstructed. At the same time, electric lighting, running water and a swimming pool appeared in the Hermitage.
A year later, in 1896, one of the first film screenings in Russia took place in the garden – the townspeople were able to appreciate the invention of the Lumiere brothers. A performance by the famous American illusionist Harry Houdini was also a significant event.
Fyodor Chaliapin, Leonid Sobinov, Antonina Nezhdanova sang on the stage of the Hermitage, and it was here that Sergei Rachmaninoff made his debut as a conductor. In 1898, the Moscow Art Theatre opened in the building of the Hermitage Theatre, where the play Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich was staged. Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Lenin often visited the garden.
After 1917, the garden was nationalized and then leased privately. In 1924, the theater building was occupied by the Theater of the Moscow City Council of Trade Unions, which was later renamed the Mossovet Theater.
The Hermitage Garden survived the Great Patriotic War, and in the summer of 1945, it was reconstructed. Three years later, a summer concert hall was built on its territory, where Arkady Raikin, Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Lidiya Ruslanova performed and Leonid Utesov’s orchestra played. Vladimir Vysotsky also sang in the garden and the first game of “What? Where? When?” was held.
Today, the Hermitage Garden is a protected monument of landscape gardening. It is regularly renovated and landscaped. Concerts, performances and festivals are held here.
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The famous Moscow salon
The history of the Vorontsovo estate, which has been around for five centuries, is no less interesting. The estate was first mentioned in the will of the Moscow Prince Ivan III. In 1640, the estate passed into the possession of the Repnin princes. However, all the buildings that have survived to this day were built at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries under Field Marshal Nikolai Repnin. At that time, the northern and southern wings, the greenhouse, the stable yard, the ensemble of the main entrance and the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity were erected.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, a hot air balloon was developed at the estate under the direction of the German mechanic Franz Leppich. This episode is described in Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. In the 1820s, the Vorontsovo estate was owned by Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya. All the celebrities of the time visited her Moscow salon; for example, the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz came here.
After 1918, members of European socialist parties Emil Vandervelde, Arthur Waters, Theodor Liebknecht and Kurt Rosenfeld lived here. After the evacuation of the All-Union Scientific Research Vitamin Institute from Leningrad at the end of 1942, the Vorontsov Central Biological Station appeared on the estate, and in the 1950s, the state farm built three two-story buildings on the estate.
Today, the Vorontsovo estate is a monument of landscape gardening and architecture with an area of 40.7 hectares. On its territory there is a cascade of ponds, an oak grove, Italian and Chinese gardens. The park has playgrounds, attractions, outdoor cafes and skating rinks. The estate often hosts city festivals and quests, flash mobs and exhibitions. Sports activities and excursions are also organized here.
The Tsar’s residence in the south of Moscow
Another historical park in Moscow is the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve. Kolomenskoye was first mentioned in the spiritual charters of Prince Ivan Kalita. Over time, this place turned into a famous grand ducal, royal and imperial residence.
The names of representatives of the royal dynasties of Rurikovich and Romanov are associated with Kolomenskoye. Among them are Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan III, Vasily III, Ivan the Terrible, Alexei Mikhailovich the Quietest, Peter I, Catherine II and many others. At various times, the victory in the Battles of Kulikovo and Poltava was celebrated here and other events were marked.
Today, the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve is a unique historical and cultural territory where medieval landscapes and natural monuments have been preserved. It was created in 1923 on the initiative of the cultural figure Pyotr Baranovsky.
Sergei Sobyanin showed what Sokolniki, Gorky Park, Izmailovsky Park and Tsaritsyno looked like in spring several decades agoArt and nature: which theaters operate in the capital’s parks
From falconry to concerts of Feodor Chaliapin
Sokolniki Park is another favorite place for Muscovites to take walks since the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. In the 17th century, during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, falconry was held here, hence the name of the park. All high society gathered here, including princes, emperors and empresses.
And, according to legend, at the end of the 17th century, by order of Peter I, the first clearing was cut in Sokolnichya Grove, which still exists today. In 1845-1848, a city park was created here, and new cascades of ponds appeared on the site of old reservoirs. In 1866, the recreation area was included in the boundaries of Moscow, and in 1879 it became the property of the city. The city mayor Sergei Tretyakov, the brother of the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery, invested his own funds in the improvement of the park territory, and he also ensured that the park territory became part of Moscow.
Here, in the openwork pavilion-rotunda, classical music concerts were held, where Fyodor Shalyapin and Leonid Sobinov performed. In addition, film screenings and children’s parties were held. For example, in 1919, Vladimir Lenin organized a festive Christmas tree in the park for the students of the forest school.
In 1931, the Moscow City Council declared Sokolniki a city park of culture and recreation. After the Great Patriotic War, the recreation area of over 500 hectares was reconstructed. In 1973, the legendary Sokolniki Sports Palace was built on its territory. In 1979, the park was recognized as a cultural heritage site, a monument of landscape gardening of regional significance.
Wonderful Gardens and Menagerie
The history of Izmailovsky Park goes back to the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. In the 17th century, marvelous Italian-style gardens were laid out in the royal estate located here, decorative towers with promenades were built, which complemented the landscape paintings. Three kilometers from the sovereign’s court, the Prosyansky Garden was arranged. On the territory of the forest (now Izmailovsky Park) there was one of the largest menageries in Europe, which served for the royal amusement. Lions, tigers, leopards, monkeys and rare birds were kept there. The forest also had farmland where fish were bred.
The Izmailovsky Park of Culture and Leisure was created in 1931. Until 1961, it bore the name of Joseph Stalin. On its territory is the oldest Ferris wheel in the city, the open-air museum of military equipment “Ploshchad Muzhestva”, the 17th-century Round Pond and a music pavilion.
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Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
http://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144324073/
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.