Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Upper St Peter Monastery was founded in the 1380s as part of an early defensive ring
around Moscow. The main, onion-domed
Virgin of Bogolyubovo Church
dates from the
late 17th century. The loveliest structure is the brick Cathedral of Metropolitan Pyotr, re-
stored with a shingle roof. (When Peter the Great ousted the Regent Sofia in 1690, his moth-
er was so pleased she built him this church).
ART GALLERY
M'ARS CONTEMPORARY ART CENTRE
gallery noon-8pm Tue-Sun, cafe
noon-11pm daily; Tsvetnoy Bulvar, Sukharevskaya)
Founded by artists who were banned during the Soviet era, this gallery space includes 10
exhibit halls showing the work of top contemporary artists, as well as a cool club and cafe in
the basement.
NOTABLE BUILDINGS
HOUSE OF UNIONS & STATE DUMA
(Soviet State Planning Department), source of the USSR's Five-Year Plans; it is now the
seat of the Russian parliament. The green-columned House of Unions dates from the 1780s.
Its ballroom, called the Hall of Columns, is famous as the location of one of Stalin's most
grotesque show trials, that of Nikolai Bukharin, a leading Communist Party theorist who
had been a close associate of Lenin.
Both buildings are closed to the public.
HISTORIC SITE
TVERSKAYA PLOSHCHAD
this prominent square near the bottom of Tverskaya ul. So does Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, as
CHURCH
CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN IN PUTINKI
When this church was completed in 1652, the Patriarch Nikon responded by banning tent
roofs like the ones featured here. Apparently, he considered such architecture too Russian,
