Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Explore: Zamoskvorechie
With its markedly low old buildings, quaint courtyards and a multitude of onion domes,
Zamoskvorechie is a bit of a provincial Russian town that somehow ended up inside central
Moscow. The people responsible for its outlook and for the lingering old-world ambience
are
kuptsy
(merchants) who populated the area until the 19th century and had completely
different lifestyles and habits to the nobility living across the river. Their most outstanding
legacy is Tretyakov Gallery, containing the largest collection of Russian art.
But it is in this district that the face of the new, cool, liveable, sophisticated Moscow is
being born. The fledgling gentrification belt is now spreading along the river from the red-
brick buildings of the Red October chocolate factory (Moscow's inner hipster galaxy) to the
