Parks of Moscow

Gorky Central Park of culture and leisure

The first park of culture in Russia. It was created in 1928 on the territory of the All-Russian Agricultural and Craft Exhibition. There are two main areas: the amusement park, and the older section - picturesque hillocks, groves and glades of the Neskuchny Sad with the late-18th and early-19th century buildings. Behind the Neskuchny Sad there is a big amphitheatre of the Zelyony Teatr. This area also features two late-18th century eight-columned summerhouses designed by Kazakov. The park is of the great interest to the botanists. The variety of flowers is particularly remarkable, and the flower beds have been highly rated by the Dutch experts. The Krimsky Bridge, the only suspended bridge on the Moscow River, abuts the Gorky Central Park.

Victory Park

This is the Memorial to Victory in the Great Patriotic War (1983-1895). There is a museum, monumental sculptures, open-air displays and a church. The memorial is built on the highest point of the Poklonnaya Hill in the Victory Park. The museum is the central feature. There is a 140-metre obelisk on the square. It is topped by a winged statue of Nike the goddess of Victory. The main section of the museum is the Hall of Memory. The Church of St.George the Victor, the saint patron of Moscow is to the left of the central pathway (1993-1895). There is an exhibition of military hardware dating from the World War II in the park.

Fili Park

This park was formerly a nature reserve. Fili Park goes along the Moscow River for 5 km., extending from 500 m. to 1 km wide. Karamzin, Herzen, Ogaryov, Nekrasov, Tolstoy and Turgenev visited Fili.

Izmailovo

Izmailovo was once a royal estate outside Moscow reserved for hunting, and games were specially reared for the purpose. It was then called the Izmailov Menagerie. Peter the Great spent his childhood here, and he used to circle the lake in a small sailing boat. It was in Izmailovo that Peter formed the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments of the boy-soldiers, before they became part of the regular Russian army. Izmailovsky Park is one of the largest urban forest parks in the world, covering an area of 1180 hectares. It is larger than the Bois de Boulogne in Paris (848 hectares), and five times larger than Central Park in New York. The austere Bridge Tower (1671) was once attached to a white stone bridge leading to the Izmailovsky Island. There are two notable gateways to the royal estate built by the architect Terenty Makarov in 1682. They served as a model for the gates to the Novodevichy Convent and the Donskoy and Petrovsky Monasteries. There is the five-domed Christmas Church (1678) on the site of the Izmailovo village, one kilometer from the royal estate.

Krasnaya Presnya Park

The park is located on the banks of the Moscow River. In the 18th century this park was the site of the Students mansion belonging to the Princes Gagarin. Picturesque lakes, reservoirs, canals and island orchards are still there nowadays. Next to the park there is the Expocentre, one of the largest exhibition complexes in Moscow.

Sokolniki Park

Sokolniki Park is 4 times larger than London's Hyde Park and covers an area of almost 600 hectares. The tsars once brought their falcons here to hunt hares and foxes. The park is surrounded by forests and groves. The park is regularly used for major international exhibitions as well as for recreational purposes, and there are several large exhibition pavilions.

The park has the most original design. The Sokolniki Circle is a centre of activity not far from the main gate, providing light entertainment concerts, film shows. There is also a restaurant area and dance floors. Seven avenues branch out from the circle, each lined with trees such as birch, maple and elm. Some distance away they intersect an asphalt pathway. There is a set of small lakes with summer-houses on the banks and the maze. Beyond the maze there is a popular Olyeni Pond and summer-houses.