     Clockwise from top: View onState Historical Museum,Hotel National,The Carlton Moscow,Central Telegraph Building,Moscow Mayor's office | |
| Native name | Тверская улица (Russian) |
|---|---|
| Length | 1.6 km (0.99 mi) |
| Location | Moscow,Russia Central Administrative Okrug Tverskoy District |
| Postal code | 125009, 125032, 127006 |
| Nearest metro station |  Okhotny Ryad MayakovskayaTverskaya Pushkinskaya |
Tverskaya Street (Russian:Тверская улица,IPA:[tvʲɪrˈskajəˈulʲɪt͡sə]), known between 1935 and 1990 asGorky Street (Russian:улица Горького), is the mainradial street inMoscow. The street runs Northwest from the centralManege Square in the direction ofSaint Petersburg and terminates at theGarden Ring, giving the name toTverskoy District. The route continues further as First Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street,Leningradsky Avenue andLeningradskoye Highway.
Tourists are told that Tverskaya Street existed as early as the 12th century. Its importance for the medieval city was immense, as it connected Moscow with its superior, and later chief rival,Tver. At that time, the thoroughfare crossed theNeglinnaya River. The first stone bridge across the Neglinnaya was set up in 1595.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Tverskaya Street was renowned as the centre of Moscow's social life. The nobility considered it fashionable to settle in this district. Among thePalladian mansions dating from the reign ofCatherine the Great are the residence of the mayor of Moscow (1778–82, rebuilt in ), and theEnglish Club (1780s). The mayor's residence among a number of other historic buildings was moved about 14 meters for the widening of the Gorky Street during Stalin's time. On the square before it stands a statue of the legendary founder of Moscow,Yuri Dolgoruky, erected for the city's 800th anniversary.[1]
During the imperial period, the importance of the thoroughfare was highlighted by the fact that it was through this street that the tsars arrived from the Northern capital to stay at their Kremlin residence. Severaltriumphal arches were constructed to commemorate coronation ceremonies. In 1792, theTverskaya Square was laid out before theofficial residence of thegovernor of Moscow as a staging ground for mass processions and parades. In 1947, the square was decorated with an equestrian statue of PrinceYury Dolgoruky, founder of Moscow.
DuringPushkin's time, the Tverskaya was lined with five churches. The poet wove his impressions from the street into the following stanza ofEugene Onegin:
The columns of the city gate
Gleam white; the sleigh, more swift than steady,
Bumps down Tverskaya Street already.
Past sentry-boxes now they dash,
Past shops and lamp-posts, serfs who lash
Their nags, huts, mansions, monasteries,
Parks, pharmacies,Bukharans, guards,
Fat merchants, Cossacks, boulevards,
Old women, boys with cheeks like cherries,
Lions on gates with great stone jaws,
And crosses black with flocks of daws.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the street was reconstructed, with stately neoclassical mansions giving way to grandiose commercial buildings in an eclectic mixture of historical styles. A characteristic edifice of the time is theeclecticHotel National, Moscow (1901-1903), whose interior is a landmark of RussianArt Nouveau. In 1888 the actor, theatre director and founder of theMoscow Art Theatre,Constantin Stanislavski, rented the Ginzburg House on the street and had it converted into a luxurious clubhouse with its own large stage and several exhibition rooms, in order to house his newly formedSociety of Art and Literature.[2] The Society gave its last performance there on 3 January 1891 and the building burnt down on the night of January 10.[3]
Between theRussian Revolution of 1917 and the rise ofStalinist architecture in mid-1930s, the street acquired three modernist buildings -constructivistIzvestia Building byGrigory Barkhin (1925–1927,Pushkin Square), Central Telegraph Building (1927-29, 7 Tverskaya), amodernist masterpiece byIvan Rerberg, and a stern "blackcube" of the Lenin Institute inTverskaya Square (1926) byStepan Chernyshyov. The street was renamed in 1932 forMaxim Gorky, the Russian writer and revolutionary admired by bothVladimir Lenin andJosef Stalin.[4]
Further expansion occurred in line with Soviet government's adoption of the1935 master plan. During that period, all the churches and most other historic buildings were torn down in order to widen the street and replace low-rise buildings with larger, early Stalinist apartment blocks and government offices.Arkady Mordvinov, who handled this ambitious project, retained some historical buildings, like the ornately decorated Savvinskoye Podvorye byIvan Kuznetsov. This building was moved to a new foundation North from the new street line, and is now completely enclosed inside Mordvinov's Stalinist block at 6, Tverskaya Street.
The project was only partially completed beforeWorld War II; more Stalinist blocks appeared in the 1940s and 1950s, still leaving a lot of 19th-century buildings. Most of them were torn down later, with a few exceptions likeYermolova Theatre still standing.Hotel Intourist, a 22-story tower built in 1970, was demolished in 2002 and replaced by theRitz-Carlton Hotel Moscow.
When Soviet PresidentMikhail Gorbachev assumed power, he encouraged a return to the country's old Russian names. Thus, the street's name became "Tverskaya Street" again, after a 55-year interlude as Gorky Street.[4]
Tverskaya Street runs from theManege Square through theTverskoy District and the crossing with theBoulevard Ring, known asPushkinskaya Square, to theGarden Ring. Its extension, First Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, continues further on Northwest right up toBelorussky Rail Terminal (Tverskaya Zastava Square), changing its name again intoLeningradsky Avenue. It keeps the same direction before diverging into Volokolamskoye Shosse andLeningradskoye Highway (Leningrad Highway).
Tverskaya Street is the most expensive shopping street in Moscow and Russia. According to an index published by global real estate company Colliers International in 2008, it is now the third most expensive street in the world, based on commercial rental fees. It is the center of the city'snightlife andentertainment.
 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2019) |
Plans for the reconstruction of the Tverskaya radius into a grade-separated freeway, already under way in remote parts of the route (seeLeningradsky Prospekt Reconstruction for a complete schedule), have been authorized for Tverskaya Zastava andPushkin Square in April, 2007, to be completed in 2009. Work is already underway at the first location. Both squares will acquire complex multi-level, grade-separated crossings and underground shopping malls, despite objections frompreservationists and traffic experts.
55°45′26″N37°36′53″E / 55.75722°N 37.61472°E /55.75722; 37.61472