Balchug

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Balchug (Russian: Балчуг) is an island in the very centre of Moscow, squeezed between the Moskva River (just opposite the Kremlin) and its old river-bed which was turned into the Vodootvodny Canal in 1786.

The name of this district derives from the Tatar word for "marsh" and refers to the fact that it used to be subject to annual inundations until the old river-bed of the Moskva was connected with the river by numerous moats for drainage. The memory of those medieval moats - "rovushki" and "endovy" in Old Russian - survive in the names of Raushskaya Quay and St George Church "v Endove" (1653).

In the 14th century, when the name of Balchug is presumed to have appeared, the area was occupied by public baths. Ivan III turned it into royal gardens, while Ivan the Terrible settled his Oprichniki in the neighbourhood. An open space in Zamoskvorechye, which is now called Bolotnaya Square ("Marsh Square") and contains Mikhail Chemiakin's controversial sculptures personifying human vices, formerly witnessed a number of public executions, including that of Emelyan Pugachev and his fellow Cossack rebels on 10 January 1775.

In 1692 Bolshoi Kamenny Bridge, the first permanent bridge in the city, linked the Balchug with downtown Moscow. Four years later, a triumphal arch, the first in Russia, was set up in wood in front of the bridge to welcome Peter the Great's arrival from the Azov campaigns. In 1783, the area was swept away by the severe flood which also damaged the bridge. In order to repair it, the Moskva River was temporarily drained, while its old river-bed was reconstructed into the 4 km-long Vodootvodny Canal (literally, the "Water-Diversion Channel") which is now spanned by eight bridges.

The Balchug still retains several relics of its pre-Petrine past, notably the 17th-century palace of Averky Kirillov, the brilliantly colored church of St Nicholas on Bersenevka (1657), and the St Sophia Church (1682), noted for its slender belltower, mirroring the Kremlin towers just across the river. The Central Electricity Station on the Moskva riverside was inaugurated in 1896 to mark the coronation of the last Russian tsar. The Rosneft headquarters are situated next door.

Of the 20th-century structures, the most noteworthy are the Hotel Balchug-Kempinski and the House on the Embankment, a classic sample of the Stalinist architecture, where the Communist party bosses and acclaimed Soviet writers used to dwell.