Kitai-gorod
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Kitai-gorod is a business district within Moscow, Russia, encircled with mostly-reconstructed medieval walls. It is separated from the Moscow Kremlin by Red Square. It does not constitute a district (raion), as there are no resident voters, thus, municipal elections are not possible. Rather, the territory is managed directly by Central Administrative Okrug authorities (since 2003).
[edit] Name
The etymology of the name is unclear. Gorod is the Russian for town, whereas Kitai is the Russian for Cathay (i.e., China). Accordingly the popular translation might be Chinatown. Most scholars, however, tend to derive Kitai from an old word for the wooden stakes used in construction of the quarter's walls.
[edit] Walls
The walls were erected in 1536-39 by an Italian architect known under the Russified name Petrok Maly and originally featured 13 towers and six gates. They were as thick as they were high, the average being six meters in both dimensions. The last of the towers were demolished in the 1930s, but small portions of the wall still stand. One of two remainig parts of the wall is located in Zaryadye and the other near the exit from the Okhotny Ryad station of Moscow Metro behind the Hotel Metropol.
Recently the Moscow mayor announced plans for a full-scale restoration of the wall. City officials also plan to close Kitai-gorod to automobile traffic. Since 1995, the wall has been heavily rebuilt, and a new tower has been added. Inside the tower are a couple of restaurants and bars.
[edit] Squares
Apart from Red Square, the quarter is bordered by Manege Square (in front of Moscow Manege), Theatre Square (in front of Bolshoi Theatre), Lubyanka Square (in front of the KGB headquarters), Slavyanskaya Square, as well as the Old and New Squares on the east. Bourse Square is situated entirely within Kitai-gorod.
[edit] Architecture
Kitai-gorod is known as the most prestigious business area of Moscow. Its three main streets — Varvarka, Ilyinka, and Nikolskaya — are lined with magnificent banks, shops, and storehouses, many of them built in the Art Nouveau style. The most important of these are the Upper Trading Rows, the Middle Trading Rows, and the Printing Yard.
The Merchant Court, built to a Neoclassical design by Giacomo Quarenghi in 1789-1830 and now used primarily for balls and exhibitions, occupies the southwest quarter. The Tretyakov Drive is said to house some of the most luxurious boutiques in Europe. Marian Peretiatkovich's American-style tower of the Northern Insurance Society accommodates the Constitutional Court of Russia.
Kitai-gorod contains four abbeys, notably Bogoyavlensky and Zaikonospassky, which hearken back to the area's medieval roots. Two of the most beautiful churches in Moscow, St Nicholas at Nikitniki (1653) and St. Nicholas the Great Cross (1689, destroyed in 1933) at one time dominated the district's skyline.
[edit] Zaryadye
A whole quarter of Kitai-gorod adjacent to the Moskva River and known as Zaryadye, was demolished in three rounds (1930s, late 1940s, 1960s), sparing only those structures that were classified as historic monuments. These include Cathedral of the Sign (1679-84), the Church of All Saints (1680s), St. George Church on Pskov Hill (1657), St. Maksim Church (1698), St. Anna's Church at the Corner (1510s), St. Barbara Church (1796-1804), the Old English Embassy (1550s), and the 16th-century Romanov boyar residence. There is no other such cluster of old edifices left anywhere else in Moscow. The district's main structure, Rossiya Hotel (1967) is being demolished, making way for a new round of development.
