Bolshaya Sukharevskaya Square

Bolshaya Sukharevskaya Square is one of the key junctions of the Garden Ring, lying on the border between the Meshchansky and Krasnoselsky Districts; it adjoins Prospekt Mira and Sretenka Street on one side and Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street on the other. The northern side of the square is occupied by the ceremonial façade of the Sheremetev Almshouse, which today houses the Sklifosovsky Institute of Emergency Medicine; the vestibule of the metro station of the same name is located here, at the exit onto Sretenka.

The square’s name arose in the 18th century from the Sukharev Tower that once stood here, built in 1695–1701 by decree of Peter the Great. Even earlier, in the 17th century, this area was home to a streltsy settlement with the regiment of Lavrenty Sukharev, which guarded the gates of the Zemlyanoy Gorod — hence the name of both the tower and, later, the square. Despite protests from Muscovites and cultural figures, in March 1934 the Party leadership approved the tower’s demolition as an obstacle to the city’s transport reconstruction, and by that same summer work crews had completed its dismantling.

For centuries, brisk trading life bustled at the foot of the tower: the famous Sukharevka market occupied the square itself and the surrounding lanes, and in Moscow slang both the market and the square were simply called Sukharevka. Until the early 1920s, a vast flea market unfolded here every weekend, known not only for good bargains but also for its reputation as a place to fence stolen goods, which is why the police regularly raided it.

Soviet authorities changed the square’s name twice: from 1934 to 1939 it was called Kolkhoznaya, and then, until 1994, Bolshaya Kolkhoznaya, in honor of the All-Union Congress of Shock-Worker Kolkhoz Members. When historical names were restored in 1990, the two former Kolkhoznaya squares were briefly united under the single name Sukharevskaya, but this would have required renumbering buildings, including the Institute of Emergency Medicine building, so in 1994 the earlier division into Bolshaya and Malaya Sukharevskaya squares was restored.

On its western edge the square adjoins the interchange where Sretenka and Prospekt Mira cross the Garden Ring; it then continues east past Pankratyevsky and Ananyevsky Lanes and ends at Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street. The Sheremetev Almshouse building, constructed in 1792–1810 to a design by architects Elizvoy Nazarov and Giacomo Quarenghi, remains the square’s main architectural landmark and is listed as a federal historical and cultural monument. During the Soviet era there were plans to build a giant department store with an overpass for Sretenka in the center of the square, but the idea was never realized.

Today Bolshaya Sukharevskaya Square is a major transport hub with eight lanes of traffic in each direction, its name the only remaining trace of the once-thriving Sukharevka market and the demolished tower. The square remains one of the key links of the Garden Ring and a reminder of the shifting toponymy of Soviet and post-Soviet Moscow.