Manezhnaya Square

Manezhnaya Square is one of the largest squares in Moscow's historic center, adjoining the Kremlin and the Alexander Garden. It took its name from the Manège building, whose façade faces onto it, and it took shape as a single urban space in the 1930s on the site of several former streets and lanes of the Zanaglimenye district.

Until the 16th century, the territory of the future square was part of the district beyond the Neglinnaya River, built up as early as the 12th–13th centuries and regularly ravaged by fires. After a major fire in 1493, Ivan III ordered a strip of land along the Kremlin walls to be cleared of buildings, and later Ivan the Terrible's Oprichnina Court briefly stood here, likewise destroyed by fire. The square received its name only in 1931 — initially for the section by the southern façade of the Manège — and by 1938, after the area near Loskutny Lane was cleared in connection with the construction of the metro, the united space became a single Manezhnaya Square. From 1967 to 1990 it was officially called the Square of the 50th Anniversary of October, but this name never caught on in everyday speech.

In the 1990s the square's appearance changed considerably: the Resurrection Gate with the Iberian Chapel, destroyed in the Soviet era, was rebuilt; a monument to Marshal Georgy Zhukov was installed by the Historical Museum to mark the 50th anniversary of Victory; and a decorative canal with sculptures by Zurab Tsereteli was dug between the square and the Alexander Garden. In 1996, to mark Moscow's 850th anniversary, an ensemble of fountains was built, and the Museum of Moscow Archaeology appeared next to the "Zero Kilometer" marker of Russia's roads.

The most far-reaching transformation was the construction, in 1993–1997, of the multi-level underground "Okhotny Ryad" shopping and leisure center, stretching roughly three hundred meters along the entire square — after cars were removed from the surface, the project was realized by the "Mosproekt-2" workshop with the direct involvement of sculptor Tsereteli. The complex's glass dome, crowned with a sculpture of St. George the Victorious, became one of the recognizable features of the square's modern appearance, though some architectural critics believe the large-scale construction altered the historical character of this space.

Today Manezhnaya Square combines the functions of a pedestrian zone, a transport hub and an underground shopping center: Tverskaya, Mokhovaya and Manezhnaya Streets and Okhotny Ryad radiate from it, and the area remains a venue for city festivities and mass events. Combining monuments of different eras — from recreated historical gates to modern sculptural compositions — the square remains one of the key public spaces of the Russian capital.