Moscow: Places to Explore

Tverskaya Ulitsa: Moscow's Fifth Avenue

As the line of the road that led from the northern tip of the Kremlin to the ancient town of Tver, Tverskaya ulitsa had been an important route for centuries. Later that road was extended all the way to the new capital on the Baltic Sea, St. Petersburg. Tverskaya ulitsa is Moscow's main shopping artery, attracting shoppers hungry for the latest trends. The lovely, wide boulevard is lined with perfumeries, banks and exchanges, eateries, and bookshops. Some of the city's best and biggest stores are on the ground floors of massive apartment buildings, some quite attractive and graced by a fine art nouveau style. On a sunny day, Tverskaya is an especially pleasant walk. Keep an eye out for plaques (in Russian) etched in stone on building walls. These will tell you about the famous people, usually artists, politicians, or academicians, who lived or worked here.

Tverskaya ulitsa was given its present form in the mid-1930s, and from 1932 to 1990 the road was known as Gorky Street, in honor of the writer Maxim Gorky, the father of Soviet socialist realism. In 1990 the first section of the street, leading from the heart of town to Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, was given back its prerevolutionary name of Tverskaya ulitsa. A year later, the second section, ending at the Belorussian Railway Station, was also returned to its old name-Tverskaya-Yamskaya. Until the rebuilding in the 1930s, Tverskaya ulitsa was narrow and twisting, lined in places with wooden houses. Today it's a broad, busy avenue, a tribute to the grandiose reconstruction projects of the Stalinist era.

The area around Tverskaya ulitsa can be reached through the Tverskaya, Pushkinskaya, Chekhovskaya, Mayakovskaya, and Okhotny Ryad metro stations.