Moscow. Ostozhenka

The road from the Kremlin towards Kiev, across the Krymsky Bridge, is one of the most ancient in Moscow. It passed the Zachatievsky Convent – which stood in open meadows in those days, where the King's horses grazed... and the haystacks gave their name to “Haystack Road” – “Ostozhenka” in Russian. In the mid-1930s the first line of the Moscow Metro was put through under Ostozhenka, using the cut-and-cover method. The whole street became a deep trench for a while, and after they covered it over, the street was renamed “Metrobuilders Street”. The historic name was returned to the street in the 1980s – one of the first in Moscow to get its old name back. These days Ostozhenka is the “Mayfair” of the Moscow “monopoly” board – this “golden mile” is Moscow's priciest real-estate, along the Ostozhenskaya & Prechistenskaya Embankments. Noblemens' C19th residences sit cheek-by-jowl with fashionable new developments from leading architects. Licenses: Foto: Ostozhenka, 2010 04.jpg, author Elisa.rolle, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0