Urban Hiking in Moscow: Walking in Taganskij neighborhood

The old industrial and commercial area of Moscow. Huge avenues, historical factories, and a monastery. Let’s go for a walk. A couple of hours walking just outside the city center and the most common sightseeings.

Today we will walk in the neighborhood around Taganskaya metro station, an area east of central Moscow. The area is characterized by industrial areas from various eras, from the old caravanserais, now renovated, to the factories of the early twentieth century up to the modern business centers.

From the metro station you have to cross Taganskaya Square, then pass over the tunnel of the inner Moscow ring road called the Garden Ring. In front of you will see the red church with white details of St. Nicholas on Bolvanovka. It was built at the end of the 17th century in the neighborhood of artisans who produced blanks for the production of hats or metal castings. Then continue on Verkhnyaya Radishchevskaya street lined with buildings from the same age as the church. We recognize the forms of workshops, factories, warehouses, today used as apartments, offices or exhibition centers. Continue to descend towards the Moskva River and you will arrive at the large Kotelnicheskaya Palace. It was built by by Stalin in 1952 and is part of the seven sisters. Seven huge high-rise buildings surround the historic center and which wanted to demonstrate to the world the power and authority of the Soviet Union after the victory of the Second World War. Today inside, besides homes and offices, there is the Illusion cinema. The repertoire of cinema is made up of archival films; rare and unique finds from the collection of the State Film Fund of Russia in addition to the classics loved for generations, up to modern auteur cinema and festival films in the original language. Opposite, in the same square, is the building of the library of foreign literature. Over one and a half million titles on five floors with a calendar of daily courses and conferences.
You have reached the east end of today’s promenade, so we go up the hill onto Nikoloyamskaya Street.

Enjoy the internal courtyards

Walking on the main streets is not always pleasant, the cars are noisy and if it is wet you risk unwanted showers. I recommend you to walk among the courtyards and the internal areas, very quiet and you can discover historical or curious architectures, such as the representative building of the Republic of Altai, very colorful and sunny, in contrast with the surrounding buildings. Continue to walk on the same street passing under the viaduct of the Ring of the Gardens and continue the climb. You will pass through internal courtyards and you will come across red brick buildings: workshops and factories from the early twentieth century. One of these houses the Moscow Drama Theater ApARTe. You can see its programming directly from their website. Keep walking trying to avoid the main road, you will find yourself in front of the Stanislavskij factory, the historic family factory of the famous Russian actor and director. Here gold and silver decorations were produced. Today it is home to a business center with various activities. At the intersection, turn right and continue south on Dobrovolcheskaya street among anonymous high-rise residential buildings from the seventies.

The Intercession Monastery (Pokrovskiy)

You will then arrive at the gates of the Intercession Monastery, since 1998 there are the remains of the Holy Matron Blessed of Moscow (Matrona Dmitrevna Nikonova). The place is always very popular, it is a female monastery and people come to ask for pardon to get pregnant. During the Soviet Union period, companies, offices, banks, gyms, billiard rooms were located in the churches and various buildings of the monastery. From 1995 it resumed its religious activity and the nuns restored the buildings to their original function. In addition to visiting the sacred places, we recommend that you stop at Trapesa (Трапеза), the refectory of the monastery where you can taste traditional Russian cuisine and enjoy the Belle Époque style glass and cast iron decorations. Almost every monastery in Russia has its own Trapesa, they have recently been rediscovered and in my opinion, it is the best place to taste real traditional home cooking. Prices are also always very popular, which is a big plus in a city like Moscow.

You can then exit the monastery on the opposite side to which you entered and walk along the main road to the intersection with Marksistskaya street. Here I decide to stop for a coffee and a pirog (pies) with cranberry jam and apples from Shtolle. The environment is nice, clean, the pies are homemade and the coffee is decent. A little break before returning to the starting point of the Marksistskaya metro station and ending today’s walk.