Pushkinskaya Square is located in the Central Administrative District of Moscow between Tverskoy and Strastnoy Boulevards (Boulevard ring), separated by Tverskaya Street, one km northwest of the Kremlin and Red square.
The historical name is Strastnaya Square (after the Strastnoy Monastery), otherwise Tver Gate Square (along the Tver Gates of the White City). It received its current name in 1931.
From the end of the 16th century, the Tver Gates of the White City stood on the site of the current square, through which the road to Tver (and further to Veliky Novgorod, later also to St. Petersburg) passed. At the gate on the land that belonged to the future father-in-law of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Ilya Danilovich Miloslavsky, in 1646, a church was erected in honor of the Passion Icon of the Mother of God from 1654. The Passion Convent operated here (not preserved).
The gate was demolished in 1720, leaving a small square. The following year, a triumphal arch was built on it for the solemn entry into the ancient capital of Peter I in honor of the conclusion of the Nishtad peace. Since then, throughout the XVIII century, triumphal arches were regularly placed for each new coronation in place of the gate.
Muscovites especially remember the Catherine’s Arch by architect Dmitry Ukhtomsky (1763); an arch was also erected in 1773 in honor of the solemn entry into Moscow of the winner of the Turks, Peter Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky.
In the 1770s, the wall of the White City was dismantled. In 1784 the forges were moved behind Zemlyanoy Val. In 1794, the shops located on the square were removed. In 1791, the old church of Dmitry Solunsky was demolished (the bell tower remained in place), and instead of it, a new one was built in the Baroque style (it was rebuilt again in 1832). In 1796, Tverskoy Boulevard appeared on the site of the demolished wall, the first in Moscow, which immediately became a favorite place for walking.
In 1931, the square changed its name from Strastnaya to Pushkinskaya in connection with preparations for the centenary of the death of the poet (according to local historian N. A. Shamin, the decision to rename Strastnaya Square into Pushkinskaya Square arose as early as 1899, on the centenary of the poet’s birth).
In 1934, the corner house No. 16 (1880, architect August Weber) and the three-story house No. 16/2 next to it were merged, rebuilt and built on: this building with a dome, creating a characteristic silhouette of the square, housed the All-Union Theater Society, the House of the Actor and editorial office of the newspaper “Moscow News.”
In 1961, on the site of the demolished monastery, the Rossiya Cinema was built (architect Yu. N. Sheverdyaev, jointly by E. Gadzhinsky, D. Solopov), later the Pushkinsky Cinema (1997-2012) and the theater under the original name (since 2012).
Main attractions
Shopping complex “Tverskoy Passage.”
The main house of the city estate of Dolgorukov-Bobrinsky
Malaya Dmitrovka street, 2. Residential building, built in 1911 by architect L. V. Stezhensky
Theater “Russia”, in the past – the cinema of the same name (1965-1997) and the cinema “Pushkin” (1997-2012)
Nearest metro: Pushkinskaya, Chekhovskaya, Tverskaya.
Buses m1, 101, 904, n1, n12 – along Tverskaya street.
Bus m10 – along Malaya Dmitrovka and Tverskaya streets.
Buses 15, A – along the Boulevard Ring.
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