The president drove to the park from Red
Square by a golf car.
MOSCOW,
September 9. /TASS/. During the events devoted to the 870th anniversary of
Moscow, President Putin visited a new Zaryadye park in downtown Moscow, where
he saw from the height of bird's flight his house, then he visited the Soaring
Bridge at the park and talked to volunteers and children. The president drove
to the park from Red Square by a golf car. Putin gave a lift to Moscow’s Mayor
Sergei Sobyanin.
Putin
viewed the park’s layout and asked the mayor how long the construction lasted.
Two years, he replied. Later on, the president saw archeological revelations,
which were found during the construction in that ancient part of Moscow.
The
president went to see the big amphitheater, which will host the city’s cultural
events - concerts, festivals and performances. It may welcome the audience of
16,000, and the small amphitheater nearby has the audience capacity of 400
seats.
History of the Zaryadye Park
The new
Zaryadye park was built at Putin’s initiative at the site of the Soviet-era
huge hotel Rossiya that was pulled down in the 2000’s.
Zaryadye is
the name of the area, one the oldest in Moscow nowadays located to the east of
the Kremlin and to the southeast of Red Square.
The area
filled with small churches and Empire-style buildings of Moscow tradesmen and
merchants underwent sweeping reconstructions in the 1930’s. Later plans
suggested a Stalin-era-style skyscraper would be erected there but the authorities
called the project off.
The
foundation of the abortive building came in handy in 1964 when construction of
hotel Rossiya began. With its capacity for 6,000 or so customers, it became the
largest hotel in Europe but 40 years after its commissioning, in 2006, Moscow
City authorities disassembled it.
In 2004,
the city government put forward a proposal to return a historic layout and look
to the Zaryadye area and a competition for the best urban development project
to it was held.
In January
2012, Putin asked Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to think over a park zone at the site
of the removed hotel and in August of the same year Sobyanin called off an
urban development project in favor of the park.
The park
that is said to embody the principles of ‘landscape urbanism’ - meaning that
people are not obliged to follow prearranged routes and plants can grow freely
- represents the four types of landscapes most typical for Russia - the forest,
the steppe, the tundra, and the floodplains.
One of the
highlights of the park is an icy cave where the air temperature below 0
Centigrade will be maintained throughout the year and a hovering bridge rising
to the height of fifty standards stories.
Zaryadye
park managers say admittance to the park will be free and visitors will have an
opportunity to come there anytime day and night.
Source: ITAR-TASS 10-09-2017
