Metro stations or subway stations are now part of daily commuting lives of people living in cosmopolitan cities such as London, New York, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Osaka and others. Their networks can get extensive up to suburbs few kilometer away from city centers. But in Moscow, the Russian capital city, their metro stations are not just efficient but also aesthetic. I don't have any idea how beautiful the architecture were emanated in each station until I finally visited them personally. I got enamored of their beauty that I allotted my whole afternoon just visiting these stations. Here, I'll share what I found the most aesthetic Moscow stations I visited.
The vestibule of Belorusskaya (Russian: Белору́сская) station, just a few walks away from railway terminal. The M above it means you're in a Moscow Metro.
The Moscow Metro (Russian: Московский метрополитен) is a metro system serving the Russian capital of Moscow as well as the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. Opened in 1935 with one 11-kilometre (6.8 mi) line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union.
The Moscow Metro is 449 km (279 mi) long and consists of 15 lines and 263 stations organized in a spoke-hub distribution paradigm, with the majority of rail lines running radially from the centre of Moscow to the outlying areas.
As of September 2024, the Moscow Metro had 297 stations and 519.4 km (322.7 mi) of route length, excluding light rail Monorail, making it the 8th-longest in the world and the longest outside China. It is also the only system with three circle lines. The system is mostly underground, with the deepest section 73 metres underground at the Park Pobedy station, one of the world's deepest underground stations. It is the busiest metro system in Europe, the busiest in the world outside Asia, and is considered a tourist attraction in itself, thanks to its lavish interior decoration.
The Troika card (Russian: Тройка, Troika) is a reusable contactless smart card used to pay for public transport in Moscow, including bus, trolleybus, or trams. It can also be used to pay for car parking, bicycle rental, and other city transport services. It was introduced on April 2, 2013. Passengers can buy a Troika card at any Metro ticket office and automated Mosgortrans ticket kiosks. They can top it up at Metro ticket windows and automated Metro vending machines as well as automated vending machines, mobile phone stores, and payment terminals or via the internet, SMS, electronic payment systems, and smartphone apps. RUB150 for card deposit and top up at least RUB56 for one ride.
1. Paveletskaya
Paveletskaya (Russian: Павеле́цкая) is a station on the Koltsevaya line and Zamotskvoretskaya line of the Moscow Metro. Opened on 1 January 1950 as part of the first segment of the fourth stage, the station is a pylon-trivault built in the style of the late 1940/early 1950s Stalinist architecture to a design by architects Nikolai Kolli and I. Kasetl. The station's theme comes from the Paveletsky railway terminal from which trains depart towards the Volga Region. Thus agricultural influences are clearly seen, these include the square white koyelga marble columns decorated with red marble strips, flanked by marble columns with modern Ionic capitals. Bright bronze chandeliers provide lighting. The walls repeat the two tone marble, white on top, red on bottom, and the floor is laid with grey and white granite.
The other major change was that initially in the end of the station was a large medallion with image of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, but during the 1961 de-Stalinization drive this was removed and instead replaced by the present artwork by Pavel Korin showing the Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union being held by a worker man and peasant woman amid floral backgrounds.
2. VDNKh
VDNKh (Russian: ВДНХ) is a Moscow Metro station in Ostankinsky District, North-Eastern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia. It is located on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line, between Alekseyevskaya and Botanichesky Sad stations. VDNKh was opened on 1 May 1958. The name stands for Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnovo Khozyaystva (abbreviated VDNKh).
Decorative grill. VDNKh was the deepest station in Moscow Metro from 1958 until 1979.
3. Paveletskaya (Zamoskvoretskaya line)
Paveletskaya (Russian: Павелецкая) is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya line, located in the Zamoskvorechye District, Central Administrative Okrug. The station has entrances to the Paveletsky rail terminal and the Garden ring. It was opened in 1943 and was designed by S.V. Lyashchenko and E.S. Demchenko. Paveletskaya features tall white marble pillars decorated with the hammer and sickle and a high, arched ceiling. The walls are faced with white marble.
4. Rizhskaya (Bolshaya Koltsevaya line)
Rizhskaya (Russian: Рижская) is a station on the Bolshaya Koltsevaya line of the Moscow Metro, between the stations Sokolniki and Maryina Roshcha. A transfer to the Kaluzhsko–Rizhskaya line, via its Rizhskaya station, the station is one of 14 Moscow Metro stations that were opened on 1 March 2023. Rizhskaya's technical launch was held on 30 November 2022, along with those of Sokolniki and Maryina Roshcha, as part of the deployment of the new northeast section of the Bolshaya Koltsevaya line.
5. Ploshchad Revolyutsii
Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Russian: Площадь Революции) is a station in the Moscow Metro, in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow. The station is named after Revolution Square (Resurrection Square until 1918), under which it is located. It is on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line. The station opened in 1938, its architect was Alexey Dushkin. The station features red and yellow marble arches resting on low pylons faced with black Armenian marble. The spaces between the arches are partially filled by decorative ventilation grilles and ceiling tracery.
Male soldier with dog & female sharpshooter
Male & female agricultural laborers
Several of the sculptures are widely believed to bring good luck to those who rub them. The practice is targeted at specific areas on individual sculptures, including the soldier's pistol, the patrolman's dog, the roosters, and the female student's shoe.
6. Belorusskaya
Belorusskaya (Russian: Белору́сская) is a station on the Moscow Metro's Koltsevaya line. It is named after the nearby Belorussky Rail Terminal. It opened in 1952, serving briefly as the terminus of the line before the circle was completed in 1954. Designed by Ivan Taranov, Z. Abramova, A. Markova, and Ya. Tatarzhinskaya, the station has low, white marble pylons, an elaborately patterned plaster ceiling, light fixtures supported by ornate scroll-shaped brackets, and a variety of decorations based on Belarusian themes.
7. Taganskaya
Taganskaya (Russian: Тага́нская) is a station on the Koltsevaya line of the Moscow Metro. It opened on 1 January 1950 with the first segment of the fourth stage of the system. The station is named after the Taganka Square which is a major junction of the Sadovoye Koltso.
Designed by architects K. Ryzhkov and A. Medvedev, this pylon station was built with the post-war flamboyance in mind, the overall design is based on the traditional Russian motives in decorations. The central feature of the station are 48 maiolica panels located on each face of the pylon. (works of Ye.Blinova, P. Kozhin, A. Sotnikov, A. Berzhitskaya and Z. Sokolova). These contain apart from floral elements, profile bas-reliefs of various World War II Red Army and Navy servicemen each dedicated to a group such as pilots, tank crews, sailors etc. The color gamma is balanced in such a way that the panels facing the central hall are on a blue majolica background, whilst the platform hall panels are monochromatic. Lighting comes from a set of 12 gilded chandeliers in the central hall with the same blue majolica center. The remaining decoration of the station include a cream-colored ceramic tile on the walls, powder colored marble on the lower pylons and also on the walls, and a checkerboard floor layout of black and gray granite.
8. Novoslobodskaya
Novoslobodskaya (Russian: Новослобо́дская) is a Moscow Metro station in the Tverskoy District of the Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Koltsevaya Line, between Belorusskaya and Prospekt Mira stations. Novoslobodskaya was opened on 30 January 1952. From 21 November 2020 to 4 March 2022, the entrance of the station was closed for reconstruction.
It is best known for its 32 stained glass panels, which are the work of Latvian artists E. Veylandan, E. Krests, and M. Ryskin. Each panel, surrounded by an elaborate brass border, is set into one of the station's pylons and illuminated from within. Both the pylons and the pointed arches between them are faced with pinkish Ural marble and edged with brass molding.
At the end of the platform is a mosaic by Pavel Korin entitled "Peace Throughout the World."
Alexey Dushkin, the station's architect, has long wished to utilise stained glass in decoration of a metro station, and the first drawings date to pre–World War II times. In 1948, with the aid of a young architect Alexander Strelkov, Dushkin came across the artist Pavel Korin, who agreed to compose the artworks for the panels. The rest of the station was designed around the glass panels.
9. Kiyevskaya
Kiyevskaya (Russian: Киевская), named for the nearby Kiyevsky railway station, is a station on the Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya line of the Moscow Metro. Opened in 1953, it is lavishly decorated in the quasi-baroque style that predominated in the early 1950s. The square pylons are faced with white Ural marble and elaborately patterned ceramic tile and the plastered ceiling is decorated with a series of frescoes by various artists depicting life in Ukraine.
A large mosaic at the end of the platform commemorates the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Russia and Ukraine. Light comes from a row of hexagonal chandeliers. The architects were L. V. Lile, V. A. Litvinov, M. F. Markovsky, and V. M. Dobrokovsky.
10. Arbatskaya
Arbatskaya (Russian: Арба́тская) is a station on the Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya line of the Moscow Metro. Arbatskaya was designed by Leonid Polyakov, Valentin Pelevin and Yury Zenkevich. Since it was meant to serve as a bomb shelter as well as a Metro station, Arbatskaya is both large (the 250-m platform is the second-longest in Moscow) and deep (41 m underground). The main tunnel is elliptical in cross-section, an unusual departure from the standard circular design.
The station features low, square pylons faced with red marble and a high vaulted ceiling elaborately decorated with ornamental brackets, floral reliefs, and chandeliers.
11. Elektrozavodskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line)
Elektrozavodskaya (Russian: Электрозаво́дская) is a Moscow Metro station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line. It is one of the better-known stations of the system. Built as part of the third stage of the Moscow Metro and opened on 15 May 1944 during World War II, the station is one of the iconic symbols of the system, famous for its architectural decoration which is work of architects Vladimir Shchuko (who died whilst working on the station's project in 1939) and Vladimir Gelfreich, along with participation of his student Igor Rozhin. Named after the electric light bulb factory nearby, the preliminary layout included Schuko's idea of making the ceiling covered with six rows of circular incandescent inset lamps (of which there were 318 in total).
12. Aviamotornaya
Aviamotornaya (Russian: Авиамото́рная, lit. 'Aircraft engines') is a Moscow Metro station in the Lefortovo District, South-Eastern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia. It is on the Kalininsko-Solntsevskaya line. The station was opened on 30 December 1979. The central hallway contains a sculpture made out of anodised gold pyramids and tetrahedra. The architects of the station are A.F. Strelkov, V.I. Klokov, N.I. Demchinsky, J.A. Kolesnikov, and E.S. Barsky. The theme of Aviamotornaya is aviation and flying. The columns holding up the ceiling are glazed in a light marble tone. The floor is made up of granite plates coloured in different shades of grey.
13. Mayakovskaya
Mayakovskaya (Russian: Маяковская), is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line, in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow.
The name as well as the design is a reference to Futurism and its prominent Russian exponent Vladimir Mayakovsky. Considered to be one of the most beautiful in the system, it is a fine example of pre-World War II Stalinist Architecture and one of the most famous Metro stations in the world.
Alexey Dushkin's Art Deco architecture was based on a Soviet future as envisioned by the poet Mayakovsky. The station features streamlined columns faced with stainless steel and pink rhodonite, white Ufaley and grey Diorite marble walls, a flooring pattern of white and pink marble, and 35 niches, one for each vault. Surrounded by filament lights there are a total of 34 ceiling mosaics by Alexander Deyneka with the theme "24-Hour Soviet Sky."
14. Prospekt Mira
Prospekt Mira (Russian: Проспе́кт Ми́ра) is a station of the Moscow Metro's Koltsevaya line. Opened on 30 January 1952 as part of the second stage of the line, its pylons are designed by architects Vladimir Gelfreykh and Mikhail Minkus.
The arches are faced with flared white marble and are topped with ceramic bas-relief frieze made of floral elements. In the centre are medallion bas-reliefs (work of G.Motovilov) featuring the different aspects in the development of agriculture in the Soviet Union. The station walls are laid with dark red Ural marble and chessboard floor pattern is made of grey and black granite. The ceiling vault is decorated with casts, and lighting comes from several cylindrical chandeliers.
15. Komsomolskaya
Komsomolskaya (Russian: Комсомо́льская) is a Moscow Metro station in the Krasnoselsky District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Koltsevaya line, between Prospekt Mira and Kurskaya stations. The station is located under the busiest Moscow transport hub, Komsomolskaya Square, which serves Leningradsky, Yaroslavsky, and Kazansky railway terminals. Because of that, the station is one of the busiest in the whole system. It opened on 30 January 1952 as a part of the second stage of the line.
Komsomolskaya was designed by Alexey Shchusev as an illustration of a historical speech given by Joseph Stalin November 7, 1941. In the speech, Stalin evoked the memories of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy and other military leaders of the past, and all these historical figures eventually appeared on the mosaics of Komsomolskaya. Komsomolskaya remained Shchusev's first and only metro station design. The station was initially planned as a traditional deep pylon type. Later, Shchusev replaced the heavy concrete pylons with narrow octagonal steel columns, riveted with marble tiles, creating the larger open space.- After Shchusev's death, the station was completed by Viktor Kokorin, A. Zabolotnaya, V. Varvarin and O. Velikoretsky and Pavel Korin, the creator of the mosaics. In 1958 the station was awarded the Grand Prix ("Grand Prize") title of Expo '58 in Brussels.
The locations of metro stations above. Most stations are in Brown Line 5 Koltsevaya (Circle) Line.
For convenience, install Yandex Metro mobile application. Enjoy your metro tour very soon! (n_n)
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