Lubyanskaya Square (, Lubyanskaya ploshchad'), or simply Lubyanka in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
lies about north-east of
Red Square
Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...
. History first records its name in 1480, when Grand Prince
Ivan III of Moscow, who had conquered
Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...
in 1471, settled many Novgorodians in the area. They built the church of St Sophia, modelled after
St Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, and called the area ''Lubyanka'' after the Lubyanitsa street of their native city.
Name
The square was renamed Dzerzhinsky Square for many years (1926–1990) in honor of the founder of the Soviet security service
Felix Dzerzhinsky
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix (), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka a ...
.
Square center
A fountain used to stand in front of the building, at the center of the Lubyanka Square. In 1958, the fountain at the center of the Lubyanka Square was replaced by an 11-ton
statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky ("Iron Felix"), founder of the Cheka, made by
Yevgeny Vuchetich.
In 2014,
Jacques von Polier designed the
Raketa Monumental which is largest watch mechanism in the world. It is currently installed at the square.
On October 30, 1990, the
Memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...
organization erected the
Solovetsky Stone, a monument to the victims of the
Gulag
The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
, a simple stone from the
Solovki prison camp in the
White Sea
The White Sea (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; ) is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the nort ...
. In 1991 the statue of Dzerzhinsky was removed by liberal protesters following the failure of the
coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, and the square's original name was officially restored.
Lubyanka Building
Lubyanka Square is best known for the monumental
Lubyanka Building
Lubyanka (, ) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Neo-Baroque building with a facade of yellow brick designed by Alex ...
, designed by and constructed from 1897 to 1898. Originally built for the insurance company ''Rossiya'', it later became better known for housing the
headquarters of the KGB in its various incarnations. the
(FSB) occupies the building.
Detsky Mir
Opposite the FSB building stands the massive
Central Children's Store, known by its historical name of
Detsky Mir (, "Children World"),
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
's largest children's store, built between 1953 and 1957,
and fully restored in 2014. It hosts in its main atrium the world's largest mechanical clock movement:
Raketa Monumental.
Metro
The
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro) is a rapid transit system in the Moscow Oblast of Russia. It serves the capital city of Moscow and the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy, and Kotelniki. Opened in 1935 with one l ...
station
Lubyanka operates under Lubyanka Square.
Gallery
Image:Lubyanka-ca1910.jpg, Lubyanka Square in the early 1900s
Image:RIAN archive 11720 Dzerzhinsky Square.jpg, Dzerzhinsky Square in 1966, with the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky
Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix (), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka a ...
Image:KGB-Lubyanka-1983.jpg, KGB building in 1983
Image:Loubianka square memorial.jpg, The Solovetsky Stone monument
Image:Lubyanka CDM view from Panoramic view point 05-2015 img01.jpg, A less common view
References
External links
{{Commons category
Squares in Moscow