Theatre Square or Teatralnaya Square (russian: Театральная площадь, ''Teatralnaya ploshchad''), known as Sverdlov Square between 1919 and 1991, is a

city square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

in the Tverskoy District of central

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It is at the junction of Kuznetsky Bridge Street,

Petrovka Street Petrovka Street is a street in Moscow, Russia, that runs north from Kuznetsky Most and Theatral Square up past Strastnoy Boulevard and Petrovsky Boulevard. The street takes its name from the St. Peter's Monastery, situated at the top of th ...

, and Theatre Drive (north-west of the latter; the square south-east of Theatre Drive is the separate Revolution Square). Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13138, Moskau, Bolschoi-Theater

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13138, Moskau, Bolschoi-Theater

The square is named after the three theatres located on it: the

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, literally "Big Theater", p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈatər) is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and ope ...

Maly Theatre The Maly Theatre, or Mali Theatre, may refer to one of several different theatres: * The Maly Theatre (Moscow), also known as The State Academic Maly Theatre of Russia, in Moscow (founded in 1756 and given its own building in 1824) * The Maly Thea ...

, and Russian Academic Youth Theatre. The square is served by the

Moscow metro The Moscow Metro) 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 line and 13 stations, it was the first ...

at the Teatralnaya station on the

Zamoskvoretskaya Line The Zamoskvoretskaya line (russian: link=no, Замоскворе́цкая ли́ния, ), formerly Gorkovsko–Zamoskvoretskaya () (Line 2), is a line of the Moscow Metro. Opened in 1938, chronologically it became the third line. There are 24 ...

; Okhotny Ryad station on the Sokolnicheskaya Line; and Ploshchad Revolyutsii station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line.

History

The square emerged after the

1812 Fire of Moscow Year 181 ( CLXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Burrus (or, less frequently, year 934 ''Ab urbe condit ...

and conversion of the

Neglinnaya River The Neglinnaya ( rus, Неглинная, p=nʲɪˈɡlʲinːəjə), also known as Neglinka, Neglinna, Neglimna (Неглинка, Неглинна, Неглимна), is a 7.5 km underground river in the central part of Moscow and a tributar ...

into an underground channel. The river still flows diagonally under the square's park. It was designed in a symmetrical Neoclassical style by

Joseph Bove Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

in the 1820s, with

Neoclassical Style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...

buildings framing it. However, in the second half of the 19th century the Neoclassical ensemble was destroyed by new buildings in

eclectic style Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact t ...

s, that were considerably taller than the original ones fronting the square. The square also has the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style TsUM (ЦУМ) luxury

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

building. It was during a meeting in then Sverdlov Square on 5 May 1920, that an iconic picture of Lenin was taken.a review of ''Trotsky, a pictorial biography'' by David King
See footnote 54 "This photo was often published in the Soviet Union, but with

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...

and

Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev. ('' né'' Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. Born in Moscow to parents who were both involved in revolutionary politics, Kamenev attended Imperial Moscow Un ...

painted out of the picture." Retrieved 2008-11-14

Notes

References

* Moscow Encyclopaedia. Bolshaya Rossiiskaya Entsikolpediya, 1997. Article "Teatralnaya ploshchad". Squares in Moscow Tverskoy District {{Moscow-geo-stub