Znayu mestoI know a place
RUENESTR中文عربيفارسی
Русский English Español Türkçe 中文 العربية فارسی

Walking routes in Moscow

    🚶 Routes 📍 Places
    Where do you start
    Start typing an address, metro station or place in the search box above — or tap the map where you will start
    How much walking
    Interests
    Child's age pick one or more
    Food we'll pick places along the way
      ← All routes

      Shabolovka: the avant-garde, Old Believers and Gagarin

      ⏱ 1 h 35 min🚶 3.7 km🍽 0📍 5 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      From Shabolovskaya to Gagarin Square: a 17th-century church, a rationalist workers' quarter at a 45° angle, a student communal house and a titanium cosmonaut.

      🏛 History and architecture🏘 Off the centre⏱ An hour or so
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🏛 Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya
        ул. Академика Петровского, 6
        Naryshkin Baroque two steps from Shabolovskaya metro: a church on the spot where in 1625 Moscow welcomed the Robe of the Lord, a gift from the Persian shah.
        Two minutes from the metro exit onto Shabolovka. The church stands at the corner with Akademika Petrovskogo Street; the Shukhov Tower is visible over the rooftops nearby.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • A wooden church was built in 1625 where the clergy met the embassy of Shah Abbas I bringing the Robe of the Lord.
        • The stone church was built by 1690 (by other accounts, in 1701) in the Moscow Baroque style.
        • An obelisk commemorating the meeting was erected on the same spot, and it has survived.
        • The Feast of the Deposition of the Robe of the Lord is celebrated in Moscow only by the Russian Church.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🏛 Old Believer Church of the Tikhvin Icon on Khavskaya
        ул. Серпуховский Вал, 16 (угол Хавской ул.)
        A red-brick Old Believer church of 1911-1912 deep in Khavskaya Street — after almost a century in other hands, it has been active again since 2025.
        Down Shabolovka and left onto Khavskaya, about 15 minutes. The red-brick church stands at the corner with Serpukhovsky Val; services have been held again since 2025, and you go in in modest clothing.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Old Believer Church of the Tikhvin Icon on Khavskaya
        © Aniacra · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Old Believer Church of the Tikhvin Icon on Khavskaya
        © Никонико962 · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The church was built by the Tikhvin community of Old Believers of the Belokrinitsa hierarchy in 1911-1912.
        • The design is by the architect Nikolai Martyanov.
        • Before the church, the community had a prayer house in the Mikhailov house, where Archbishop John (Kartushin) was raised to the see in 1898.
        • The church was closed in Soviet times; services resumed on 19 April 2025.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🏛 Khavsko-Shabolovsky Housing Estate
        ул. Лестева, 13–21, и ул. Шаболовка, 63–67
        A workers' settlement by rationalist architects of the late 1920s: the buildings stand at 45° to the streets, and the district still looks like an experiment.
        Go back to Shabolovka and walk through the block via the courtyards to Lesteva Street: the buildings stand at an angle to the streets. These are residential courtyards — keep quiet.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Khavsko-Shabolovsky Housing Estate
        © Retired electrician · CC0
        • The district was designed by architects of the ASNOVA group — rivals of the Constructivists.
        • The master plan is by Nikolai Travin, a VKhUTEMAS graduate, together with I. Yozefovich and I. Kirkesali, a pupil of Nikolai Ladovsky.
        • The inner buildings are turned at 45° to the street grid — Ladovsky's idea about the role of space.
        • Of 24 planned buildings, 15 were built; the panel towers between them appeared in the 1960s-1980s.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Nikolaev Communal House on Ordzhonikidze Street
        2-й Донской пр., 9
        Moscow's most radical communal house: a student dormitory of 1929-1930 with an eight-storey sleeping block of cubicles measuring 2.7 by 2.3 metres.
        Along Serpukhovsky Val and Donskaya Street past the walls of Donskoy Monastery, about 20 minutes. The long dormitory building is best seen from 2nd Donskoy Proyezd; it's a hostel and they don't let you in.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Nikolaev Communal House on Ordzhonikidze Street
        © Artyom Svetlov · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Nikolaev Communal House on Ordzhonikidze Street
        © Artyom Svetlov · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Built in 1929-1930 to a design by Ivan Nikolaev for students of the Textile Institute.
        • In plan, the three blocks form a shape resembling an aeroplane.
        • Students slept in two-person cabins that held only beds and stools; there were 1,008 cabins.
        • Since 1968 it has been a dormitory of the Institute of Steel and Alloys; after a fire in 2010 the building was restored by 2017.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🏛 Gagarin Monument on Leninsky Prospekt
        пл. Гагарина, Ленинский пр-т
        A 42-metre column with a titanium Gagarin who seems to take off above the square — the road he drove into Moscow along after his flight.
        Along Ordzhonikidze Street, 10 minutes to the square. At the foot is a copy of the Vostok descent module; the whole 42-metre column is better seen if you step back along Leninsky Prospekt.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Gagarin Monument on Leninsky Prospekt
        © Kemal KOZBAEV · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Unveiled on 4 July 1980, for the Olympics; the sculptor is Pavel Bondarenko.
        • The monument is 42.5 metres tall, and the figure is cast from titanium alloy.
        • At its foot is a copy of the descent module of the Vostok spacecraft.
        • On 14 April 1961 Gagarin drove along Leninsky Prospekt from Vnukovo to the Kremlin; until 1960 the Moscow city boundary ran here.

      ↩️ Getting back: from the monument, 5 minutes to Leninsky Prospekt metro or MCC Ploshchad Gagarina

      Find us on Telegram

      Partnerships and ideas

      ✉️ privet@znayumesto.ru

      Settings

      Data: © OpenStreetMap · DB-IP · weather — Open-Meteo
      The map did not load. You can still browse routes in the list and open them in Yandex Maps.

      We use cookies and Yandex Metrica to understand which routes are useful. Without your consent we keep only our own cookie-free statistics.