One of the central streets of the capital is called Crimean Val. Crimean because once there were courtyards in which ambassadors of the Crimean Khan lived. And Val is because the 1252-meter-long street is part of the 16-kilometer (15.6) Garden Ring, which was once a closed earthen rampart that was part of the fortifications erected around Moscow.
History in place names
The need for it arose after the raid of Kazi Giray, the Crimean Khan, who devastated the city. Within one year (1591-1592) a shaft was poured on which a 5-meter wooden wall was erected. A moat was dug from its outside, later filled with water. In the wall itself, constructed by order of Boris Godunov, there were about 100 dead towers and 34 exit towers with gates. Krymsky Val - a street passing through the historical district of Moscow - Yakimanka, so named after Bolshaya Yakimanka Street, which, in turn, was named after the chapel of Saints Joachim and Anna in the Annunciation Church, built here in 1493 and demolished in 1969. The history of Moscow can be traced in the names of streets and districts.
Border with Zamoskvorechiy
So, the Garden Ring got its name thanks to the plan of A.P. Tormasov in 1816, obliging the owners of houses built on both sides of a cobblestone-paved street that appeared on the site of a demolished medieval rampart and a covered moat to plant gardens and front gardens without fail.
The overgrown plantings were demolished during the Stalinist reconstruction of the capital. And yet, until the end of the 19th century, these places, popularly called Skorodom, under the constant threat of flooding, were, in fact, city dumps. In the area of Krymsky Val, among other things, there were also the possessions of the merchant, Sveshnikova, a city hospital, a philistine school, an untidy market, an almshouse and vegetable gardens.
Part of the Garden Ring sung in songs
Krymsky Val, located in the very center of the capital, is fenced on the Crimean bridge on one side and Kaluga Square on the other. In total, the Garden Ring consists of 16 streets and the same number of squares. This is one of the historical borders of Moscow, which used to be called the Earth City. After the walls of the Kremlin, Kitay-Gorod, the White City, this is the fourth fortress wall of the capital. Serious reconstruction began in Soviet times. On this territory in 1923 the All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Industrial Exhibition was placed. After its demolition in 1928, a park was laid out here, which in 1932 was named after A.M. Gorky. Krymsky Val Street, which runs along Gorky Park, which has become a tourist attraction in Moscow, was decorated in 1950 with a new beautiful cast-iron fence. There is also the main entrance to the park, which can be reached by metro, the nearest stations are Park Kultury and Oktyabrskaya.
The beginning of all future opening days
Already in the 70s of the last century, a building was erected on the opposite side of the main entrance of the street, in which the Central House of Artists and the exposition of the Tretyakov Gallery were located under one roof. This complex perfectly complements the art park, formed in the 90s. Monuments that were irrelevant at that time were demolished from the streets of Moscow.
The peculiar exhibition “Crimean Wall”, where you can admire sculptures and monuments, is known throughout Moscow. In the same area, twice a year, another popular exhibition called "Real Estate" is held. There are no ancient buildings, all buildings of the Soviet period. Actually, the Tretyakov Gallery received the right to be placed in this building in 1985, and in 2000 the exhibition "Art of the 20th Century" opens here on an ongoing basis.
