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Putin visits new park in central Moscow

The president drove to the park from Red Square by a golf car

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. During the events devoted to the 870th anniversary of Moscow, President Putin visited a new Zaryadye park in downtown Moscow, where he saw from the height of bird's flight his house, then he visited the Soaring Bridge at the park and talked to volunteers and children. The president drove to the park from Red Square by a golf car. Putin gave a lift to Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

Putin viewed the park’s layout and asked the mayor how long the construction lasted. Two years, he replied. Later on, the president saw archeological revelations, which were found during the construction in that ancient part of Moscow.

The president went to see the big amphitheater, which will host the city’s cultural events - concerts, festivals and performances. It may welcome the audience of 16,000, and the small amphitheater nearby has the audience capacity of 400 seats.

History of the Zaryadye Park

The new Zaryadye park was built at Putin’s initiative at the site of the Soviet-era huge hotel Rossiya that was pulled down in the 2000’s.

Zaryadye is the name of the area, one the oldest in Moscow nowadays located to the east of the Kremlin and to the southeast of Red Square.

The area filled with small churches and Empire-style buildings of Moscow tradesmen and merchants underwent sweeping reconstructions in the 1930’s. Later plans suggested a Stalin-era-style skyscraper would be erected there but the authorities called the project off.

The foundation of the abortive building came in handy in 1964 when construction of hotel Rossiya began. With its capacity for 6,000 or so customers, it became the largest hotel in Europe but 40 years after its commissioning, in 2006, Moscow City authorities disassembled it.

In 2004, the city government put forward a proposal to return a historic layout and look to the Zaryadye area and a competition for the best urban development project to it was held.

In January 2012, Putin asked Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to think over a park zone at the site of the removed hotel and in August of the same year Sobyanin called off an urban development project in favor of the park.

The park that is said to embody the principles of ‘landscape urbanism’ - meaning that people are not obliged to follow prearranged routes and plants can grow freely - represents the four types of landscapes most typical for Russia - the forest, the steppe, the tundra, and the floodplains.

One of the highlights of the park is an icy cave where the air temperature below 0 Centigrade will be maintained throughout the year and a hovering bridge rising to the height of fifty standards stories.

Zaryadye park managers say admittance to the park will be free and visitors will have an opportunity to come there anytime day and night.