Walking Excursion Around the City Center

You will stroll across the Red Square, perhaps the most recognizable symbol of Russia along with St. Basil's Cathedral. St. Basil's was built between 1555 and 1561 to celebrate Ivan the Terrible's conquering of the Tatar stronghold Kazan on October 1, 1552. Legend has it Ivan had architect blinded so he could never build anything as buautiful again. You will walk through the GUM department store, the largest shopping center in all of Russia. GUM was built in 1893 and it sits opposite the Kremlin on the Red Square. The building is characterized by a vast glass ceiling, ornate bridges, and stucco design work. You will work along the Varvarka street. This ancient little street has an atmosphere of the middle-ages - it sparkles with the golden domes of churches of which there arc more than on any other Moscow street. Its name comes from one of these churches - the church to St. Varvara. Major historic events have taken place here. The Church of St. Varvara stands at the very beginning of Varvarka on the right. The first church to be built on this site was put up in the early 16th century by the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin who also designed the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin. The little white Church of St. Maxim the Confessor stands on the same side of Varvarka. It was built in the 16th, and its bell-tower is known as Moscow's leaning tower, because it is plainly not vertical in alignment. The Chambers of the Romanov boyars belonged in the 16th century to Nikita Romanovich Zakharin-Yurev, who was the grandfather of Mikhail Fyodorovich, the first Tsar in the Romanov dynasty. This house was Mikhail Fyodorovich's birthplace. The Romanovs also owned Znamensky Monastery, the main cathedral of which - Znamensky, stands next to the chambers.