The Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve to undergo big changes

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced in his personal blog that large-scale landscaping works on the territory of the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve will begin this year. Within three years, the embankment of the Moskva River, the amusement park will be renovated, as well as the rehabilitation of gardens, ravines and a cascade of ponds.

More than four million people visit Kolomenskoye every year. This place is especially popular during the flowering of historical apple orchards, which appeared in the seventeenth century. The last time certain sections of the park were put in order more than 10 years ago, and comprehensive landscaping and rehabilitation work was carried out more than 20 years ago. Today, Kolomenskoye lacks entertainment for children, food and rental pavilions, and the embankment is devoid of treadmills. According to the mayor, the new landscaping project will solve the accumulated problems and at the same time preserve the uniqueness of this place.

The reconstruction work will take place in three stages. The first of them will start this year. It includes the renovation of the Moskva River embankment. Specialists will begin to put in order the site in the area of the Klenovy Boulevard metro station, and then they will move towards the Saburovsky Bridge. The work will affect the 3.5 km long embankment.

In addition, it is planned to create a new wedding garden with a ceremonial pavilion for 200 people on the territory of Kolomenskoye. It will appear near the confluence of the Zhuzha River with the Moskva River.  An amphitheater will descend from the garden to the river. There, a wedding platform with a pergola will be erected right on the water. A green maze will be planted in the wedding garden, in the center of which it is planned to install an art object dedicated to lovers. 

The berthing area will also be reconstructed, and the Kolomenskoye pier itself will be put in order. There will be river transport pavilions, a waiting room, an information center, as well as a restaurant with a summer terrace and a dance floor.

The pedestrian part of the embankment will be expanded due to the wooden flooring. There will also be a place for a treadmill, and in winter a linear skating rink with a length of about 1.8 km will be organized.

In the central part of the embankment there will be another pavilion-a restaurant with a view of the river and summer terraces, a cafe or a bakery. In addition, it is planned to equip a children's club with a family cafe and mother and child rooms. Playgrounds for children of all ages will be made next to it. Another amphitheater with a view of the Moskva River has been designed.

A viewing platform on the water with a bar will be placed downstream, and in the southern part of the embankment there will be a pavilion with changing rooms, a rental point, a recreation area by the water, as well as beach volleyball fields. 

At the second stage of the work, specialists will update the amusement park and add new opportunities in the recreational area next to the Klenovy Boulevard metro station and on sites near historical sites. The third stage of landscaping will include the rehabilitation of gardens, ravines and a cascade of ponds on Kolomenskoye Creek. In addition, the space near the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Dyakov gorodishche will be reorganized.

The park territory of Kolomenskoye occupies 255 hectares. Recently, the museum-reserve celebrated its 100th anniversary. There are 17 architectural monuments of federal significance on its territory, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site – the Church of the Ascension of the Lord.