Moscow Guide
The Kitay-gorod
The Palace of the Romanov Boyars
Opening time: Mon & Thurs– Sun 10am–7pm, Wed 11am–7pm; closed Tues & the first Mon of each month
Price: R100, students R50
The rambling Palace of the Romanov Boyars was built in the sixteenth century by Nikita Romanov (Ivan the Terrible's brother-in-law), and it once formed the nucleus of a vast complex of seven thousand households stretching down to the river, made almost entirely of wood, with the exception of the palace.
Romanov menfolk used the first floor, built of stone, whose rooms are low and vaulted, with mica windows, tiled stoves and gilded, embossed leather "wallpaper", in contrast to the spacious, airy women's quarters upstairs, panelled in blonde wood. Here, married couples slept on benches against the walls, while unmarried daughters spent the daytime weaving in the adjacent svetlitsa or "light room", with its latticed windows overlooking the street. The residence was abandoned after Mikhail Romanov was elected tsar in 1613, and the whole family and their retainers moved into the Kremlin. In 1859, it was restored on the orders of Nicholas I as a tribute to his ancestors, and opened as a public museum.
Beyond the palace rises the sky-blue belltower of the Church of St George (tserkov Georgiya na Pskovskoy Gorke), whose sea-green onion domes spangled with gold stars and sprouting intricate crosses add a final touch of colour to the street. Although dedicated to the patron saint of Moscow, it was erected by merchants from Pskov in 1657, the belfry being a nineteenth-century addition.