Moscow Guide
Zamoskvareche and the south
Zamoskvareche and the south are clearly defined by geography and history. The Zamoskvareche district dates back to medieval times and preserves a host of colourful churches and the mansions of civic-minded merchants. Some of them founded the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow's pre-eminent gallery for Russian art, whose superlative collection of paintings is now divided between the gallery's "old" and "new" premises, a kilometre or so apart. In pre-Petrine times, Moscow ended at its earthen ramparts (now the Krymskiy and Vatsepskiy val), beyond which the fortified Donskoy and Danilov monasteries overlooked fields and orchards.
By the mid-eighteenth century, Moscow had expanded as far as the Kamerkollezhskiy boundary, drawn by the tsar's tax collectors; over the next century, slums and factories surrounded what had been suburban estates. In the Soviet era, these were collectivized into Gorky Park, vast new thoroughfares were laid out, and the city spread out past the magical summer retreats of Kolomenskoe and Tsaritsyno, to what is now the Moscow Ring Road.