Meshchansky
Sretenka, gardens and old settlements
Between Sretenka and Prospekt Mira: Peter the Great’s Apothecary Garden, the Sretensky Monastery, Vasnetsov’s fairy-tale house and lanes that keep their 17th-century layout.
Photo: Sergey Rodovnichenko from Moscow, Russia · CC BY-SA 2.0
About the district
The district is named after the Meshchanskaya Sloboda, founded in the 17th century for settlers from the western lands — “meshchane”, meaning townspeople. Sretenka Street takes its name from the Sretensky Monastery, built where the Vladimir Icon was met (“sretenie”) in 1395.
In 1706 Peter the Great founded the Apothecary Garden here to grow medicinal plants; today it is Moscow State University’s botanical garden. Sukharevskaya Square was the site of the Sukharev Tower, which housed Peter’s School of Mathematics and Navigation; the tower was demolished in 1934.
For the 1980 Olympics the Olimpiysky sports complex was built on Prospekt Mira, one of the largest indoor arenas of its time.
- Okrug
- Central Administrative Okrug
- Status
- District
- Population
- 55,669 (as of 2025)
- Area
- 4.5 km²
- Stations within the district
- 5
Population is from Wikidata as of the date shown; the area is calculated from the OpenStreetMap boundary; stations are listed by their position inside the boundary.
What to see
Apothecary Garden
A botanical garden with glasshouses and old trees, founded by Peter the Great in 1706.
Sretensky Monastery
A 14th-century monastery with the new Cathedral of the Resurrection, consecrated in 2017.
Vasnetsov House Museum
The terem house the artist built for himself to his own design.
Moscow Cathedral Mosque
Moscow’s main mosque, reopened after reconstruction and enlargement in 2015.
Sukharevskaya Square
The site of the vanished Sukharev Tower on the Garden Ring.
Where to walk
- 01
Apothecary Garden
Glasshouses, a pond and alleys — a quiet green island by Prospekt Mira.
- 02
Sretenka and its lanes
Walk from Sretenskiye Vorota to Sukharevskaya, turning into Pechatnikov and Kolokolnikov lanes.
- 03
Yekaterininsky Park
A park with a pond by the former Catherine Institute.
Architecture
The Sretenka lanes run in parallel like the teeth of a comb — a typical settlement layout that is easy to read on the map.
Rossiya Insurance Company building
A large apartment house on Sretensky Boulevard with turrets and arches.
Vasnetsov House
A wooden terem — the artist’s own vision of the Russian style.
Cathedral Mosque
A new building with domes and minarets that incorporates the early 20th-century mosque.
Transport
Prospekt Mira links the Circle and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya lines, while the Turgenevskaya — Chistye Prudy — Sretensky Bulvar hub joins three stations on the north-eastern edge of the centre.
On the transport mapStations within the district
Did you know
- 01
The Apothecary Garden is one of the oldest botanical gardens in Russia.
- 02
Under Peter the Great the Sukharev Tower housed the School of Mathematics and Navigation.
- 03
The word “meshchanin” goes back to the Polish “miasto”, town — literally “townsman”.
Photo gallery
Meshchansky, Moscow: photograph from Wikimedia Commons
On the map
Boundaries: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Boundary from OpenStreetMap, November 2026.