Yakimanka
Moscow’s museum embankment
The Tretyakov Gallery, Gorky Park, GES-2 and the House on the Embankment: Yakimanka is the city’s main museum and walking shore, facing the Kremlin.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
About the district
The district and street are named after the Church of Joachim and Anna: “Yakimanka” is a folk contraction of the saints’ names. The church itself was demolished in 1969.
In 1856 the merchant Pavel Tretyakov began collecting Russian painting, and in 1892 he gave his gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane to the city of Moscow. In 1908–1912 the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent was built on Bolshaya Ordynka to designs by Alexey Shchusev.
In 1931 Boris Iofan’s House on the Embankment appeared on Bersenevskaya Embankment, and in 2021 the neighbouring former power station GES-2 opened as a house of culture designed by Renzo Piano.
- Okrug
- Central Administrative Okrug
- Status
- District
- Population
- 27,416 (as of 2025)
- Area
- 4.8 km²
- Stations within the district
- 3
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
Tretyakov Gallery
The main collection of Russian art, in a historic building with a façade after a sketch by Viktor Vasnetsov.
Gorky Park
Moscow’s central park, opened in 1928, with its embankment and Neskuchny Garden.
GES-2
A former power station turned into a cultural centre with exhibitions and a public square.
Marfo-Mariinsky Convent
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna’s convent with Shchusev’s neo-Russian church.
New Tretyakov and Muzeon
20th-century art on Krymsky Val and a sculpture park by the river.
Where to walk
- 01
Krymskaya Embankment
A landscaped embankment with undulating paths between the Krymsky Bridge and Muzeon.
- 02
Gorky Park and Neskuchny Garden
From the main entrance to the Andreyevsky Bridge — along the river and through shady ravines.
- 03
Bolotny Island
Patriarshy Bridge, GES-2 and the square by the Vodootvodny Canal, facing the Kremlin.
Architecture
Yakimanka is wide embankments, parks and open-air museums, linked to the centre by footbridges.
House on the Embankment
Boris Iofan’s huge residential complex, a symbol of its era and the subject of Yury Trifonov’s novel.
Igumnov House
A fairy-tale Russian-style mansion on Bolshaya Yakimanka, now the French ambassador’s residence.
Krymsky Bridge
A steel suspension bridge — the engineering emblem of 1930s Moscow.
GES-2
Renzo Piano’s conversion: a glass hall beneath the historic trusses.
Transport
Oktyabrskaya links the Circle and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya lines. Gorky Park is easily reached from Oktyabrskaya or across the Krymsky Bridge from Park Kultury.
On the transport mapStations within the district
Did you know
- 01
“Yakimanka” is a contraction of the names of Saints Joachim and Anna.
- 02
Pavel Tretyakov gave his gallery to Moscow in 1892.
- 03
Patriarshy Bridge, linking Yakimanka with Khamovniki, opened in 2004.
Photo gallery
Embankment facing the Kremlin — illustration
- Иллюстрация, созданная с помощью нейросети; предоставлена автором проекта / AI-generated illustration supplied by the project author
On the map
Boundaries: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Boundary from OpenStreetMap, November 2026.