Zamoskvorechye
Merchant Moscow across the river
Low mansions, bell towers above the lanes and streets named after old settlements: Zamoskvorechye preserves the scale of old trading Moscow right opposite the Kremlin.
Photo: Andrey Korzun · CC BY-SA 4.0
About the district
The name says it all — the land “beyond the Moskva River”. The road south to the Horde ran through it and gave the Ordynka streets their name; blacksmiths, interpreters and Tatar merchants settled nearby, hence Kuznetskaya, Tolmachyovsky and Tatarskaya streets.
In the 18th and 19th centuries Zamoskvorechye became a merchant district. The playwright Alexander Ostrovsky was born here and, for his plays about local manners, was called “the Columbus of Zamoskvorechye”.
In 1783–1786 the Vodootvodny Canal was dug to protect the lowland from floods. It created Bolotny Island, which today separates Zamoskvorechye from the Kremlin embankment.
- Okrug
- Central Administrative Okrug
- Status
- District
- Population
- 56,230 (as of 2025)
- Area
- 4.3 km²
- Stations within the district
- 6
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
Pyatnitskaya Street
The district’s main shopping street, lined with merchant houses and churches.
Church of St Clement
A monumental 18th-century church in Elizabethan Baroque in Klimentovsky Lane.
Ostrovsky House Museum
The wooden house on Malaya Ordynka where the playwright was born.
Bakhrushin Theatre Museum
A neo-Gothic mansion holding the country’s largest theatre collection.
Paveletsky Station
The terminus for the southern routes and the Aeroexpress to Domodedovo Airport.
Where to walk
- 01
Vodootvodny Canal
Sadovnicheskaya and Ovchinnikovskaya embankments with footbridges and old factory buildings.
- 02
The Ordynka lanes
From Novokuznetskaya to Pyatnitskaya via Klimentovsky and Staromonetny lanes.
- 03
Shlyuzovaya Embankment
A quiet stretch of the canal between old and new blocks.
Architecture
A district for unhurried walks: bell towers rise at the end of the lanes, and courtyards and gardens hide behind mansion gates.
Church of St Clement
One of Moscow’s largest Baroque churches, with lavish window surrounds.
Merchant mansions
One- and two-storey houses with mezzanines along the Ordynkas and Pyatnitskaya.
Bakhrushin Mansion
Neo-Gothic with lancet windows — an unusual image for Moscow.
Transport
Novokuznetskaya and Tretyakovskaya form one interchange of three lines. Paveletsky Station links the district with the southern routes and Domodedovo Airport.
On the transport mapStations within the district
Suburban trains
Did you know
- 01
Bolshaya Ordynka Street is named after the road that led to the Golden Horde.
- 02
The Vodootvodny Canal was dug in 1783–1786 to protect against spring floods.
- 03
Alexander Ostrovsky was called “the Columbus of Zamoskvorechye”.
Photo gallery
Zamoskvorechye, Moscow: photograph from Wikimedia Commons
On the map
Boundaries: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Boundary from OpenStreetMap, November 2026.