{"id":417,"date":"2015-03-21T08:08:18","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T16:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/?p=417"},"modified":"2019-07-12T13:54:49","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T20:54:49","slug":"fun-facts-50-facts-about-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/fun-facts-50-facts-about-moscow","title":{"rendered":"50 Facts about Moscow &#8211; all you need to know about Russian Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everybody likes fun facts and we always prepare a ton of them for our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/moscow\/tours\">Moscow tours<\/a>. We always dig deep to find some intriguing, amusing and simply fun\u00a0<strong>facts about Moscow.<\/strong><br \/>\nHere are <strong>50 facts about Moscow<\/strong> from our Friendly Local Guides.<\/p>\n<h2>50 fun facts about Moscow, Russia<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_70785\"  width=\"1070\" height=\"602\"  data-origwidth=\"1070\" data-origheight=\"602\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nJpZN-9Qbzg?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0<strong>Moscow is so huge<\/strong> that it has the right to be the country. It&#8217;s official population is 12 million (2015), and it&#8217;s in TOP 10 <a title=\"Most populous cities in the world\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_cities_proper_by_population\">most populous cities in the world<\/a>. This is the population of Norway and Switzerland combined. Or Portugal and Estonia. Or Finland and Denmark. Whatever you prefer :)<\/p>\n<p>2. <strong>\u00a0<a title=\"Gorky Park\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/moscow-gorky-park\">Gorky\u00a0<\/a>Park<\/strong> is a Central Park of\u00a0Moscow, with an attendance of more 100, 000 a day on the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>3. Great reason to come visit Moscow this spring! This year <strong>Moscow metro celebrates its 80th birthday<\/strong> on May 15.\u00a0The first ideas about the\u00a0construction of Moscow Metro were expressed in 1875, However, the first Metro stations were opened only in 1935.<\/p>\n<p>4. There is a legend of a secret branch, the so-called <a title=\"Metro-2\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/7-myths-about-moscow-metro\/\"><strong>Metro-2<\/strong><\/a>: bunkers and tunnels connecting the Kremlin and other strategic facilities.<\/p>\n<p>5.\u00a0During the <strong>Great Patriotic War<\/strong> (WWII), Metro was used as a bomb shelter underground. Even during the war, new metro stations were built, in particular Novokuznetskaya, Paveletskaya, Baumanskaya, Elektrazovodskaya, Semenovskaya and Partisanskaya. During the bombing were born 217 children. :) The latest 196th metro station was open on Dec 8, 2014, and is called Troparevo (red line)<\/p>\n<p>6. Since its opening, Metro did not work only once &#8211; on October 16, 1941. The Germans came very close to the <strong>Moscow Metro<\/strong> planning\u00a0to destroy it. However, by the end of that day\u00a0the Metro got back on track.<\/p>\n<p>7.\u00a0Moscow boasts\u00a0the largest\u00a0number of\u00a0<strong>billionaires<\/strong> in the world. According to the Forbes, there are 84 billionaires in the city with the\u00a0combined wealth of\u00a0367 billion dollars. New York takes second place in this ranking with its 62 billionaire residents.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1152\" style=\"width: 730px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1152\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1152 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/21.jpg\" alt=\"all you need to know about Moscow\" width=\"720\" height=\"960\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1152\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monument after Zhukov and State Historical Museum, mosday.ru<\/p><\/div>\n<p>8. \u00a0<a title=\"Ivanovskaya Gorka\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/things-to-do-moscow-ivanovskaya-gorka\">Ivanovskaya Gorka (Hill)<\/a> is one of the oldest parts of Moscow with not less,\u00a0if not more, monuments and ancient buildings than in the Kremlin itself.<\/p>\n<p>9. On June 29, 1904 <strong>Moscow experienced a real tornado<\/strong>, that destroyed several nearby villages (present-day Moscow), and broke the centuries-old trees in the area of Sokolniki.<\/p>\n<p>10. The famous\u00a0<strong>Neglinka river<\/strong> is just outside the Kremlin, in Alexander Garden. However, don&#8217;t hope for a swim, as it was channelled into a pipe at the beginning of the XIX century, and now it flows underground in the reservoir. If you are curious, the Neglinnaya street repeats its\u00a0riverbed.<\/p>\n<p>11.\u00a0<strong>Moskva<\/strong> (Russian name)\u00a0was founded by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky in 1147.\u00a0At that time the city was called Moskov, having more in common with its present English name Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>12. <strong>Lenin Library<\/strong> is the largest in Europe, with its 43 million objects\u00a0storage (maps, sheet music, sound recordings, rare books, dissertations, newspapers). In the 70s at the peak\u00a0of the popularity of The Beatles, the library was tagged as the &#8220;Lennon Bitlioteka&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>13. <strong>He &amp; She<\/strong>. Beware that you&#8217;re going\u00a0toward the city center if you hear a male voice announcing the stations in Moscow Metro, and female voice if leaving the city center. And then again, male voice when moving in a clockwise direction, and female when against it.<\/p>\n<p>14. We have a\u00a0\u00a0<strong>monument<\/strong> after a processed cheese &#8220;Druzhba&#8221; (Friendship), which is devoted to the\u00a0characters of\u00a0Krylov&#8217;s fables &#8211; the Crow and the Fox.<\/p>\n<p>15. <strong>The first McDonalds<\/strong> opened in Pushkin Square on January 31, \u00a01990. The line to the cafe\u00a0ran for several kilometers on that winter day.<\/p>\n<p>16. A tram number 3 is <strong>the oldest route\u00a0in Moscow<\/strong>. The first tram started its way on April 6, 1899.<\/p>\n<p>17. <strong>The Big Stone Bridge<\/strong> is the oldest\u00a0among Moscow bridges, built in the XVII century.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1153\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1153\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1153 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/3-1024x686.jpg\" alt=\"Most romantic city in Europe\" width=\"1024\" height=\"686\" srcset=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/3-1024x686.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/3.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1153\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stone Bridge in Moscow, mosday.ru<\/p><\/div>\n<p>18. <strong>In old times<\/strong>, representatives of different social classes, professions and nationalities lived in Moscow separately. That&#8217;s how we got\u00a0Chef and Butcher\u00a0<a title=\"Moscow streets\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/things-to-do-moscow-streets\/\">streets<\/a>, as well as\u00a0Georgian settlement and Maroseyka street (due to the fact that settled here Ukrainians).<\/p>\n<p>19. During its long history <strong>Moscow burned countless times.<\/strong> Since the houses were\u00a0mostly wooden, the fire spread very quickly, and covered the entire city in minutes. In 1737, during one of the strongest fire, broke\u00a0the just cast Tsar Bell.<\/p>\n<p>20. <strong>The Kremlin<\/strong>, as we know it,\u00a0was\u00a0built by the Italians. When in the XV century its walls and temples got seriously dilapidated and needed repair, the Russian architects were unable to cope with this problem. So the Grand Duke Ivan III invited foreign experts to Moscow, under the leadership of which were built new temples and walls.<\/p>\n<p>21. <strong>Assumption Cathedral<\/strong> in the Kremlin is\u00a0the oldest survived building in Moscow. To date, it is 535 years. It was built on August 12, 1479, and is the highlight of our <a href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/moscow\/tours\/kremlin-tour-moscow\">Moscow Kremlin tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>22. Before the XX century, <strong>the walls of the Kremlin<\/strong> were traditionally whitewashed, so Moscow was called &#8220;White Stone&#8221;. Spire towers were\u00a0crowned with heraldic eagles of the Russian Empire.<\/p>\n<p>23.\u00a0<strong>The Moscow Kremlin<\/strong> is the\u00a0the world&#8217;s largest medieval fortress.<\/p>\n<p>24. <strong>Ostankino TV Tower<\/strong> is the highest tower in Europe with an overall height of 540 m.<\/p>\n<p>25.\u00a0\u00a0<a title=\"Maslenitsa\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/moscow-local-fun-maslenitsa-week\">Maslenitsa (Mardi Gras)<\/a> is the only <strong>pagan holiday<\/strong>, officially recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian people at all times loved Pancake Day. Holiday rituals were planned\u00a0by day, and it was very important to adhere\u00a0to them.<\/p>\n<p>26. The famous in Russia\u00a0\u00a0expression &#8220;<strong>Moscow doesn&#8217;t believe in tears<\/strong>&#8221; is\u00a0hundreds of years old, and it came from the time of the rise of Moscow. In those days, Russian\u00a0cities were to pay a great tribute to Moscow. To avoid or delay the payment, the petitioners begged and cried\u00a0to persuade the emperor to extend the repayment period, to reduce the size or eliminate the tribute. However, all\u00a0in vain, as\u00a0the emperor, who &#8220;did not believe in tears&#8221;, gave the order to punish the petitioners.<\/p>\n<p>27.\u00a0<strong>The Patriarch&#8217;s Ponds<\/strong> is a mystical place, which became the starting point of the cult novel &#8220;Master and Margarita&#8221; by Mikhail Bulgakov&#8217;s. The official museum was opened in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>28.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Moscow gets its name from the<strong> river. <\/strong>According to one version, on the Old Slavonic &#8220;Moscow&#8221; meant &#8220;wet&#8221;, as Moscow was built on swamps.<\/p>\n<p>29. There are <strong>3,500<\/strong> historical<a title=\"Moscow streets\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/things-to-do-moscow-streets\/\">\u00a0streets<\/a>\u00a0and cute alleys, wide avenues and vast squares, mysterious embankments, endless highways and fast driveways in Moscow<\/p>\n<p>30. And there are <strong>2700<\/strong> <a title=\"Moscow restaurants\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/best-moscow-restaurants\">restaurants <\/a>in Moscow, and still counting<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_10009\"  width=\"1070\" height=\"602\"  data-origwidth=\"1070\" data-origheight=\"602\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DlhTuAuXKIg?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>31. <strong>Arbat\u00a0street<\/strong> is one of the oldest in Moscow. It\u2019s 520 years old.<\/p>\n<p>32. First <strong>wooden\u00a0toys<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<a title=\"Russian souvenirs\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/russia-top-10-places-to-visit\">Russian souvenirs<\/a>\u00a0appeared in Russia in XVI century.<\/p>\n<p>33.\u00a0The <strong>millionth citizen<\/strong> of Moscow was born in 1897.<\/p>\n<p>34. The<strong>\u00a0largest zoo<\/strong> of whole Russia was founded in 1864 in Moscow. At the moment it is home to more than 3,000 animals of 550 species from all over the world.<\/p>\n<p>35. The <strong>highest monument<\/strong> in\u00a0Moscow\u00a0is Victory\u00a0Obelisk, 141.8 meters high. Each 10cm of its height represent one day of the Great Patriotic\u00a0War. It was opened on 9 May 1995.<\/p>\n<p>36. <strong>Trains<\/strong> in Moscow metro go more frequently than in any other subway in the world. At peak times the interval between trains\u00a0is just 1.5 minute.<\/p>\n<p>37. The <strong>Russian Public Library<\/strong> is the largest in Europe and second in the world after the US Library of Congress. It is located in Moscow, and was founded in 1862.<\/p>\n<p>38. The famous Moscow <strong>sadist-landowner<\/strong> Darya Saltykova, who killed and tortured tens of peasants and serfs, had the house on the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most. Ironically, now there are buildings of the FBI, in the basement of which many people were tortured \u00a0in the 1930s.<\/p>\n<p>39. <strong>Olympic Games<\/strong> in Sochi in 2014 were the twenty-second Winter Games in history. It is noteworthy that in 1980 in Moscow was carried out twenty-second Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>40. <a title=\"Matryoshka dolls\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/top-5-russian-souvenirs\">Matryoshka <\/a>doll (Nestling, or Babushka dolls, as they are sometimes called) was born at the beginning of XX century, in the city of Sergiev Posad, which has the country\u2019s only school and museum of toys.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4140\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4140\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4140 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Moscow-guides-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Are Russians friendly\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Moscow-guides-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Moscow-guides-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Moscow-guides-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Moscow-guides-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Moscow-guides.jpg 1095w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4140\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Friendly Local Guides<\/p><\/div>\n<p>41. There are 7 identical high-rise buildings in Moscow: 2 hotels, 2 office buildings, 2 houses and a university. These are <strong>Stalin skyscrapers<\/strong>, or Seven Sisters. There are Seven Stalin Skyscrapers, and there used to be\u00a0<strong>Seven Hills<\/strong> Moscow stood on in XIV century.<\/p>\n<p>42.\u00a0Currently, the &#8220;seven hills&#8221; include <strong>eight\u00a0<\/strong>following elevations: 1. Borovitskii Hill (aka Kremlin Hill); 2. Ivanovo hill; 3. &#8220;Three Mountains&#8221; (areas of Presnya\u00a0and Vagankovo); 4. Tver hill, or Holy Hill (now Pushkin Square); 5. Sretensky\u00a0hill or Sukharevsky hill (near the Sretenskie Gates\u00a0square); 6. Tagan hill or Shvivaya slide (Zayauze); 7. Vvedenskie mountain or hill Lefortovsky (in Lefortovo) and 8. Sparrow Hills.<\/p>\n<p>43.\u00a0<strong>Cities<\/strong>, which are also identified by their<strong> seven\u00a0hills<\/strong>: Rome,\u00a0Constantinople,\u00a0Kiev,\u00a0Washington,\u00a0Nizhny Novgorod,\u00a0Ufa,\u00a0Smolensk.<\/p>\n<p>44. More than <strong>twenty stations<\/strong> of the Moscow Metro contain various fossils, where you can find a nautilus shell, ammonites and other prehistoric shellfish.<\/p>\n<p>45. <strong>9000 000 passengers<\/strong> use\u00a0the Moscow metro daily. This is more than London and New York subways combined.<\/p>\n<p>46. There is a <strong>stray of dogs<\/strong> that\u00a0ride the <a title=\"Myths about Moscow Metro\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/7-myths-about-moscow-metro\/\">Moscow Metro<\/a> every day on the same route. They know when and where\u00a0to have a\u00a0yummy lunch.<\/p>\n<p>47. <strong>Moscow State University<\/strong> is the world&#8217;s largest university building in the world.<\/p>\n<p>48. <strong>Izmailovo Park<\/strong> is\u00a0one of the largest urban parks in the world, with an area of 15.34 square kilometers, or 1534 hectares. Izmaylovo Park\u00a0is six times bigger\u00a0than Central Park in New York, and 30 times bigger than the\u00a0gorgeous Abramtsevo park, a famous Russian landmark in Moscow region.<\/p>\n<p>49. Moscow <strong>Botanical Garden<\/strong> of Academy of Sciences is Europe&#8217;s largest botanical garden. The Garden\u00a0was founded\u00a0in April 1945,\u00a0shortly before the end of World War II. The Garden presents 18000 plants from the former Soviet Union and the world.<\/p>\n<p>50. <strong>Stromynka street<\/strong>, named after the ancient road, is older that Moscow itself!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1591\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1591\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1591 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/team-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Where to go in Europe\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1591\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Friendly Local Guides. Always excited to meet new tourists and make new friends<\/p><\/div>\n<p><b><i>Which fact did you like most?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everybody likes fun facts and we always prepare a ton of them for our\u00a0Moscow tours. We always dig deep to find some intriguing, amusing and simply fun\u00a0facts about Moscow. Here \u2026<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/fun-facts-50-facts-about-moscow\">Continue<i class=\"icon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[1033,1341,1343,1143,1337,1335,970,1140,1339,1340,1087,1338,1344,1336,1145,942,1142,1342,811,968],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6281,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/6281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendlylocalguides.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}