Museon Art Park
Museon Art Park is the largest open-air sculpture collection in Russia, located in the center of the capital. Here you can see more than a thousand works by famous Russian sculptors – Vera Mukhina, Evgeny Vutechich, Zalman Vilensky, Sergey Merkulov, Vladimir Lemport, Evgeny Chubarov, Leonid Rabins, Alexei Grigoriev and other authors. These are portraits of leaders, busts of prominent figures of the Soviet era, monuments of socialist realism, as well as works created by avant-garde sculptors who had no chance to get to exhibitions during the Soviet era.
Video: Museon Art Park
Contents- Highlights
- History of the Art Park
- What you can do at Museon
Tours of the park - Useful information for visitors
- How to get there
Highlights
The idea for the art space was born in 1991. Nowadays, the Museon Art Park occupies a cozy green zone between the river embankment, Krymsky Val and Maronovsky Lane with an area of more than 23 hectares. It is considered a part of the Maxim Gorky Central Park of Culture and Recreation.
.
Museon serves as a creative workshop of innovative artistic ideas and a center of actual art. It is one of the fastest growing cultural and educational places of the Russian capital, where both children and adults find it interesting. Visitors come to the park for pleasant walks in nature, to get acquainted with innovative artistic solutions and interesting meetings.
.
History of the Art Park
Until the XVII century, the low floodplain part of the Moscow River was not built up, as the area was swampy and floods often occurred here. However, by the first half of the XIX century on the entire territory of the future park stood one or two-story buildings. In 1923 the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition was held on the right bank of the river. On the site of the future Museon Park builders erected a huge stadium and pavilions for the participants of the exhibition, who came from Germany and Italy.
.
In 1938, the country’s first cable-stayed bridge was built across the Moscow River, and at the same time the Crimean embankment was made granite. When the Great Patriotic War was going on, near the Crimean Bridge were on duty units guarding the sky of the capital, and in the postwar years, the vast vacant lot was used as the largest snow dump in the city.
.
A large plot of land in the center of the capital has always attracted architects. Here they wanted to build a building for the Academy of Sciences and pompous Palace of Unions. But these projects were not destined to come true, and on the bank of the river appeared the Central House of Artists (CDH). Then a green square was arranged around it, which later became the center of the Museon.
.In 1991, many monuments of the communist era were dismantled in the city. Busts of Lenin were taken one by one to the square near the Central House of Artists. Here they also placed the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky from Lubyanka Square, monuments to Kalinin, Sverdlov and other Soviet leaders. So many sculptures were collected that a year later the city authorities decided to create an open-air exposition in the park.
.
In 1995, by the half-century anniversary of the Victory, the exposition was replenished with works on military themes. And in 1998, sculptures telling about the period of Stalin’s repressions were exhibited in the park.
.
What you can do in Muzeon
The territory of Museon Park was planned at the end of the last century. The green zone is crossed by several straight alleys, dividing it into rectangular sectors. Nowadays, the art park looks very picturesque and is decorated with decorative shrubs, flower beds, alpine slides, light pavilions and fountains. There are several small cafes and benches have been installed for relaxation.
.Musical programs and concerts in Museon take place on three stages. The concert venues host famous Russian and foreign musical groups, as well as international festivals.
Tours of the park
Many people walk around Museon on their own, but there are also those who like to familiarize themselves with the exposition of sculptures together with a guide. Tours are ordered on the Museon Art Park website www.muzeon.ru or in the infobox at the entrance to the park on Krymsky Val. In addition to the monumental heritage, professional guides familiarize tourists with the flora and fauna of the recreational zone.
.
Excursions are designed for 1-2 hours and are conducted on different topics: “Overview”, “Walk with the leaders”, “Museon for children”, “Physical Education and Sculpture”. A full ticket for a tour of the park costs 300 rubles, a discounted one – 150 rubles. Preschoolers and disabled people can visit the excursion for free.
.
Useful information for visitors
The territory of Museon Park is open for everyone from 8.00 to 23.00. In the fall and winter period it closes one hour earlier. Entrance to the park is free.
.
In winter, when the temperature is below zero, the Museon Art Park has a tubing slide, created with the participation of the popular Sochi resort “Rosa Khutor”. The winter attraction is open any day, except Monday, from 10.00 to 22.00. You can ride on your own tubing or rent tubing. On weekdays a large tubing, which can be used by adults and children from 13 years old, costs 150 rubles for half an hour and 200 rubles for an hour of riding. Small tubas, designed for children from 3 to 13 years old, are rented at the price of 100 rubles/half an hour and 150 rubles/hour. On weekends the rental cost increases by 50 rubles. In addition, the slide takes a deposit of 500 rubles. To ride on the slide on your tuba, you need to pay 50 rubles per hour of riding.
.
How to get there
The territory of the Museon Art Park is located in the city center, on Krymsky Val, possession 2, opposite the Gorky Park of Culture and Recreation. From the Moscow metro station “Oktyabrskaya” to the park is not difficult to walk (about 1 km).
.
Museon Art Park can be reached by public transportation. Buses and trolleybuses run along the Krymsky Val (stop “Gorky Central Park of Culture and Arts”).
.
