Audio tour Moscow. Znamenka and Volkhonka

Znamenka – The Street Of The Holy Sign – is one of Moscow's oldest streets, founded early in the Twelfth Century where the trade route from Nizhny Novgorod entered the medieval city. Churches and mansions from the seventeenth & eighteenth centuries long stood on this ancient thoroughfare. The street was renamed several times during the socialist period, which took a sad toll on the area's cultural legacy. Nowadays the street is home to buildings of the nineteenth & early twentieth century. Volkhonka Street, now as in previous times, is one of the centres of the city's spiritual and intellectual life. This modest street houses the the RAN Institute of Philosophy, the Vinogradov Institute of Russian Language, the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, and the Glazunov Art Gallery. Volkhonka is one of those rare Moscow streets whose name wasn't changed to fit the needs of socialism – nor has it acquired any contemporary buildings. The greatest ornament of the street is the Cathedral Of Christ The Saviour – whose enormous gold domes can be seen from almost anywhere in the city.

Excursion route: Metro “Arbatskaya” – Arbat Square – Gogolevsky Boulevard – Metro “Kropotkinskaya” – Cathedral Of Christ The Saviour – Volkhonka Street – Borovitskaya Square – Znamenka Street – Metro “Arbatskaya”

Total route – 2.7 kilometres (1.7 miles)

Total time – 90 minutes