SUBWAY
| The grey landscape marble from the Ural Mountains was used to decorate "Lubyanka", "Sokolniki", "Paveletskaya" and "Chystye Prudy" stations. The velvet-pink marble from the regions of the Russian Far East fascinates the walls and columns of "Byelorusskaya" and "Aeroport" stations. The yellowish, green-grey and brown shades and layers of spotted marble-type limestone from the Crimea are smoothly replaced by the bright shades of corals and the fossilised shellfish aged 150 million years. This limestone decorates the walls of "Park Kultury" and "Alexandrovsky Sad" stations. Quartzite is the most durable stone material used to decorate the "underground palaces" of the Moscow's Metro. This material is made of the grains of quartz, which is a rather firm and durable material. Thanks to the unique decorative character of quartzite found in Kareliya (the only place, where this material of rich raspberry shade is extracted) the underground hall of "Baumanskaya" station has peculiar solemn architectural style. The semi-precious stones may be found and seen at the oldest Metro stations of Moscow. These are pink rodonite and marble onyx. Marble onyx from Armenia was used to create panels and stone plates at "Dinamo", "Byelorusskaya" and "Kievskaya" Metro stations. "Mayakovskaya" Metro station is truly considered to be the main architectural masterpiece of the Moscow's Metro. This is a station, which lays deep underground, it belongs to the first, the oldest line of the Moscow's Metro. The station was opened in 1938. The station mock-up was successfully displayed the same year at the International exhibition in New-York. Marble of two types was used to decorate the walls and columns of the station. Moreover, rodonite matches beautifully with green-black diorite and the silvery steel columns. The vaulting of the central hall of "Mayakovskaya" station has 33 mosaics executed to cartoons by famous Russian artist Alexander Deineka. The theme of all mosaics is called "One Day of Soviet Skies". The light character of structures emphasised by the sparkling bends of stainless steel is shaded by red and pink shades of rodonite, a fine semi-precious stone. There are many other Metro stations, which always attract tourists and visitors from all over the world. The bronze sculptures in the hall of the "Ploshchad Revolyutsii" station show the way up, right to the City Centre, Red Square. If there is no guide accompanying you in your "underground tour", first find some valuable information about Metro in the Section called Municipal Transport. |
