Poklonnaya mount

The mount Poklonnaya (in Russian Покло́ннаягора or Poklonnaya Gora , literally the mount of the slope ) is with 171,5 meters, one of the highest hills of Moscow. It currently shelters the park of the Victoire .

Historically, the mountain had an strategic importance and offered the most beautiful sight on the Russian capital, dominating the road of Smolensk. Its name comes from the Russian verb to incline because according to an old tradition, any person entering or leaving the city by this road was to incline herself in front of it. In 1812, it is here that Napoleon waited in vain until the keys of the Kremlin are given to him.

Since 1936, the mount and its surroundings were integrated into the town of Moscow. In the years 1960, it was decided to build there a park with the victory against the Napoleonean troops. The triumphal arch out of marble of 1827 built to celebrate the victory against Napoleon over the place Tverskoy Zastavy close to the Bioloroussky station was dismounted and rebuilt in front of the park in 1968 with the outlet of the Koutouzov avenue. A giant panorama of the Bataille of Borodino by Franz Roubaud (1910-12) was installed on the spot in 1962 and one monument with Koutouzov was open in 1973.

In the years 1980, the hill was also transformed into memorial of the victory against the Nazi Germany with the construction of a museum which was finished only in 1995 for the fiftieth anniversary. In the Nineties, were added an obelisk with a statue of Nike and a monument of Saint-Georges embanking the dragon, the 2 designed by Zourab Tsereteli. An orthodoxe church, Saint-Georges the victorious one was also set up on the hill (the first construction of church in Russia since the revolution of October), followed later by the construction of a mosque and a synagog located in the park.

Random links: