Park Kultury-Koltsevaya

Park Kultury ( _ru. Парк культуры) is a station on the Koltsevaya Line of the Moscow Metro. Although the line is circular and continuous operation, the Park Kultury is seen as the starting point due to it being the original terminus of the line, from its opening on 1 January 1950 to 14 March 1954, when the ring (fourth stage) was completed.

The station is a standard pylon-trivault, that was built in the flamboyance of the 1950s. Architect Igor Rozhin (who would then design the Luzhniki Stadium) applied a classic sport recreational theme to match the connotation with the ancient-Greek inspired transfer station. This includes large and imposing pylons faced with grey marble that came directly from Georgia. The floor is laid with black and grey granite tiles imitating a carpet. The walls are faced with white marble and labrodite. Decoratively the station contains 26 circular bas-reliefs by Iosif Rabinovich which depict sporting and other leisure activities of the Soviet youth.

The white vault of the station contains intricate geometry which repeat that of the pylons, and along the apex are suspended a set of intricate hexagonal chandeliers. Rozhin later admitted that he made a grave error in choosing to place the chandeliers amid the pylons, not between them, that way he would have avoided giving the bas-reliefs a double shadow. At the end of the station is a large marble wall with a small profile bas-relief of Maxim Gorky. The station was initially called Park Kultury imeni Gorkovo (Парк Культуры имени Горького) but during the 1980 Moscow Olympics this was shortened as the Russian announcements were repeated in English and French during the games. After the Olympics the shorter name was retained. The original long form appears in bronze letters next to Gorky's image.

The station has a large imposing vestibule located on the corner of Komsomolsky Avenue and Sadovoye Koltso next to the Crimean Bridge which was co-designed with Rozhin by Yelena Markova. Originally Rozhin planned for a long arcade modeled after Russian trading rows, but this was rejected in favour of a more traditional design. The large building features a central dome, and inside has four bas-reliefs of sprotsmen, and another one on its portico outside (all by G.Motovilov). The vestibule also doubles as a transfer to the Sokolnicheskaya Line.

As the station was initially terminus, a set of reversal sidings exist in front of it, also from them runs a service branch to the Sokolnicheskaya Line which was used initially as the primary way of transferring rolling stock to the station prior to the opening of the Koltsevaya line's own depot in 1954.

External links

*ru icon [http://www.mosmetro.ru/pages/page_6.php?id_page=211 Moskovsky Metropoliten] -Description and photographs
*ru icon [http://news.metro.ru/f51.html News.Metro.ru] -Description and photographs
*ru icon [http://www.metro.ru/stations/koltsevaya/park_kultury/ Metro.ru] -Description and photographs
*ru icon [http://www.metrowalks.ru/moscow/station-5-1 Metrowalks.ru] -Photographs
*ru icon [http://www.mymetro.ru/cgi-bin/list.pl?lng=ru&a=1&b=5&c=06 Mymetro.ru] -Description and photographs
*en icon [http://www.kartametro.info/?hl=EN&ms=ParkKultury&z=17&t=k KartaMetro.info] — Station location and exits on Moscow map (English/Russian)