Arbat Street

The Arbat is one of the oldest streets in Moscow and was pedestrianised in 1986, the first in the city, which turned it into the place where street musicians, caricaturists and souvenir sellers set up. The literary associations are dense: Pushkin took a flat at number 53 after his marriage in 1831 and it is now a museum; Andrei Bely was born on the street; Bulat Okudzhava, the bard whose songs made the Arbat a symbol of a certain Moscow, has a bronze standing at a corner. The Vakhtangov Theatre is halfway along with a fountain of Turandot outside. Physically the street mixes surviving nineteenth-century houses, Soviet infill and a very large amount of commerce - the buildings behind the stalls are worth looking up at, since most people do not. Purists say the character was killed by the pedestrianisation that made it famous, which is a fair complaint and does not make the walk pointless.

History

The Arbat has existed since at least the 15th century: a document of 28 July 1493 mentions it, describing a fire that started in the wooden Church of Nicholas on the Sand. In the 18th century the nobility saw it as the most prestigious address in Moscow, after the great fire of 1812 the street had to be rebuilt, and in the 19th and early 20th centuries it was home to minor nobility, artists and academics (Wikipedia, Arbat Street).

The main sights

• The Pushkin flat - number 53, where he lived after marrying, now a museum.
• The Okudzhava bronze - the bard whose songs attached themselves to the street.
• The buskers and portraitists - the trade that filled the street after 1986.
• The facades above - nineteenth-century houses over the shopfronts, if you look up.

When to go

May to September for the street life; evenings are busiest. One to two hours.

Practical notes

It is heavily commercial and prices are tourist prices. Souvenirs are cheaper elsewhere in the city. Crowds are thick in summer evenings. Locals will tell you the real Arbat is gone, and they have a point.

Nearby

The Vakhtangov Theatre is on the street; Novy Arbat runs parallel with a different character entirely.

Key facts