How Moscow took shape

Moscow began as a small walled fortress in a series of concentric circles intersected by the ‘spokes’ of roads leading to neighbouring principalities. 

Walled cities

The Kremlin’s first walls were built by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky in 1156. In 1340 Ivan Kalita built sturdier oak walls reinforced with stucco, which Prince Dmitry Donskoy replaced 27 years later with the white stone walls. 

Ivan III – Ivan the Great – invited Italian builders to expand the Kremlin and surround it with the crenellated brick walls (1485–95) that still stand. A few years later a wide, deep moat was dug along the Kremlin walls on Red Square. The next Ivan – Ivan the Terrible – built the second walled city of Kitay-gorod in 1535–38. During the reign of his son, Fyodor, a third circle of walls was built, marked today by the Boulevard Ring Road. In the 17th century, wooden walls were built around the Earthen City, now the Garden Ring Road, enclosing the small settlements of merchants and craftsmen that flourished outside the White City walls.

The 18th century onwards

In the 18th century, the walls were taken down, the moat on Red Square was filled in and the Neglinnaya River was routed underground. 

In 1935 under Stalin’s first General Plan for the city, streets were broadened, neighbourhoods of crooked lanes were razed and replaced by wide avenues. But the city’s fundamental circular structure has not changed. Today there are three main ring roads encircling the city, and a final circular highway that marks the outer city limits.