Translated material
Parking in history
Underground parking lots in the center of Moscow will be decorated with historical exhibits
The capital's archaeologists decided not to hide artifacts found at the excavation site of the old city in museum storage, but to enrich completely ordinary places in the metropolis with historical finds. In particular, a mini-museum will appear in the first of the capital's underground interceptor parking lots on the Boulevard Ring in the area of Khokhlovskaya Square, the main attraction of which will be a fragment of the wall of the old White City. The chief archaeologist of the capital, Alexander Veksler, spoke about this project at the end of last week.The unique 16th-century masonry work of the architect Fyodor Kon, a fortification specialist who also supervised the construction of the Smolensk and Astrakhan Kremlins, according to Mr. Veksler, was discovered last summer during construction work at the intersection of the Boulevard Ring and Pokrovka. The wall of the old city runs along the entire route of the ring; in the 18th century it was dismantled, but its underground part was periodically opened in small fragments during construction work. Most often, commercial developers did not pay attention to the centuries-old remains; they were either completely destroyed or filled up again. This time, one of the largest sections of the wall, 60 meters long, was found and cleared. And even investors, according to the chief archaeologist of Moscow, appreciated not only the historical value, but also the marketing potential of the find.
“To my surprise, investors were not opposed to the idea of keeping the wall in its original location, despite the fact that they would have to incur additional and quite significant costs,” Mr. Wexler said. - On the contrary, it was decided to create a kind of brand of underground parking “White City”. According to the chief archaeologist, other fragments of the White City wall, if discovered during the construction of underground parking lots, will also be restored and put on public display. “On Khokhlovskaya Square, this is a pilot project; a project for modifying the parking lot in accordance with the find has already been prepared,” Mr. Veksler shared his plans.
According to experts, a historical monument preserved in its original form is of much greater value than a piece of ancient architecture dismantled brick by brick. To prevent the wall from continuing to settle under the pressure of a growing modern metropolis, only a concrete platform will be placed under it, which will be installed on supports. As Alexander Veksler said, a public complex with the White City Museum will be located above the underground parking under a glass roof. Thus, the ruins of the old fortress will be complemented by an exhibition of 16th-century artifacts found during excavations, for example, stove tiles and various household items from old Moscow. According to the capital's chief archaeologist, the first underground parking lot, ennobled by the architectural monument, should be opened in December 2008.
However, as Alexander Veksler assured journalists, not a single construction project, both in the historical center and in the territories of former estates near Moscow, can go without the attention of Moscow archaeologists. According to him, despite the fact that in general only 12% of the city’s territory is under the supervision of scientists, “everything that happens in Moscow construction is under our control.” Thus, thanks to work at the excavation stage and literally sorting by hand more than 40 thousand cubic meters of earth last year, more than 6 thousand items of historical and cultural value were “saved from construction dumps.”
Last year alone, more than 6 thousand items of historical and cultural value were found in the pits of construction sites in the capital.