Kitay-gorod

Kitay-gorod, rayon (sector) of the city of Moscow, bordering the Kremlin on the east, Staraya and Novaya squares on the west, and the Moskva River on the south and including the area known as Red Square (q.v.). Settlement in Kitay-gorod began in the 11th century. As a suburb of Moscow, it became a centre of trade in the 14th century under the name of Bolshoi Posad (“Large Merchants’ Quarter”). With the growth of Moscow, the quarter prospered and became the hub of the powerful merchant class. The name Kitay-gorod dates only from the 16th century and is probably derived from the Russian word kita (“several poles tied together”), referring to the form of construction used in building the 1.6-mile- (2.5-kilometre-) long brick wall (connected to the Kremlin) around Kitay-gorod during the 1530s. Another interpretation attributes the origin of the name to the Tartar word kitay (“fortress,” or “centre”). Although ravaged by fire in 1610 and again in 1812, Kitay-gorod continued to be the commercial centre of Moscow.

Modern Kitay-gorod, one of Moscow’s major tourist sites, is a nonresidential sector comprising commercial and governmental offices as well as GUM, the State Department Store (1889–93); the eight-towered St. Basil’s Cathedral (originally Cathedral of the Intercession), built 1555–60; and the Church of the Trinity (1628–34). Only small sections of the original Kitay-gorod wall have been preserved.