Located in the northeast of Moscow’s Central Administrative District, Basmanny neighbourhood is especially beautiful in autumn. Even the characters of a famous Soviet movie – “Pokrovskiye Vorota” – that was filmed in Basmanny noticed that “it’s raining outside, but we are having a concert. It’s autumn, my friends – a beautiful Moscow autumn – but the barometer of all Soviet people says ‘clear’!”

Conveniently located and boasting a great number of restaurants in particular, Basmanny is where many Muscovites come to hang out over the weekend. Many others – and in rising numbers – call it their home.

Infrastructure

Basmanny’s border runs through Lubyansky Proezd, Ulitsa Myasnitskaya, Ploshchad Krasniye Vorota, Ulitsa Novaya Basmannaya, the Third Transport Ring, Ulitsa Solyanka and the river Yauza.

Kurskaya, Chkalovskaya and Baumanskaya metro stations connect Basmanny to the rest of the city. Kurskaya railway station helps residents and guests of the capital travel as far south as the Crimea in Ukraine.

The district offers hundreds of restaurants that allow people with varying incomes to find a place to their taste.

Tanuki restaurant at Ulitsa Myasnitskaya is one of the district’s most popular and affordable Japanese restaurants, while T.G.I. Friday’s at Ulitsa Zemlyannoi Val satisfies those who are fond of American cuisine. Lovers of borshch with pampushkas or salo would definitely like the Ukrainian korchma (literally “barrel house”, or “tavern”) Taras Bulba on Ulitsa Bakuninskaya.

The famous Pokrovskiye Vorota café at Ulitsa Pokrovka and the Avocado vegetarian café at Chistoprudny Bulvar are places where in-the-know residents prefer to do lunch.

Basmanny has dozens of good bars and night clubs, among them the popular Temple Bar at Ulitsa Ladozhskaya and Pilzner Czech Bar at Ulitsa Pokrovka.

Food shopping is made easy via the three largest chain stores in Basmanny – Spar, Azbuka Vkusa and Sedmoi Kontinent. Shoppers who’d like to save money will be happy to know that a cheaper grocery store, Kopeika, is also available.

Atrium shopping centre at Ulitsa Zemlyannoy Val is where most residents go on more protracted shopping excursions.

Basmanny is fairly religiously diverse – among the 14 churches located in the district, one belongs to Evangelicals, and the Moscow Choral Synagogue, considered to be the main synagogue in all of Russia, is also located in Basmanny.

Basmanny is probably the only district in Moscow that has a total of 13 theatres (Sovremennik, Modern Theatre, and the Puppet Theatre among them). There are also four art galleries (Fotosoyuz Gallery at Ulitsa Pokrovka is worth a look in particular) and two big cinemas – Rolan and Karo Film Atrium.

Basmanny also has literally hundreds of pharmacies, 23 public schools, 24 kindergartens and 29 institutions of higher education – the Russian State University of the Humanities, the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the Higher School of Economics and the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages among them.

Property prices

Basmanny is considered one of the most prestigious among the central neighbourhoods according to Vasily Mitko, general director of MIAN property. Anna Levitova, executive partner at Evans Property, pointed out that Basmanny is also the cheapest neighbourhood in the Central Administrative District.

Alexander Ziminsky, director of the elite property department at Penny Lane Realty, told The Moscow News that the average price for a square metre in Basmanny stands at $5244.

Rental prices in Basmanny begin at 32,000 roubles ($1,067) for a one bedroom apartment, according to Levitova.

“A three-room apartment on Naberezhnaya Akademika Tupoleva will cost $4,500-6,000 per month, which is 20 per cent cheaper than a similar apartment at Frunzenskaya Naberezhnaya,” said Vadim Lamin, head of the elite rentals department at Penny Lane Realty.

The district is very popular among expats and there are four embassies here – the Swiss, Iranian, Belorussian and Kazakh.

“Some 12 per cent of our clients who buy property in this district are foreign businessmen,” Alexander Ziminsky told The Moscow News.

The ‘German’ district – a brief history The name of the district comes from a Tartar word, “basmeniye”, which means “embossing books and icons”.

It’s likely that local artisans supplied the tsar with leather goods. Also, the area’s bakers made a certain type of bread that was called “basman”. Basmanny dates back to the 15th century, when it was mainly occupied by a road that ran from Moscow to the city of Vladimir.

A particularly interesting settlement in Basmanny district was called Nemetskaya Sloboda (“German Village”) – this was where many foreigners relocated from Moscow by the tsar came to live. Considering how popular the area is with expats today, one can say that Basmanny has not changed that much over the centuries.

Nemetskaya Sloboda became the cultural, educational and medical centre of Basmanny. The famous military hospital named after General Burdenko is still operating here.

In 2000, Nemetskaya Sloboda became a protected historic site – of interest to both tourists and preservationists.

Housing problem

Oksana Nikityanskaya, 22, is a translator who has lived in Basmanny district for three years alongside her husband, Jan.

“There are a lot of kindergartens, schools and higher educational institutions around here,” Oksana said.

“And there are hundreds of restaurants and cafes, among them the Molly Malone pub, and the Antrisol and Denis Davydov restaurants where my husband and I go.”

Oksana and Jan rent an apartment on Ulitsa Bakuninskaya for 35,000 roubles per month ($1,176).

“We are blessed with our neighbours – a family of professional cyclists lives next door, and there are also actors from the gypsy theatre Romen nearby. The building is new, clean and there is a good playground in the yard for kids.”

That said, one of the main drawbacks of Basmanny, according to Oksana and Jan, is that crime appears to be on the rise in the district.

Source: The Moscow News