The Kremlin, Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral – the visual markers that scream “Russia!” to the most casual of observers – are located in Tverskoy, making it the most famous neighbourhood in the country. For plenty of Muscovites, however, Tverskoy is more closely associated with both the city authorities and the protests that regularly take place on Triumfalnaya and Pushkinskaya Ploshchad.

Full of tourists, theatres, high-end shops and perpetual traffic jams, Tverskoy may not immediately strike one as the most hospitable place. Yet plenty of people do, in fact, call it their home.

Dining out

When it comes to restaurant options in Tverskoy, the sheer number of choices can be overwhelming.

Residents say that as far as easy decisions go, Starlite diner at Ulitsa Bolshaya Sadovaya is always worth it – it has American and European dishes on the menu and is very popular with expats. Expats also love visiting Café Pushkin at Tverskoy Bulvar, as it offers traditional Russian and European cuisine and has great interior design.

For Uzbek food lovers, restaurant Uzbekistan at Ulitsa Neglinnaya is open seven days a week. The prices are above average, but if you like to feel like a sultan on occasion, they’re said to be worth it.

Famous Moscow restaurateur Arkady Novikov has opened a good dozen restaurants in the Tverskoy neighbourhood, so those who are fond of his cuisine concepts and design vision are welcome to Galereiya at Ulitsa Petrovka, Krik at Strastnoy Bulvar or Nedalny Vostok at Tverskoy Bulvar.

As far as cheaper options go, Sup-café at Ulitsa 1-ya Brestskaya features a great selection of soups and other meals, and an average bill will be around 1000 roubles, including drinks.

Health and fun

The roughly 200-year-old sauna, Sandunskiye Bani, at Ulitsa Neglinnaya is famous for the many movies scenes shot there. For instance, the scene in which the hero of Soviet classic “Ironiya Sudbi” (“An Irony of Fate”) celebrates New Year’s Eve with his friends and gets horribly drunk in the process, determining his further fate, was filmed at Sandunskiye Bani.

Locals say that the trainers at the Planeta Fitness sport complex, located at Ulitsa Malaya Dmitrovka, are particularly friendly and well-trained. The Olymp-centre swimming pool at Ulitsa Alexandra Nevskogo, the Dinamo-Centre tennis club and the ice-skating rink on Ulitsa Petrovka all come highly recommended as well.

Discerning clientele prefer Dessange beauty salon at Ulitsa Tverskaya and Persona-LAB on Likhov Pereulok for getting their hair, nails and make-up done.

Shopping

Grocery shopping in Tverskoy can be somewhat of a problem, for there are very few genuine “produkty” stores in the area. But there is a Sedmoy Continent on Ulitsa Delegatskaya and Spar at Ulitsa Tikhvinskaya, both popular with locals.

Tverskoy also has Moscow’s biggest and oldest shopping malls – their abbreviated names, TsUM and GUM, are famous throughout Russia and the former Soviet Union.

For culture lovers

Tverskoy is home to 22 theatres of all kinds – from the old-school Bolshoi Theatre near Teatralnaya metro to an edgier establishment such as Teatr.doc in Trekhprudny Pereulok.

Nikulin’s Circus at Tsvetnoi Bulvar is a classic destination as far as circuses are concerned. The circus’s history goes back to 1880. Yury Nikulin, who was the circus’s art director for many years, is one of the many Soviet clowns who made both kids and adults laugh.

The Pushkin concert hall and cinema at Pushkinskaya Ploshchad (Pushkin Square) is the location where the Moscow International Film festival holds its opening and closing ceremonies every ear.

Tverskoy has many other fun places to explore – entertainment complexes, tourism clubs, dancing schools, concert halls and so on. Listing them all is an impossible task, so it’s recommended that prospective residents do a fair bit of exploring on their own.

Education and transport

There are 12 public schools, 14 kindergartens and 14 institutions of higher education to enlighten Tverskoy’s residents. There are also 14 metro stations located in Tverskoy, which helps one escape the traffic. The sheer number of cars passing through the neighbourhood is huge, and famous Tverskaya Ulitsa is regularly jammed, making the neighbourhood an very noisy place to live.

Property prices

Tverskoy is the most expensive place to live in Moscow. Apartment prices on Ulitsa Tverskaya can go up to $20,500,000, according to Anna Levitova, executive partner at Evans Property.

“The average price per square metre stands at $237,000 in Tverskoy,” Alexander Ziminsky, director of the elite property department at Penny Lane Realty, told The Moscow News. Rent prices on the other hand vary – a one bedroom apartment can cost 1,700 per month, which is quite cheap for the most central neighbourhood of them all.

“The most expensive apartment available for rent costs $25,000 per month, but it has 9 rooms and 3 bathrooms and is located in a pre-revolutionary building in Romanovsky Pereulok,” Anna Levitova said.

According to Alexander Ziminsky of Penny Lane, most of the apartments in Tverskoy are extremely nice. “It’s no wonder that there are many foreign property owners there,” Anna Levitova said, pointing out the neighbourhood’s continuing popularity with wealthy expats.

Tverskoy can be an extremely hectic place to live, and the fact that it is frequently the site of protests makes it unappealing for those who want just a simple and quiet existence. Yet moving here pretty much guarantees that one will never be exceptionally bored – and living in what is perhaps the very heart of Russia certainly affords its residents a fair amount of bragging rights. If you can afford it – and if you can handle it – Tverskoy may be the place for you.

The apartment question

Alexander Slobodianik, 36, is a theatre director who has lived in Tverskoy for nearly his entire life. He told The Moscow News that his home is located at the best location in Tverskoy – at the corner of Karmergersky pereulok and Ulitsa Tverskaya. “This is a very quiet part of Tverskaya,” he said.

Alexander dislikes the fact that the drivers of the State Duma deputies block exits from many buildings on his street. “Sometimes we residents have to argue with the deputies and their drivers to make way for our own cars.”

As for shopping, he pointed out that the locally, the small grocery shops used to be incredibly bad. “There were many small shops with food of dubious quality here – it was a living hell,” he complained. Today a small Perekryostok store is open right in his apartment block, making life much easier.

Alexander said those who plan to move to Tverskoy should check out the Moloko shop at Ulitsa Bolshaya Dmitrovka 7/5, as it is one of the few old-school Soviet shops in the area that’s worth visiting. “I think that Tverskoy has every good quality of a big city, so come and live here, see for yourself,” Alexander advised newcomers.

Source: The Moscow News