Monument to Alexander Pushkin and his wife

The Old Arbat is a picturesque pedestrian street within the Garden Ring of Moscow. Nowadays, it is one of Moscow`s most touristy streets, with lots of entertainment and souvenirs sold. The Old Arbat should be distinguished from the nearby New Arbat, constructed back in the 1960s as Kalinin Avenue and lined with Soviet skyscrapers made of steel, concrete, and glass.

The Arbat was first attested in 1493 as a road leading from the Moscow Kremlin to Smolensk. The origin of the name is Tatar and means suburb (the same as Rabat). During the 16th and 17th centuries, the neighbourhood was graced with elegant churches, notably the one featured in Vasily Polenov`s celebrated painting A Courtyard in Moscow (1879).

In the 18th century, the Arbat came to be regarded by the Russian nobility as the most prestigious living area in Moscow. The street was almost completely destroyed by the great fire during Napoleon`s occupation of Moscow in 1812 and had to be rebuilt. Alexander Pushkin lodged in one of its mansions for a short time, and there is a statue of him and his wife Natalie in front of this house. Another famous native was the writer Andrey Bely, many of whose novels feature impressionist portrayals of this patriarchal area.

In the 20th century, the street succumbed to limited renovations in the Art Nouveau and Constructivist styles. Probably the most original monument to the new trends is the Melnikov Mansion. The street`s outflow into the Garden Ring was marked with a flamboyant wedding-cake skyscraper of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Simultaneously, they demolished most of the Arbat churches, including that of St Nicholas, regarded as one of the finest examples of Godunov style

Monument to Bulat Okudzhava

The Arbat is currently decorated with large lanterns which were installed in 1986. It has several statues, one to Princess Turandot in front of the Vakhtangov Theatre and another to a local resident, Bulat Okudzhava, who wrote several poignant songs about the Arbat. During the Perestroika, the street was a gathering place for informal youth movements (like hippies or punks), as well as street musicians and artists. Viktor Tsoi`s wall at one of the Arbat side-streets remains a curious monument to those turbulent years. To this day, Russian youth frequently gather on the Arbat to play the songs of Tsoi and other Russian songwriters.

The Arbat is home to the headquarters of oil company TNK-BP in a modern building at the beginning of the street. It also contains numerous restaurants, including The Hard Rock Cafe. Many of these restaurants are geared towards visitors to Moscow and are considered by many residents to be over-priced and of low quality compared to those in other parts of the city. There are also a few restaurants and cafes that cater to the working population and middle class; these include Kruzhka, Praim, and Mu-Mu`s.