Moscow Metro – a Socialist Realist Art Gallery
Moscow Metro – Baumanskaya – Line 3
Baumanskaya (Бауманская) is a station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line of the Moscow Metro, named after the revolutionary Nikolai Bauman. It was designed by Boris Iofan and Yury Zenkevich and opened in 1944. The Art Deco design features white marble pylons with rounded corners, projecting, fluted piers faced with red ceramic tile, and decorative ventilation grilles. In the bays between each set of piers are bronze sculptures by V.A. Andreev depicting Russian soldiers and workers of the home front during World War II. At the end of the platform is a mosaic portrait of Vladimir Lenin. This station is very busy, as one of the biggest Moscow institutes (Moscow State Technical University) is located not far away.
Baumanskaya is the second busiest station in Moscow Metro. The facts:
- There are at least 3 major universities near the station: Bauman Moscow State Technical University main and secondary buildings Moscow State University of Civil Engineering and Moscow State Academy of Law.
- Specific configuration of central hall like garmon (Russian accordion) before the escalator, where some passengers try to short jump queue.
- Most passengers prefer Baumanskaya to other station if they would get to the area which is at half-way between Baumanskaya and another station even if causes additional transfer or even best accessible by ground transport.
- The escalators here were the oldest working in Moscow Metro and the entire world. Their replacement began on 8 February 2015 and was completed on 24 December 2015.
A cryptic inscription is on the wall of station. It is situated near the first car stop towards the Shchyolkovskaya station just under the last ventilation lattice. The inscription is deeply carved in marble on about 120 centimetres (47in) above the floor, is about 8 centimetres (3.1in) in length and 1.5 centimetres (0.59in) in height. It consists of two dates, divided by hyphen:
19 14/XI 46 – 19 15/XII 54
These dates translate to 14 November 1946 – 15 December 1954. The way of writing is very similar to the way dates are written on gravestones. The origin of that artefact is unknown. [I missed this on my visit.]
Text from Wikipedia.
Location:
GPS:
55.7730°N
37.6806°E
Depth:
32.5 metres (107 ft)
Opened:
18 January 1944