Theatre Square (Russian: Театральная площадь, Teatralnaya ploshchad), known as Sverdlov Square between 1919 and 1991, is a city square in Tverskoy District of Moscow, Russia. It's located at the junction of Kuznetsky Bridge Street, Petrovka Street and Theatre Drive (north-west of the latter; the square to south-east of Theatre Drive is a separate Revolution Square).
The square is named after the three theatres situated there — Bolshoi Theatre, Maly Theatre, and Russian Youth Theatre. The square is served by the Teatralnaya Moscow metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line, Okhotniy Ryad on the Sokolnicheskaya Line and Ploshchad Revolyutsii on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line.
The square emerged after the Fire of 1812 and conversion of the Neglinnaya River into an underground channel; the river still flows diagonally around the square green. It was designed in a symmetrical neoclassical style by Joseph Bove (1820s), however, in the second half of the 19th century the ensemble was ruined by new additions in eclectic style, considerably taller than the original side buildings. The square also contains the neo-gothic TsUM (ЦУМ), a luxury department store.
It was during a meeting in Sverdlov Square 5 May 1920, that an iconic picture of Lenin was taken.
Famous quotes containing the words theatre and/or square:
“Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one’s own life.”
—Dame Alice Markova (b. 1910)
“I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)