Zamoskvorechye District

Two river crossings, west and east of the Moscow Kremlin's walls, provide access to roads which originally continued south to Kaluga and Serpukhov and served as main axes of settlement.

Bolshaya Ordynka Street (Serpukhov road), currently the western boundary of the district, is named after Orda, Golden Horde, and was initially home to the Tatar community.

Regular floods and the north–south migration of Moskva river bed limited construction to a narrow, 500–700 meter wide strip of land between the Ordynka and Tatarskaya streets.

For example, present-day Pyatnitskaya Street emerged early in the 15th century, when the expansion of the Moscow Kremlin moved the wooden Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge one block eastward.

The wealthier class concentrated in Pyatnitskaya and Ordynka streets; Zamoskvorechye became a quiet, country-like land of single-story houses and conservative businessmen.

Large areas east of Tatarskaya streets were flooded with the intention of building a river harbour and a fortified grain port on the eastern tip of the new island.

These factories, from textile to turbine blades, were recently torn down or rebuilt into office space (Sparkling Wine Bottlery, on Sadovnicheskaya Street, still operates).

[6] In 1857, English brothers Theodore and Edward Bromley set up a mechanical plant south from the Garden Ring, producing small hand tools.

[11] Housing construction in the 1920s proceeded slowly, with some examples surviving (a big constructivist block by Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge was razed in the 1990s, citing imminent hazards; as of 2024 the lot is still vacant).

The population growth plateaus as the city begins to condemn historical buildings, opting instead for office redevelopment, resulting in many residents being forced to relocate.

[12] Recent publications in the Moscow Development plan for the District has called for a restoration and modernisation of many of the older buildings which is gradually happening from the Garden Ring, towards the Kremlin.