Moscow Yaroslavl Railway Station
The Yaroslavl station ( Russian Ярославский вокзал , scientific transliteration Jaroslavskij vokzal ) is an important terminus in the Russian capital Moscow . It was built in 1862, making it one of the city's oldest railway junctions. It is the starting point of the Trans-Siberian Railway , the longest railway line in the world. Trains to Northern Russia, the Urals, Siberia and the Russian Far East as well as Mongolia and the People's Republic of China start from here.
In addition to its importance as a traffic junction, the Yaroslavl station with its reception building, which was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century by the famous Art Nouveau architect Fjodor Schechtel , is an important monument of Russian architecture of that time.
location
The Yaroslavl train station is located just outside the historic Moscow city center on today's Komsomolskaya Square . There are two more long-distance train stations in the immediate vicinity: on the left, the Leningrad train station and diagonally opposite, on the southern side of the square, the Kazan train station . For this reason, Komsomolskaya Square is often unofficially referred to as the Square of the Three Train Stations . In addition, the Kalantschowskaja regional train station is adjacent to the square, from which there are train connections to three other long-distance train stations in the city.
In addition to rail connections, the Yaroslavl station, like the two neighboring stations, has a connection to the Moscow metro network : The two stations Komsomolskaya on the Sokolnicheskaya and Kolzewaya lines are located directly below Komsomolskaya Square . In addition, the square is served by several tram and trolleybus lines.
history
Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk Railway
The early history of the Yaroslavl railway station is mainly associated with the construction of a number of railway lines in the north of the European part of Russia. These routes, which connect cities like Yaroslavl , Kostroma , Arkhangelsk or Vologda with Moscow and with each other, were all built in the second half of the 19th century, during a railway construction boom in the Russian Empire . At that time, they were operated by a joint-stock company founded especially for this purpose, the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Archangel Railway Company ( О́бщество Моско́вско-Яросла́вско-Арха́нгельской желе́зной ), which was financed by private investors. This differentiated the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk Railway from the Nikolaibahn , built a few years earlier , which was state-owned from the outset due to its high strategic importance.
The oldest section of the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk Railway was built just a few years after the company was founded on May 29, 1859. This is the approximately 70 km long railway line between Moscow and the city of Sergiev Posad , where the famous Trinity Monastery was located. Since the latter is venerated as a shrine in the Russian Orthodox Church and therefore regularly attracted streams of pilgrims, some entrepreneurs recognized the benefit of a rail link between this place and the old tsar's capital in the 1850s. There was initially no talk of a continuation of the route beyond Sergiev Posad. The main initiator of the route construction was the military engineer Baron Andrei Ivanovich Delwig (1813–1887), later chief inspector of the Russian railways and founder of one of the first railway technical schools in Russia. He and the co-initiators succeeded in convincing a number of merchants of the expected high profitability of the future railway line, whereby the necessary start-up capital for the stock corporation could be raised without major delays.
A few months before the company was founded, which initially bore the shortened name of the Moscow-Yaroslavl Railway Company , the initiators asked Tsar Alexander II for permission to plan and build the railway line. This came in July 1858 with the condition that the construction of the route should be completed by mid-1862 at the latest and that planning work for a possible continuation of the route to Yaroslavl should begin at the same time. Since the technical and legal prerequisites for the route to Sergiev Posad had been good, it was possible to erect it without any major delays while meeting the deadline. On July 22, 1862, after a little more than two years of construction, the first test train was able to leave the newly built terminal station in Moscow. On August 18 of the same year, the railway line was ceremoniously handed over to regular passenger traffic, initially with two pairs of trains per day. A few months later, goods traffic between Moscow and Sergiev Posad was also started. As early as 1864 the line was expanded to double-track its entire length.
The route was originally known as the Trinity Railway, as its main destination was the railway connection to the Trinity Monastery. However, this should change already eight years after the opening. With a total of more than 450,000 passengers transported in the first three years of operation, the line proved to be very successful, which left the board of directors of the Moscow-Yaroslavl Railway Company in no doubt about the profitability of an extension to the northeast. The 210-kilometer-long continuation of the line to the Volga metropolis of Yaroslavl, which was planned when the Trinity Railway was built, was put into operation in February 1870 after a year and a half of construction. In 1872 a narrow-gauge line from Yaroslavl to Vologda was built (it was only converted to broad gauge in 1915), in 1887 the line from Yaroslavl to Kostroma was built, and in 1898 finally the narrow-gauge line from Vologda to the old northern sea port city of Arkhangelsk.
The length of the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk Railway was already more than 1,100 kilometers at the turn of the century, not including the more than 60 branches for passenger, freight or industrial traffic as well as some smaller local railway lines. In 1900 the company of the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk Railway was bought by the Russian state and a little later renamed the Northern Railway Department ( Северная железная дорога ) of the Russian Railways - a name that this department still bears today. With the construction of the 700 kilometer long railway line from Vologda to Vyatka in 1905, the Northern Railway was linked directly to the Trans-Siberian Railway , which was laid at the same time , making the Moscow – Yaroslavl, Yaroslavl – Danilov , Danilow – Bui and Bui – Vyatka sections part of this longest artery Of Russia.
Planning and construction of the train station
Since the line built by the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk Railway Company was originally only supposed to go as far as Sergiev Posad, the first plans for its Moscow terminus did not include a larger facility. Several locations within the city limits of the time were available for the location of the future hub. The decision to build the station right next to the existing Nikolaibahnhof was made in October 1860. At the same time, it was decided to build the planned terminal station of the railway line from Moscow via Ryazan to Saratov, today's Kazan station , on the south side of the same square. Strictly speaking, the present-day square of the three railway stations was not an inner-city square at that time, but a large, unpaved wasteland near the eastern outskirts of Moscow. To the left of the Nikolaibahnhof there were some residential and warehouse buildings of the Nikolaibahn and, further to the left, the 23 hectare Red Pond ( Кра́сный пруд ), which was filled in during the expansion work for the station square and is now completely overbuilt.
After the construction site had been prepared, work began in 1861 on building the railway station. This and all the station buildings were inaugurated on August 18, 1862, exactly at the start of regular train traffic. The platforms and tracks of the new station were arranged in a similar way to the Nikolaibahnhof: In the back yard of the reception building, which had an approximately Π-shaped floor plan, along its two side extensions, two platforms were built, the right one for departure and the left one for the arrival of the trains was used. In its original design, the station had a total of six tracks, two of which were used for passenger traffic. In addition to the tracks, a station building for passenger traffic, a workshop, a steam locomotive depot and a car shed were built.
The architect Michail Lewestam was commissioned to design the reception building, whose original design was later modified by the St. Petersburg Art Academy professor Roman Kusmin. The style of the two-storey brick building, up to 12 meters high, resembled a simple, neo-classical functional building: It had two storeys and a shape that appeared strictly symmetrical from the outside with a flagpole in the middle part of the roof. This made the station look like an ordinary Russian administrative building for that time. The house consisted of three parts: the representative central part and two side extensions stretching backwards. First, second and third class waiting rooms were located on the ground floor of the right extension, which stretched along the departure platform, while a room for loading and storing luggage and the railway company's administrative headquarters were set up on the left. The middle part of the building, with the front facade facing today's Komsomolskaya Square, housed counter halls, a telegraph station and an entrance hall on its ground floor, through which the passenger could get directly from the square to the platforms. Service rooms and staff apartments were accommodated on the upper floor of the entire reception building.
On January 1, 1907, the Yaroslavl station was renamed the North Station ( Северный вокзал ) after the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Archangel Railway Company, which was bought by the state, became the Northern Railway section of the Russian Railways, which is still state-owned. It was not until 1936, after a further restructuring of the national rail network, that the station was given back its original name, which is still valid today.
Extensions and conversions
The first noteworthy expansion of the Yaroslavl station took place in 1868 as part of the extension of the railway line to Yaroslavl. Its main goal was to increase capacity for the expected increase in passenger flows. The middle part of the reception building remained unchanged, rather the two side extensions were expanded, with the left extension receiving an additional floor.
There was a further expansion shortly after the acquisition of the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk Railway Company by the state. Since the total length of the railway lines and the number of passengers had increased significantly by then compared to the 1860s, the capacity of the station, which was last expanded in 1868, was no longer sufficient in 1900 to ensure smooth handling. The expansion, led by the then well-known Moscow architect Lev Kekuschew , was limited primarily to an expansion of the platform systems, while the reception building did not undergo any significant changes this time. Kekuschew had a new platform built with a roof, which was supported by architecturally striking column structures arranged as arched portals with a cladding of black granite. These columns have been preserved to this day as part of the interior of one of the waiting rooms. In addition, a water tower was built next to the station building to supply the station and the steam trains with water.
Since even this renovation could not do justice to the ever increasing number of passengers, a fundamental expansion of the entire station was necessary at the beginning of the 20th century. Fjodor Schechtel , at the time one of the most renowned Art Nouveau architects , presented a design in 1902, according to which the station should be equipped primarily according to its importance as the northern entrance gate of Moscow. He intended a conversion in traditional Moscow styles, which, however, have a clear reference to the old architecture of northern Russian places and thus express a close connection between Moscow and the Russian north. Schechtel's idea was accepted with approval, so that the Moscow Governor General granted the building permit in August 1902. The construction work under Schechtel's direction lasted from 1902 to 1904, the ceremonial inauguration of the renewed station took place on December 19, 1904.
During the renovation of the existing reception building, two new additions were built on both sides and the two rear parts of the building were expanded. The old central part of the building was completely redesigned from the outside by adding three tower constructions and making massive changes to the front facade. The water tower built in 1900 was integrated into the left tower of the central part of the reception building. As a result of the Schechtel conversion, the capacity of the Yaroslavl train station could be roughly tripled. In addition, Schechtel managed to keep the conversion costs comparatively low: These amounted to around 300,000 rubles , while the much simpler original building had devoured 220,000 rubles.
The Yaroslavl train station, completed in 1904, is still one of Fjodor Schechtel's most famous works to this day. Since it, like all of his other buildings, is under monument protection, all subsequent station conversions were limited to extensions of the building from the rear and to redesigning and relocating the platforms and tracks, while the front facade of the reception building can still be seen largely in its original state from 1904 to this day is.
The subsequent major expansion of the Yaroslavl station took place in 1965–1966. Luggage storage compartments were set up in the basement rooms of the station building, which were originally used for the heating systems, so that additional space could be gained on the ground floor. In addition, the rear part of the building facing the tracks was given a two-story extension with a facade made of reinforced concrete and glass. This extension now houses a counter hall for local transport and part of the waiting room. The platform built by Lev Kekuschew in 1900 was integrated into it. Since then, its black granite columns have been inside the building, while all platforms have been moved a few meters to the north. During this renovation, new space was gained in particular for handling long-distance traffic: the total area of the premises designated for this purpose was increased by over 70 percent.
In the mid-1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, further expansion and modernization measures followed for the Yaroslavl train station, during which the handling capacity could be doubled again by fundamentally redesigning the interior of the reception building. At the same time, the front facade was repainted, the roof renewed and the furnishings of the waiting rooms brought up to the latest technical standards.
Notable events
The so far only serious railway accident in the history of the Yaroslavl station happened on August 30, 1897, when the brakes failed on a train arriving from Sergiev Posad, whereupon it could not stop in time before reaching the end of the platform. As a result, the locomotive drove into an empty baggage wagon that had been standing at the end of the track, used it to break through the demarcation and rammed a wall of the reception building, which was partially badly damaged. The newspaper Moskowskije Vedomosti reported on this incident the next day, noting that "... to the general relief, there have been few injuries".
On August 3, 2001, the station hit the headlines after Kim Jong-il arrived there in an armored special train around 9:40 p.m. The North Korean head of state was on a state visit to Russia and traveled over the Trans-Siberian route from Vladivostok, which is near the Russian-North Korean border, to Moscow, where he was received by President Vladimir Putin . On the evening of his arrival in Moscow, the entire Yaroslavl station was evacuated for several hours and all trains that were supposed to depart or arrive at this time were canceled or diverted. The train station had to be closed for 15 minutes on the morning of that day after a false bomb alarm had sounded there.
architecture
The architecturally most remarkable thing about today's Yaroslavl station is the reception building, which was rebuilt by Fjodor Schechtel in 1902–1904. When describing it, the so-called Neo-Russian style is often referred to, i.e. Art Nouveau with strong influences from traditional Old Russian architecture.
A special feature of the Yaroslavl station compared to other works by Fyodor Schechtel is its deliberate reference to striking structures in both Moscow and the old cities of northern Russia. Since the station did not have the function of the starting station of the Trans-Siberian Railway when it was renovated at the beginning of the 20th century - This was only completed in 1916 and connected to Moscow by the Moscow-Ryazan-Kazan railway line until the mid-1920s, so that the Kazan train station initially served as the starting point of the main line - at that time it was primarily the Moscow entrance and exit gate to northern Russia This function of the Yaroslavl station - as the starting point of an axis between Moscow on the one hand and two important metropolises in the Russian north, Yaroslavl and Arkhangelsk, on the other - is expressed in the relief ornaments in the niche of the gable above the main entrance portal. There are three city coats of arms depicted there: George the Saint of Moscow, Michael the Archangel who defeated a devil, as the coat of arms of the city of Arkhangelsk and the bear with the battle ax as a symbol of the city of Yaroslavl.
The reception building itself was designed by Schechtel in such a way that its old Russian style elements draw on Moscow traditions as well as evoke memories of masterpieces of northern Russian architecture. The left of the building's three towers was created based on some of the towers of the Moscow Kremlin . The shape of the roof structure directly above the main entrance portal is typical of Moscow in the 15th and 16th centuries; The Terem Palace in the Kremlin has a similar roof . In contrast, the arched gable above the main entrance is reminiscent of the gate of the Convent of the Transfiguration of Christ in Yaroslavl, and the right corner tower is also based on several typical church buildings in the north of Russia. Another element of the facade design of the Yaroslavl train station, which was dedicated to northern Russia, are the striking green majolica ornaments in the upper facade area with motifs on the flora and fauna of the Russian north. They were made in the ceramics workshop of the Abramzewo artists' colony when the station was being renovated . The latter was donated by the industrialist and patron of the arts, Savva Mamontov , who was chairman of the Moscow-Yaroslavl-Arkhangelsk railway company from 1872 to 1899.
Inside the reception building, the walls of the main waiting room were decorated with twelve wall paintings by the artist Konstantin Korowin , who had also worked in Abramzewo , as part of the renovation from 1902 to 1904 . These paintings, which were created by Korovin in 1896 and originally served as decoration of the North Russian themed pavilion at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair in the same year, depict landscapes and everyday scenes from northern Russia. During the renovation in the 1960s, the paintings were removed and transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow , where they can still be seen in the original today. The above-mentioned former support columns made of black granite, which were built in 1900 by Lew Kekuschew for the platform that was later moved, are a sight of the interior to this day.
Train traffic
Today's Yaroslavl station is the most heavily used of all eight long-distance stations in Moscow: In 2005, an average of 172,000 passengers were handled here every day, including 24,000 long-distance and 148,000 local. The number of passengers at Yaroslavl station exceeded the corresponding figure at Kursk station by a good 70 percent, and the distance to all seven other long-distance stations was even greater. Today's station has 16 tracks, six of which are used for handling long-distance trains and the remaining ten for local traffic.
Around 300 pairs of trains are handled from the Yaroslavl train station every day. In long-distance traffic, the exact number varies for each destination depending on the day of the week and the season. The Transsib trains, which are heavily influenced by tourists, run more frequently than usual in the summer months. However, local trains make up the largest proportion of the passenger traffic at the Yaroslavl station, often called Elektrichki in Russia . These connect the station with certain Moscow outskirts as well as cities and settlements in the northeastern Moscow area.
The following tables show the most important local and long-distance destinations to which there are direct connections from the Yaroslavl train station.
Regional connections
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* = express trains only
Remote connections
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See also
supporting documents
Individual evidence
- ^ The Rossija train , accessed on March 31, 2008 (Russian).
- ↑ http://www.szd.rzd.ru/wps/portal/szd?STRUCTURE_ID=240 (link not available)
- ↑ a b History of the Yaroslavl Railway Station ( Memento of May 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on the official website of the Moscow Department of the Russian Railways, accessed on March 31, 2008 (Russian)
- ↑ otdihinfo.ru accessed April 1, 2008 (Russian)
- ↑ Бронепоезд закрыл Ярославский вокзал . In: gazeta.ru. August 3, 2001, accessed April 1, 2008 (Russian)
- ↑ Department of Transport and Communication of the City of Moscow http://dtis.ru/index.php?article=9167&topic=4 ( Memento from July 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) , August 21, 2008, accessed on August 21, 2008 .
- ↑ Department of Transport and Communication of the City of Moscow http://mosgortrans.net/index.php?article=9233&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 ( Memento of July 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) , September 4, 2008, accessed on September 4, 2008
- ↑ A brief overview of the Yaroslavl train station ( memento from March 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 21, 2012 (Russian)
- ↑ Advertising at train stations on propel.ru, accessed April 1, 2008 (Russian)
- ↑ Timetables of Yaroslavl train station, local transport on tutu.ru, accessed on March 31, 2008 (Russian)
- ↑ Timetables of Yaroslavl train station, long-distance traffic on tutu.ru, accessed on March 31, 2008 (Russian)
literature
- German Commission for UNESCO, Hans-Dieter Dyroff (ed.): Architectural heritage of art nouveau, Jugendstil. German UNESCO Commission, Bonn 1991, ISBN 3-927907-15-4 ( Architecture and Protection of Monuments and Sites of Historical Interest . Volume 30), p. 90.
- EI Kiričenko ( Е. И.Кириченко ): Fëdor Šechtelʹ ( Фёдор Шехтель ). Strojizdat, Moscow 1973
- NM Petuchova ( Н. М.Петухова ): Ploščadʹ trëch vokzalov. Architekturnaja biografija. ( Площадь трёх вокзалов. Архитектурная биография. ). Ostrov, Saint Petersburg 2005, ISBN 5-94500-028-0
- JV Tolstov ( Ю. В.Толстов ): V tradicijach Russkogo Severa ( В традициях Русского Севера ). In: Gudok. August 16, 1997.
Web links
- Unofficial website about Yaroslavl train station (Russian)
- The architecture of the Yaroslavl train station ( Memento from April 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) on projectclassica.ru (Russian)
- The train "Rossija" (Russian)
- A photo gallery of the train station (Russian)
Yaroslavl Railway Station | Kazan Railway Station | Kiev Railway Station | Kursk Railway Station | Leningrad train station | Paveletsky Railway Station | Riga Railway Station | Zavyolovo Railway Station (former long-distance train station) | Belarusian train station
Coordinates: 55 ° 46 ′ 36.6 ″ N , 37 ° 39 ′ 26.4 ″ E
