In this area, archeologists have found artifacts characteristic to Ancient Rus, such as glass bracelets and red spinning wheels. An ancient landing pier was located in the Zaryadye neighborhood between the Vasilievsky and Kremlin grasslands. Archeologists uncovered fossilized traces of cattle inside the river along the path of what would become the future Velikaya Street.
Clip from a newsreel on the archaeological excavations in Zaryadye. 1956
The first official documentation of Velikaya Street was when it was mentioned in the famous “Murder Records” compiled from 1425 to 1433. This administrative entry divided Moscow into five judicial districts. Velikaya Street was located in the most populated area of the city along the riverbanks where “murder radiated on Velikaya Nikolaya Mokrinsky Street from the end of the island to Varvarka street.” A few years before the emergence of Velikaya Street, Zaryadye was a large district behind present-day Red Square filled with trading stalls and stock buildings. The name was derived from the Russian word “zaryadye” or “behind the stalls” (in Russian, “za” is behind, and “ryad” is stall).
The golden age of Zaryadye and Velikaya Street coincided with the rise of Moscow in the 14th and 15th centuries.
During this time period, the area was vibrant and home to traders, shoemakers, blacksmiths, and jewelers. Situated on the river, Zaryadye was an international trading hub: ships would arrive with goods from Europe, and active trade was conducted with Asia.
During an excavation, a layer along Velikaya Street was unearthed and many items from the Golden Horde were found: a bronze bracelet, a handcrafted mirror, pottery fragments from brightly colored bowls with relief decoration, and coins from the Uzbek khan – the earliest known currency in Zaryadye.
Velikaya Street appears in documents through the year 1547, and then disappears from the map of Moscow. As land routes from all corners of Russia began to be constructed, the delivery of goods along the river gradually disappeared. Zaryadye and its Velikaya Street both began to lose importance as transport hubs. Due to the decreased amount of goods and traffic on the street, the Kitay Gorod wall at the gate of Velikaya Street was closed for travel in the early 17th century, and shortly after, Peter the Great completely filled it in with stones and bricks. For some time, the street was called Zachatyevsky, after the monastery of the same name in the honor of Saint Anna. By the 17th century, the once important trading artery of the city full of foreign goods and traders became the dull Mokrinsky Lane, named after one of Moscow’s oldest churches, Nikolay “the miracle worker” Morkov, the patron saint of merchants and travelers.
In June 2015, during the construction of Zaryadye Park, a fragment of a wooden bridge was discovered on the territory of what used to be Velikaya (and at some point Zachatyevsky) Street. The artifact represents the ubiquitous wooden pavement covering the streets that now lie in Underground Museum in Zaryadye Park.
