Mayakovskaya (Moscow Metro)

For other uses, see Mayakovsky.

Mayakovskaya Moscow Metro station
Art Deco columns
Station statistics
Coordinates	55°46′12″N 37°35′45″E
Lines	Zamoskvoretskaya Line
Connections	Bus: 12ts Trolleybus: 1, 3, 12, 47
Depth	33 metres (108 ft)
Levels	1
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Parking	No
Bicycle facilities	No
Baggage check	No
Other information
Opened	11 September 1938
Code	034
Owned by	Moskovsky Metropoliten
Formerly	Triumfalnaya ploshchad, Ploshchad Mayakovskogo
Services
Preceding station   Moscow Metro   Following station Belorusskaya toward Rechnoy Vokzal Zamoskvoretskaya Line Tverskaya toward Krasnogvardeyskaya

Mayakovskaya (Russian: Маяковская), is a Moscow Metro station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. Considered to be one of the most beautiful in the system, it is a fine example of pre-World War II Stalinist Architecture and one of the most famous Metro stations in the world. The name as well as the design is a reference to Futurism and its prominent Russian exponent Vladimir Mayakovsky.

History

The station was built as part of the second stage of the Moscow Metro expansion, opening on 11 September 1938. If the first stage was more focused on the building of the system itself, both architecturally and when it comes to the engineering, the stations appear modest in comparison to those that the second stage brought to the system. For the first time in the world, instead of having the traditional three-neath pylon station layout, the engineers were able to overlap the vault space and support it with two sets of colonnades on each side. This gave birth to a new column type design and Mayakovskaya was the first station to show this.

Located 33 meters beneath the surface, the station became famous during World War II when an air raid shelter was located in the station. On the anniversary of the October Revolution, on 7 November 1941 Joseph Stalin addressed a mass assembly of party leaders and ordinary Muscovites in the central hall of the station.

Design

To complement the triumph in engineering, Alexey Dushkin's Art Deco decoration design amazed the world. Based on a Soviet future as envisioned by the poet Mayakovsky, the station features graceful columns faced with stainless steel and pink rhodonite, white Ufaley and grey Diorite marble walls, a brilliant flooring pattern of white and pink marble, and 35 niches, one for each vault. Surrounded by filament lights there are a total of 34 ceiling mosaics by Alexander Deyneka with the theme "24-Hour Soviet Sky." A passenger can look up and see the bright Soviet future right above him.

In 2005 a new second north exit was built, along with a new vestibule in a unique style. Passengers leaving the station first descend on a short escalator ride into an underground vestibule, and then ascend the long way to the surface. The new exit also allows access to the 25th mosaic, which was previously hidden behind the service section. Other mosaic works were designed from scratch, accompanied by ample use of marble and stainless steel sculpturing. The bust of the poet was moved to the new surface vestibule, whose ceiling was also decorated with a mosaic composition from Mayakovski's poem "Moscow Sky".

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  Bust of Mayakovskiy in the vestibule

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  Mayakovskaya vestibule

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  Ceiling Mosaic