The Mamaison Pokrovka Suite Hotel is situated in a historic area of central Moscow, with several interesting architectural features, especially around the Boulevard Ring, about 500m from the hotel.
Chistye Prudy – the "Clean Ponds" – are the last visible sign of the Rachka River, which once flowed beneath the old city walls. Once a common dumping ground for domestic waste, they were acquired in 1703 by Prince Alexander Menshikov, Peter the Great's close friend and advisor, who ordered them to be cleared (hence their new name). The pond, surrounded by a thin strip of wooded parkland, is now used for boating in the summer and skating in the winter months.
Menshikov's ownership of the area also produced the Church of the Archangel Gabriel, more commonly known as the Menshikov Tower. The oldest surviving Petrine Baroque building in Moscow, it was erected by a team of architects including Domenico Trezzini, the undisputed master of the style. At 81m, it is the same height as the Ivan the Great Belltower in the Kremlin and, although now surrounded by buildings, it is still an impressive landmark, with charmingly ornate stucco decoration, much of which was added in the 1770s.
Before the Revolution, the most famous building on Pokrovka was the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin, a magnificent 17th century cathedral that was considered one of the symbols of Moscow, making it hard to excuse its tragic destruction in the 1920s. Less grand, but nonetheless of historic interest, the Church of Prince Vladimir in the Old Gardens is a few hundred meters inside the Boulevard Ring to the right from Pokrovka, about 15 minutes' walk from the hotel. The original church on this site is first mentioned in the early 15th century, when the area was the summer estates of Prince Vasiliy I. The current stone church dates from the 1660s.
