Catherine Park
Catherine Park is in 8-10 minutes’ walk from Metallurg Hotel. The Park is an outstanding achievement of 18th and 19th-century Russian garden art, is located in the vicinity of Dostoyevskaya.
This area’s recent history starts with the transfer of the Holy Cross Monastery here in the 16th century, followed by the construction of the Church of St. John the Warrior, built in stone. In the 18th century, Count Saltykov the first lover of Empress Catherine the Great after her arrival in Russia built here his estate in the Elizabethan Baroque characterized by an endless variety of decorative elements style. In 1807, the building housed the Catherine Institute for Noble Maidens, and the former estate park was renamed ‘Ekaterininsky Park’.
The Ekaterininsky Park overlooks the stadium and a mosque, and its surroundings are associated with the military. as the Russian Army Theatre are located close by. The Armed Forces Cultural Centre is now located in the building formerly home to the Catherine Institute for Noble Maidens.
The Catherine Park offers outdoor activity lovers three playgrounds, several open-air gyms, a football field with highly modern flooring and a tennis court. Unfortunately, visitors cannot rent sports equipment in the park. The football field and the tennis court are closed in winter.
The Central Armed Forces Museum
The first exposition which showed the military condition of the Soviet Republic and the Red Army was organised in Moscow in the building of today's State Universal Store, and was opened by Vladimir Lenin on the 25 May 1919, following a parade in Red Square.
Over its history the museum has managed to accumulate the most prominent and important military relics of the Soviet period, creating a record of its military past. In total more than seven hundred thousand individual exhibits are now stored at the museum. The most valuable are displayed in the 25 halls of the main building.
Outside the museum, there is an extended collection of military equipment and technology, including armour, artillery, railway cars, aircraft, and missiles.