Underground palaces

Cavernous stations with brass, marble and stained glass details, the Moscow Metro has been dubbed the people's palaces
  
  


Moscow metro
Kievskaya station (Koltsevaya line). Designed as a work of art with palatial stations, construction on the Moscow Metro began in 1932. It has 12 lines, 176 stations and carries an average of 7 million passengers every week day Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
Karl Marx at the turnstiles, Okhotny Ryad station. One journey costs around 40 pence Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
Top brass: a bust of Lenin overlooks the commuters at Komsomolskaya station Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
The Guardian's architecture critic Jonathan Glancey has described the metro as 'richer than any babushka's plum cake' - this despite the iron bear hug of Stalin's school of Socialist Realism. The richness of the materials - brass and marble - in the corridors at Kurskaya station, for example, are more in keeping with an art museum than a metro station Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
An ornate staircase with stained glass detail at Novoslobodskaya station Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
Even the posters look like works of art Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
At Kievskaya station, with its ornate mosaics, you could be forgiven for thinking you are in an art gallery Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
The metro opens from around 5.30am and closes at 1am Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
Trains run every 90 seconds on most lines Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
Elaborate Socialist Realist mosaics... Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
Stained glass arches... Photograph: Peter Moore
Moscow metro
... and marble. It comes as no surprise to learn that Moscow Metro stations have been dubbed the people's palaces Photograph: Peter Moore
 

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