Red Square

Walk out onto the wide open stone and stop. The ground is paved with dark, rounded cobbles that ring softly under your feet. Along one whole side runs the long red wall of the Kremlin, lined with towers. At the far end rise the twisted, colored domes of a great cathedral. Around you the space opens out, huge and almost bare. This is Red Square, the open heart of Moscow.

The name often confuses people who visit. It does not come from the color red, and it does not come from politics or the Soviet flag. In old Russian, the word krasnaya meant beautiful. Only later did that very same word come to mean the color red. So the true, older meaning of the name is simply this: the beautiful square.

The space was first cleared at the end of the fifteenth century. The rulers of the day wanted open ground in front of the Kremlin wall, partly for safety and partly for trade. For a long time the square served as a busy market and a place for crowds to gather. An older name for it meant, roughly, the burnt place, after the fires that more than once swept through its wooden stalls.

Stand in the middle and turn slowly all the way around. Each side of the square shows you a different face of the city. On one side stands the long Kremlin wall with its pointed towers. At one end rises the bright cathedral of Saint Basil. Along another side runs the grand front of the GUM trading hall. And at the far end stands the dark red brick of the State Historical Museum.

Close to the Kremlin wall stands a low, solemn building of dark polished stone. This is the tomb of Lenin, the leader of the Soviet revolution. His body lies inside it, preserved and kept on view to this day. For many decades, long and silent lines of people stretched across the square, waiting for their turn to file slowly past him.

The square has long served as a stage for power. In earlier times, tsars stood here to make announcements to the gathered crowds. Later, the Soviet state held its great military parades across this same ground. Rows of tanks and marching soldiers crossed the stones, while the country's leaders watched from a platform set above the tomb.

It has also, for centuries, been a place of faith. From Saint Basil's Cathedral at the square's end, priests once led slow religious processions out across the open space. On the great holy days, crowds gathered here for prayer and for ceremony. The sacred and the political have shared this same stretch of stone for a very long time.

Look down for a moment at the surface beneath you. The cobbles are not flat or smooth. They were set in place by hand, one stone at a time. Over the years, countless feet, horses' hooves, and cartwheels have crossed and polished them. The pavement you are standing on has quietly carried the whole weight of the city's history.

Around the edges of the square, look for the smaller details. Near the cathedral stands a round stone platform, once used for public announcements and ceremonies. Not far off rises a bronze statue of two men who helped to drive a foreign army out of Moscow long ago. Each of these markers holds a story of its own, waiting to be noticed.

The square changes with the turning of the seasons. In winter it often holds an open-air skating rink and a market of small wooden booths strung with lights. In summer the bare stone bakes under a high sun. And at night, when the surrounding buildings light up one by one, the whole space seems to grow even larger and quieter.

In 1990, Red Square and the Kremlin beside it were placed together on the list of World Heritage sites. The listing honors the square as a witness, across many centuries, to the unfolding of Russian history. Few public spaces anywhere have looked on so much of a single nation's life, in triumph and in sorrow alike.

Before you go, find a quiet spot near the edge and simply watch for a while. People cross the square from every direction, cameras raised, their voices low against the open air. All around them stand the walls, towers, and domes of many different centuries. Stand still for one more moment. Right now, you are standing in the middle of all of it.