Mitino Park in Moscow

Mitino Park in Moscow
Mitino Park in Moscow

A very fashionable modern electric train brings you to the Volokolamskaya station, and you still cannot imagine that in 10 minutes of walking you will find yourself on the site of ancient settlements and burials. So valuable are mother stories that archaeologists categorically forbade building anything here! But this is very close to the Moscow Ring Road, where skyscrapers grow on every square meter every year – the land is expensive. This is how a wonderful landscape park appeared in the North-West of Moscow, in Mitino (that is, a park, the layout of which is as close to natural as possible).

The height differences here reach 30 meters. These are … burial mounds of Vyatichi 12-13 centuries. Examined only 33 of 73. Found jewelry, kitchen utensils went to museums. And the mounds became part of the park. On one of them, in a wonderful children’s town, children are playing, on the other, people are taking a selfie from the observation deck, on the third, some kind of shamanic dance was staged by a young man and a girl … Today’s life and the old past coexist incredibly harmoniously in Mitino.

Landscape Archaeological Park Mitino
Landscape Archaeological Park Mitino

Mitino Park, Story

However, the history is not limited to the Vyatichi alone (the Eastern Slavs who inhabited the territory of the 7-13th centuries, including the present-day Moscow region). The first settlements arose in Mitino about 4000 years ago – this is the conclusion that archaeologists came to after they explored the Spas-Tushinskoye settlement, an ancient Russian settlement and a burial group with the largest burial mound in the Moscow region more than seven meters high in these places. In the scribal book in 1627 it is called the “Great Tomb”.

entrance to the park
entrance to the park

The legend that not just the bones of ancestors, but countless treasures, are buried here, were passed from mouth to mouth. And although since the beginning of the 19th century archaeologists wanted to delve into the burial grounds, the locals did not let them in: they say, you never know, the treasures themselves will come in handy for a rainy day! However, when the excavations in 1833 were nevertheless carried out, everyone was disappointed: in one of the burial grounds they found a warrior’s skeleton, fragments of pottery and other “nonsense”. But neither gold nor silver was there.

A serious challenge is to try to figure out where this name came from: Mitino. The first mention of this place is found in the will of Dmitry Donskoy in 1389. In it, the prince bequeathed to his comrade-in-arms a certain “Mitin repairs” (repairs are, in our opinion, a small new village). The ancient Volotskaya road, which led from Moscow to Volok Lamsky (now Volokolamsk), and then – through Novgorod – to European states, ran right there. By the way, everything is simple with the origin of the name “Drag”: goods were dragged along this road for sale.

Construction of a hockey center near Mitino Park
Construction of a hockey center near Mitino Park

The village itself Mitino was formed around the 16th century

But soon ordered to live a long time: first devastated during the Troubles, and then – in the 17th century – finished off by the plague epidemic. Since then, it has become deserted, the former settlements began to overgrow with forests, in which robbers settled. So the nearby road, on which they robbed travelers, began to be called “Damned” or Klyatikha.

New mentions of Mitino appear only at the beginning of the 19th century. Then it was a large village with 38 peasant households. After the revolution, the agricultural history of this place was continued – at first they organized a partnership for joint cultivation of the land, and in 1932 – a collective farm.

Park Mitino, plan-map
Park Mitino, plan-map

Before the war, the air defense system of Moscow was formed here, and in 1941, in the very first battle, anti-aircraft gunners would shoot down several enemy aircraft.

And then peace will come, and until the 1960s there will be a dacha settlement of the Moscow Trust of Bakery. Since those times, there are many apple trees left here, and knowledgeable people come here in the fall with bags on wheels – to take away the harvest.

In 1985 Mitino and the surrounding villages became part of Moscow. From one of them – the village of Penyagino – the name of the pond (Penyaginsky) remained, on which a beach with sun loungers is being equipped this summer. The area has become a monument of history and culture, not subject to building. Skyscrapers, erected at different times, are modestly crowded at a distance.

Mitino park in winter
Mitino park in winter

What to see: Mounds and places of former settlements.

In one of the mounds in 1883, they found the burial of a noble warrior, wrapped in birch bark. In the surrounding Great Tomb (as this place was called) five small burial mounds were found female burials – apparently, they accompanied the sovereign to the kingdom of shadows …

Place of an ancient settlement
Place of an ancient settlement
Temple of Saints Equal to the Apostles Constantine and Helena (who found the burial place of Jesus Christ).

The most beautiful tent-roofed church is designed for 500 parishioners. There are no murals in it yet, but services have been going on for a long time. The architect was Andrei Obolensky, who, in particular, participated in the restoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. A beautiful wooden chapel was built nearby.

Temple of Saints Equal to the Apostles Constantine and Helena
Temple of Saints Equal to the Apostles Constantine and Helena
There is also a water tower built in 1957.

Locals whisper: it goes 5 floors into the ground. And, they say, there, underground, under the USSR, there was a point of government communication. The tower has been boarded up for a long time, and on the Internet you can find pictures of stalkers – people really went down the spiral staircase. But it’s not clear where she was leading …

water tower
water tower
View of the Mitinsky Park in Moscow from the observation deck
View of the Mitinsky Park in Moscow from the observation deck
Swan-duck pond in Mitino park
Swan-duck pond in Mitino park
sun loungers
sun loungers
Skating rink in Mitino park
Skating rink in Mitino park
Ice rink
Ice rink