Moscow Metro — Komsomolskaya Palace Station
152.80 £
Komsomolskaya station on Moscow’s Circle Line — the palatial Baroque interior with its yellow vault, mosaic panels of Russian military history, massive crystal chandeliers, and marble columns photographed in the station’s quiet morning period.
Description
Moscow’s Metro system — the most architecturally significant subway in the world — was designed under Stalin’s direction in the 1930s and 1940s as ‘Palaces for the People’: each station a unique architectural commission in marble, granite, mosaic, chandelier, and sculpture. Komsomolskaya — opened 1952, architect Alexey Shchusev — is considered the Metro’s crowning achievement: a 190-metre-long barrel-vaulted hall in creamy yellow marble with eight monumental mosaic panels depicting Russian military victories from Alexander Nevsky to the Second World War, lit by eight enormous crystal chandeliers. This photograph was made during a supervised media access period at 6:30am — 30 minutes after first trains but before the peak commuter crush — using a tilt-shift lens to correct the vault’s perspective while maintaining the symmetrical barrel vault geometry. The marble floor provides a reflection of the chandelier array that doubles the visual impact.
