The Moscow's Metro is not the oldest one in the world, its stations welcomed their first passengers in 1930 only. However, the architectural style and the fascinating design of many Metro stations deserved the name of the "Underground Palace". Nearly all stations are reveted with various natural stones having unique structure and beauty. The natural stone materials used for the Moscow's Metro stations (about 3/4 of the total area of walls and more than half of the area of floors) contribute to the architectural expression and, moreover, make the stone decoration of the underground palaces practically eternal. The use of different natural-stone materials, including semi-precious stones provide, for an individual appeal of most stations and makes the Moscow's Metro one of the most interesting tourist routes. The stations of the Moscow's Metro are often called a museum displaying the unique and the richest collection of decorative materials, including stones. It's a peculiar stone library exhibiting the richness and the beauty of natural materials, there is no another one like this in any of the world's geological museums.

    The most ancient decorative material used to fascinate the "Underground Palaces" of Moscow is a coarse-grained pink marble from the southern shore of Baikal lake. The age of marble is about 2 billion years, i.e. about half of life of our planet. Marble is used for decoration of about half the area of walls of Moscow Metro. The white marble for Moscow's Metro was brought from the deposits of the Ural Mountains, Altay, Middle Asia and the Caucasus. The black marble from the Urals, Armenia and Georgia decorates the walls of such Metro stations as "Byelorusskaya", "Ploshchad Revolutsii", "Elektrozavodskaya" and "Aeroport". The shades of deep-red marble from Georgia contribute to the solemn beauty of the "Krasnye Vorota" Metro station.

    The grey landscape marble from the Ural Mountains was used to decorate "Lubyanka", "Sokolniki", "Paveletskaya" and "Chystye Prudy" stations. The velvet-pink marble from the regions of the Russian Far East fascinates the walls and columns of "Byelorusskaya" and "Aeroport" stations. The yellowish, green-grey and brown shades and layers of spotted marble-type limestone from the Crimea are smoothly replaced by the bright shades of corals and the fossilised shellfish aged 150 million years. This limestone decorates the walls of "Park Kultury" and "Alexandrovsky Sad" stations.

    Quartzite is the most durable stone material used to decorate the "underground palaces" of the Moscow's Metro. This material is made of the grains of quartz, which is a rather firm and durable material. Thanks to the unique decorative character of quartzite found in Kareliya (the only place, where this material of rich raspberry shade is extracted) the underground hall of "Baumanskaya" station has peculiar solemn architectural style. The semi-precious stones may be found and seen at the oldest Metro stations of Moscow. These are pink rodonite and marble onyx. Marble onyx from Armenia was used to create panels and stone plates at "Dinamo", "Byelorusskaya" and "Kievskaya" Metro stations.

    "Mayakovskaya" Metro station is truly considered to be the main architectural masterpiece of the Moscow's Metro. This is a station, which lays deep underground, it belongs to the first, the oldest line of the Moscow's Metro. The station was opened in 1938. The station mock-up was successfully displayed the same year at the International exhibition in New-York. Marble of two types was used to decorate the walls and columns of the station. Moreover, rodonite matches beautifully with green-black diorite and the silvery steel columns. The vaulting of the central hall of "Mayakovskaya" station has 33 mosaics executed to cartoons by famous Russian artist Alexander Deineka. The theme of all mosaics is called "One Day of Soviet Skies". The light character of structures emphasised by the sparkling bends of stainless steel is shaded by red and pink shades of rodonite, a fine semi-precious stone.

    There are many other Metro stations, which always attract tourists and visitors from all over the world. The bronze sculptures in the hall of the "Ploshchad Revolyutsii" station show the way up, right to the City Centre, Red Square. If there is no guide accompanying you in your "underground tour", first find some valuable information about Metro in the Section called Municipal Transport. (More information...)