Weekly Photo Challenge: Converge – The Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro:

Whilst visitors to London would be unlikely to consider the ‘Tube’ to be a tourist attraction in Moscow the Metro is a ‘must visit’ place and not just for getting around the city because each station has a unique construction using elaborate decorations and materials from all over the country.  Station designs incorporate granite, quartzite, limestone, twenty kinds of marble, semiprecious stones and are decorated with bronze sculptures, majolica panels, stainless steel columns, glittering chandeliers, bas-relief friezes, stained-glass panels, murals, and mosaics.

All lines start in the suburbs of Moscow and converge on the centre and there  is an interesting legend about the origin of the ring line.  A group of engineers met with Stalin to inform him of progress and as he looked at the drawings he poured himself some coffee and spilt a small amount over the edge of the cup. When he was asked whether or not he liked the project so far he put his cup down on the centre of the Metro blueprints and left in silence.  The bottom of the cup left a brown circle on the drawings.  Interpreting this as a sign of Stalin’s genius they gave orders for the building of the ring line, which on the maps is always shown in brown.

On the other hand, brown is also the colour of bullshit!