launched in the 1890s in Boloto. The best known of these projects, Bakhrushin Free Apartments (1898-1900, Sofiyskaya Embankment, 26), now houses Rosneft headquarters. Modern history In 1922, Bolshevik authorities closed and looted 22 churches in Zamoskvorechye, including the churches of St. Joachim and St. Anne, St. Maron, St. Gregory of Nyssa and others; the Church of St. John the Warrior remained the only functioning church in Yakimanka. St. Joachim and St. Anne was torn down in 1933. However, compared to other districts, the Joseph Stalin era brought very little damage to Yakimanka; the area seemed to be neglected. In the 1920s, the old Wine and Salt Court in Bersenevka was replaced by the House on Embankment; further south, Moscow's first cooperative apartment building was completed in 1926. Gorky Park development began in 1923 with the first All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition; in 1928, the fairgrounds were reopened as a public park. The existing Stalin-style entrance arch was added later, in 1950s. The 1935 Moscow Master Plan called for completing the Boulevard Ring through Zamoskvorechye, which was not done. The only trace of this project is the 1937 Writers' Apartments building facing the Tretyakov building (expanded in the 1950s and 2000s); it housed elite writers like Yevgeny Petrov of Ilf and Petrov fame, Boris Pasternak, and Konstantin Paustovsky. Similar grand Stalinist buildings were planned all along the new route, but were cancelled. The most important outcome of Stalin's projects came with completion of the 1932–1938 Moscow Canal: floods were no longer a threat for the Yakimanka lowlands. River banks that formerly shifted every season were firmly set in granite; all downtown Moscow river and Vodootvodny Canal bridges were rebuilt to six- to eight-lane capacity. Major destruction of Yakimanka took place in Leonid Brezhnev's time. The western side of Bolshaya Yakimanka was rebuilt in the high-rise style typical of the time. Similar structures appeared in Polyanka Street, both as infills and as block-wide projects. This was followed by facadist "reconstruction" of the 1990s-2000s and new high-rises like the 15-story Copernicus building. The city, however, rejected construction of the avant-garde towers designed by Erick van Egeraat. Notable buildings, cultural and educational facilities Museums Tretyakov Gallery Tretyakov Gallery exhibition hall on Krymsky Val, with the nearby sculpture park Art Museum of Vasili Tropinin and his contemporaries (Schetininsky, 10) Averky Kirillov estate in Bersenevka (by appointment) House on Embankment museum www.museum.ru (by appointment) Marat Gelman gallery (Malaya