Bitsa Park
Encyclopedia
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The park, traversed by the Bitsa River, sprawls for some 10 km from north to south and covers the area of 18 square kilometres.
Contents
The park is home to more than 500 species of plants, including lindenTilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
s, oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
s, and fine fir
Fir
Firs are a genus of 48–55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. They are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range...
s, planted by Mikhail Katkov
Mikhail Katkov
Mikhail Nikiforovich Katkov was a conservative Russian journalist influential during the reign of Alexander III.Katkov was born of a Russian government official and a Georgian noblewoman...
's son at his family manor
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
in the 19th century. 33 species of mammals and 78 species of birds have been registered in the park.
Relative events
The grounds of the park contain the Museum of PaleontologyPaleontological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciencies
The Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow is among the world's largest paleontological institutes. An affiliate of the Russian Academy of Sciences, it includes collections from all over the former Soviet Union, as well as from other countries.- Museum :The Museum of...
, as well as the 18th-century country estates of Uzkoye
Uzkoye
Uzkoe is a historic estate in the southwestern part of Moscow. Before 1629, the area belonged to Prince Gagarin, then it passed to Maksim Streshnev, a cousin of Tsarina Eudoxia Streshneva....
and Znamenskoye-Sadki
Znamenskoye-Sadki
Znamenskoye-Sadki is one of the oldest country estates of Moscow.It lies in the southern section of Bitsa Park in the South-South-West of Moscow, outside today's MKAD...
and the reconstructed estate of Yasenevo. They skirt the Bitsa horse-riding complex which was built for the 1980 Olympic Games
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
. The forest was the site where serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Alexander Pichushkin
Alexander Pichushkin
Alexander Yuryevich "Sasha" Pichushkin , also known as The Chessboard Killer and The Bitsa Park Maniac, is a Russian serial killer...
committed 59 of his 60 murders.