Amir Timur Square

A colonial-era square

The square was laid out in 1882 on the initiative of General Mikhail Chernyaev to a design by architect Nikolai Ulyanov, on the site of Konstantinovskaya Square. Its plan was built around the crossing of two great avenues, Kaufmann and Moscow, which divided it into four quarters threaded with shady footpaths. Both streets followed ancient trade routes: Moscow Avenue was part of the caravan road to Kashgar and on to China.

Boys' and girls' gymnasiums, the State Bank and a teachers' seminary rose around the square; the gymnasiums and the bank still stand. On 4 May 1913 a monument to the first Governor-General of Turkestan, Konstantin von Kaufmann, designed by I. Schleifer, was unveiled at the centre, and the square became known as Kaufmann Square.

A plinth of changing heroes

The Kaufmann statue was removed in the summer of 1919 and the square renamed Revolution Square. Over the following decades the granite plinth carried revolutionary symbols and, from the late 1940s, a statue of Stalin by Merkurov, taken down in 1961. A statue of Karl Marx arrived in 1968 and was removed in 1993.

On 31 August 1994, on the eve of the third anniversary of independence, the square was renamed after Amir Timur and a bronze equestrian statue by sculptor Ilhom Jabbarov was placed at its centre. A major makeover in 2009 brought new paths and lighting, and saw century-old trees felled and replaced with new plantings.

Around the square

North of the square is the blue-domed Amir Timur Museum; on the south side stand the Tashkent Chimes, keeping time since 1947. To the east looms the Hotel Uzbekistan with its latticed facade, and to the west the pedestrian Sayilgoh Street leads towards Independence Square. Two metro stations, Amir Temur Hiyoboni and Yunus Rajabiy, are close by, and Independence Square, the Romanov Palace and the State Museum of History are all within walking distance.

Did you know?

Governor-General Konstantin von Kaufmann, who died in Tashkent in May 1882, was originally buried in this very square, and more than 80,000 roubles were raised by public subscription for his monument. In 1901 the square hosted the Turkestan Exhibition; a Moorish-style pavilion by architect A. L. Benois survived even the 1966 earthquake and long served as a flower kiosk. A former seminary church next to the square, built in 1898 to a design by Alexei Benois, was demolished in 2009.