Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure

This guide to Gorky Central Park in Moscow starts with an unlikely attraction that once stood here: a parachute tower where visitors queued to jump, part of a 1930s Soviet craze for the sport. You'll hear how the tower's role changed during the war and what happened to the site in the decades after, plus how architect Konstantin Melnikov shaped these riverside grounds back in 1928 and why the park later carried the name of a living writer. Stand near the old carousel, the one ride that survived a 2011 overhaul.