GUM

GUM Review

Pronounced "goom," the initials are short for Gosudarstvenny Universalny Magazin, or State Department Store. This staggeringly enormous emporium, formerly called the Upper Trading Rows, was built in 1889-93 and has long been one of the more famous sights of Moscow. Three long passages with three stories of shops run the length of the building. A glass roof covers each passage, and there are balconies and bridges on the second and third tiers. Another series of passages runs perpendicular to the three main lines, creating a mazelike mall. In feel, it resembles a cavernous turn-of-the-20th-century European train station. There are shops (both Western and Russian) aplenty here now, and a saunter down at least one of the halls is enjoyable. The elegant Bosco restaurant on the ground floor has a small summer terrace that looks out onto Red Square.