Sculpture and Design in Russia's newest snow town

Russia’s brand new hyped-up Moroz City (Frost City) comes courtesy of the annual Snow Architecture Festival, which set the challenge of building an entire city made of ice and snow from the ground up to more than 100 architects, sculptors, artists and volunteers from all over the country as well as Ukraine, Serbia, Estonia, Finland and Belarus. It now stands at Moscow’s Sokolniki Park measuring 2500 square-meters and complete with 500 chunks of ice and 1000 blocks of snow.

“We decided it was time to really showcase the skills and talents of our architects and sculptors in Russia,” Darya Lisitsyna, art director of Moroz City, told the Moscow times, “We have been experimenting with this work for years. Many of the architects and sculptors behind this project are renowned in their fields and have won awards at festivals in both Canada and France.”

Visitors can pay a small fee to explore the winter wonderland, which features a hotel, a fitness centre, a lighthouse and even a prison, just like any real metropolis. While locals are used to exhibitions of ice sculptures, Frost City gives them the unique opportunity to walk its streets and enter any of the sixteen buildings in the complex which house a cinema, steam baths and even a phillarmonic society, where they can play instruments made of ice that actually work.

This winter fairytale did not come easy with rain and higher–than-usual temperatures causing several problems and delaying its construction. Sculptors also have to be constantly on watch for excessively curious visitors and very slippery floors to avoid damage – a particularly difficult task when the perilous dancefloor of Frost City’s disco is considered.

Moroz City will be open until early March when it’s expected to start to melt down with temperatures rising again in Russia. But until it happens, this icy kingdom is scheduled to host a number of special events, including masterclasses such as “Days of Crystal Design” on February 11 and 12 and other sporting events.

For full details, visit Moroz City’s official website.