A Russian equivalent of Puy du Fou, the French theme park where visitors witness fully-costumed historical reenactments, may appear in Moscow’s new territories within five years.
Last year, 148,000 hectares of land southwest of Moscow were incorporated into the city.
Property developer RDI, one of the largest owners of suburban land, has announced its readiness to allocate 2 billion rubles ($60.7 million) and up to a square kilometer of land for the project, Kommersant reported.
A City Hall source said authorities have approved RDI’s proposal to build a historically-themed amusement park in the Ryazanovsky district, eight kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road.
Vladimir Akhapkin, head of the RDI project, confirmed the developer’s plans to build a site similar to the French attraction, which attracts about 1.5 million visitors a year and offers the spectacle of Viking raids and chariot races.
The theme park will include a 150-room hotel, an ethnography museum, a historical village with guest houses and an amphitheater.
The plans for the park, which will be able to cater for about 40,000 visitors at any one time, also include a conference center, spa, and restaurant area.
However, the historical attraction will face competition from other theme parks planned for the Moscow region. Real estate developer Sait-Salam Gutseriyev and American entertainment behemoth NBCUniversal are planning to open a $3 billion park along the Varshavsky highway by 2018.
Dreamworks Animation plans to beat its fellow American company to the Russian market by opening theme parks outside Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg by 2015.
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