Previously, it was a famous Kaluzhskaya Gate square. In the XVIII century there was Kaluzhskaya Gate of  Kamer-Kollezhsky Val. Through this gate retreated the army of Napoleon in 1812. This rampart served as a customs office. In 1800 it was the border of Moscow.  

At the beginning of XX century here was built a circular railway. After the space flight of Yuri Gagarin, the area was named after him. But its architectural shape was formed a little bit earlier, in the 1950's. There are two houses that form the right half-circle from the center of Moscow. It's like a main gate for entering the central part of the city.  

The main highlight of the area certainly is a monument to the first cosmonaut. This stele with a man at the top symbolizes the first human space flight. The idea of this monument is to make it visible throughout Leninsky avenue, the highway on which Gagarin rode into the city from Vnukovo airport when he went to the Kremlin with the report of his flight. That’s why the monument stands nearly on the road.