Mustaqillik Maidoni (Independence Square) Metro Station, Tashkent (must see)

The Mustaqillik Maydoni (Independence Square) metro station feels eerily like a transplant from the Moscow Metro of the 1930s, even though it was built some 40 years later. The station opened on 6 November 1977, as part of the inaugural section of the Tashkent Metro. Prior to 1 November 1991, it was called "V. I. Lenin Maidoni" ("Vladimir Iliich Lenin Square"), and was renamed in the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, along with the square itself.

Inside you will find ornate white columns of Nurata marble contrasting the peach-coloured walls, in the vestibules, lined with Gazgan marble slabs. The plinth is finished with red Emelyanovsky granite, while the floor is paved with polished slabs of red and gray granite in the ethnic Uzbek pattern.

The station’s interior features a massive bas-relief bronze screen depicting joyous Uzbeks waving karnays (10 foot-long brass ceremonial trumpets) over their heads, flanked by clusters of dancing maidens and flag-waving citizens. There is also a dazzling array of crystal chandeliers in the domes hung from the ceiling along the perimeter, and trains that closely resemble enlarged versions of those boxy tin toys, printed a fraction out of register, that encapsulated Soviet childhood.

The Mustaqillik Maydoni station was specifically presented to the Spanish royal couple – King Juan Carlos I and his wife, Queen Sophia – during their trip to Tashkent.