Subway: Mayakovskaya
Patriarch's ponds is a rich residential area in the center of the
Presnensky district of Moscow. For the past 200 years, only one pond
has existed here, although, as the name Trehprudny lane shows, there
used to be more. The area of the existing reservoir of Patriarch's
ponds is 9,900 square meters; the depth reaches about two meters.
Patriarch's ponds are known for Mikhail Bulgakov, who started the
events of his book "the Master and Margarita"here.
This area
is named after the seventeenth-century Patriarchal Goat Sloboda,
located on the Goat swamp. This swamp was once connected by streams
to the Presnya river in the West according to the first topographic
map of 1739. Later, the brook disappeared and the marsh separated
from Presnya. People considered the swamp as an opsany or anomalous
zone; apparently, this caused the proverb "Thomas hurried, but
people made fun-got stuck on the patriarchs". The pond acquired its
current appearance in 1830-31, when it was cleared during planning
for the restoration of Moscow after the fire of 1812. The buildings
around the pond were originally wooden; but the stone buildings were
built in the second half of the nineteenth century. In winter, the
Russian gymnastic society operated a skating rink on a frozen pond.
At the turn of the century, cheap rental buildings around the
pond were occupied by University students. In December 1905, the
area of Patriarch's ponds was captured by left-wing student fighting
groups that participated in street battles. The Patriarch's ponds
area also housed Moscow's first hospital for children (Filatov
hospital, which later moved to the nearby Garden ring). After the
revolution, spacious mansions were built by wealthy merchants. They
were later converted into communal apartments with shared kitchens.
Mikhail Bulgakov and his wife Elena Shilovskaya lived in this area
in the 1930s.
From the later 1930s to the 1950s, the low
buildings were demolished. Two of the most important buildings of
the Soviet era were the Lviv House, the luxurious residence of
marshals of the red Army (1945, designed by the Zholtovsky workshop)
and the Aviahilstroy apartment of 1935. This yellow
post-constructivist high-rise building was designed by Vladimir
Vladimirovich (a building conceived by Panteleimon Golosov). The
house on Patriarch's ponds was built in the forest in 1946. It was
only in the 1980s that it was rebuilt in stone.
XVII—XVIII
centuries
The toponym indicates that there used to be several
ponds in this place. Until the 17th century, this territory was
occupied by the Goat swamp, which gave the name to Bolshoy and Maly
Kozikhinsky lanes. Not far from the reservoirs, goats were bred,
whose wool was supplied to the Royal court. From the Goat swamp
flowed the Chertory stream, as well as the left tributaries of the
presni river-kabanka And Bubna, which formed the Presnensky ponds on
the territory of the Moscow zoo.
In the early XVII century,
this place became the residence of Patriarch Hermogenes — the place
the swamp formed a Patriarchal settlement, which included the Church
of priest-Martyr Hermolaus and the Church of Spyridon. In 1683,
Patriarch Joachim ordered the marshes to be drained and three fish
ponds to be dug. In Presne ponds bred expensive varieties of fish
for the Patriarch's table, and in the Goat swamp — cheap. These
three ponds gave the name to Trehprudny lane, which was previously
called "Three ponds". After the abolition of the Patriarchy, the
ponds were abandoned, and the area was again swampy.
XIX-XX
centuries
After the fire of 1812, two ponds of the former
Patriarchal Settlement were filled in, and only the Big Patriarchal
one was preserved. It was cleaned out, ennobled and laid out around
a small square-the Boulevard of the Patriarch's pond. After the
spring flood of 1897, there was a question of preserving the pond in
a densely populated area. The city Duma considered cleaning the pond
costly, but the pond was preserved and filled with clean water. At
the beginning of the XX century, the area around the Patriarch's
ponds was actively built up. After the revolution, in 1924, the
reservoir was renamed Pioneer ponds, but the name did not stick, and
in 1992 the old one was returned.
Modernity
In 1999, at
the initiative of the head of the insurance company "Spassky gate"
Boris Khait, a competition was held for the design of a monument to
Mikhail Bulgakov on the Patriarch's ponds. The project of the
sculptor Alexander Rukavishnikov was chosen from 28 options. The
sculptor proposed not just to erect a monument to the writer, but to
make a whole sculptural ensemble around it, consisting of Bulgakov
sitting on the Bank of a pond, Yeshua Ha-Nozri walking on the water,
and a 12-meter bronze Primus fountain. In addition, Rukavishnikov
planned to place on the Bank of the pond and other characters of the
famous novel-the cat Behemoth, Azazello, Koroviev, Pontius Pilate,
the Master and Margarita. However, numerous protests from local
residents and cultural figures forced the sculptor and the Moscow
authorities to abandon the idea of installing the monument.
In 2003, the Patriarch's ponds and the surrounding square were
reconstructed: the banks were strengthened, trees were planted,
sidewalks were paved in the square, the pond was cleared of debris
and silt, and fish were launched into it. In the same year, the
Patriarch's ponds were listed as cultural heritage sites.
In
2015, as part of the "My street" program, the Park removed Parking
along the sidewalks and hid all the wires under the ground. In
Malaya Bronnaya street expanded sidewalks, organized a one-sided
movement and busily the roadway, after the reconstruction of the
pedestrian flow increased in three times. In the same year, an
unnamed square at the intersection of Spiridonevsky and Bolshoy
Kozikhinsky lanes was named Bulgakov Square.
In 2017, as part
of the city project, a reading room was installed on the Patriarch's
ponds — an open-air platform for reading and exchanging books, and
chess games resumed in the Dom na patriarshikh cultural center after
a long break. In the same year, the Patriarch's ponds became an
exemplary place to relax by the water in Moscow. Maintenance of the
pond is carried out at the expense of Federal, municipal, private
investors and wealthy people living in the area.